This morning the Supreme Court handed down as an early Christmas present to claimants and their lawyers everywhere, judgment in the case of Ho v Adelekun [2021] UKSC 43.
This is an astonishing decision.
It will have profound effects for the balance of risks in personal injury litigation and coupled with the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case I argued a few years ago, Cartwright v Venduct Engineering Limited [2018] EWCA Civ 1654 will mean that claimants (and claimant’s solicitors’ costs!) now enjoy a larger measure of immunity from attack and render nugatory defendant’s part 36 offers in a variety of contexts.
It will also have implications both positive and negative for the ATE insurance industry, and the degree to which ATE insurers are actually at risk, in relation to adverse costs, and in turn the perceived need by claimants to effect such policies.
I shall provide a detailed analysis of the case, when time permits.