Infant Approval - v - Parental Indemnity In a case concerning a minor, settlement is all too often reached using the fictional procedure commonly known as ‘Parental Indemnity’. This is done despite the rules contained within CPR 21.10 which makes it clear that no settlement, compromise or payment shall be valid without the approval of the court. Therefore the Claimant solicitor who settles a Claimant minor’s case by way of Parental Indemnity n ... read more »

Francis v Francis and Dickerson still alive! The approach that hindsight should not be applied to an assessment of costs is well established.  The Court will consider the claim for costs in light of the facts known to the solicitor at the time and not those facts subsequently discovered. This approach was summed up by Justice Sachs in the case of Re Francis v Francis and Dickerson [1955] 3 All ER 836: “When considering whether or not an ... read more »

PREMATURE ISSUE – DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO CIRCUMVENT THE PREDICTIVE COSTS SCHEME?   This is a question regularly asked by the Defendant Insurers. Could a settlement have been achieved without recourse to litigation?  The Court is now often being asked to determine this point, as premature issue is now becoming more prevalent. The protocols impose obligations on both parties to lay their cards openly on the table from an early stage. At ... read more »

Many of our clients now transfer their cases to us electronically, most are sent automatically from their case management system. The process is typically as follows: Your fee earner will hit a button in your case management system that will execute an action to export the data. At Compass we use Proclaim but most case management systems are capable of exporting data to standard formats such as CSV/XML or plain text. If you use a system other ... read more »

Welcome to the all new Compass Web site and blog. ... read more »