Life expectancy in catastrophic claims – Derek O’Sullivan – 39 Essex Chambers

• FOIL
• FOIL Ireland
• FOIL Northern Ireland
• FOIL Scotland
• FOIL select
• London FOIL
• Sponsors
• TIPs
• Tomorrow's FOIL

We are dealing with Catastrophic injury claims so we are dealing with cases where the reduction in LE is due to the injuries sustained.
In such circumstance the Court will permit evidence which deals with both the impact on C’s LE of “life style” and medical factors pre-accident as well as the LE impact arising from injuries sustained in the accident; in other words the Court will generally permit evidence relating to a bespoke LE.
Of course there are cases where there is no reduction in LE due to the injuries sustained and defendants wish to adduce evidence of the impact on average LE of “life style factors” and pre-existing medical conditions. This is not the situation in catastrophic injury cases so will not be dealt with in this talk.