Personal injury lawyers have long worked on the basis of the “rule” in Webb v Barclays Bank & Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust [2002] PIQR P8 that (quoting judgment of the Court paragraph 55):
“… we agree with the editors of Clerk & Lindsell on Torts when they say:
“Moreover, it is submitted that only medical treatment so grossly negligent as to be a completely inappropriate response to the injury inflicted by the defendant should operate to break the chain of causation” (18th ed., 2-55).”
It turns out that there was and is no such rule.
Matthew White examines the recent case of Jenkinson v Hertfordshire County Council [2023] EWHC 872 (KB) where judgement was handed down by Andrew Baker J. Download full case summary below.