Dependency Claims under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 - The Key Developments

Introduction

The quantification of dependency claims brought under the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 is a discrete area of law based on a hybrid of statute and case law. The common law principles that determine the value of personal injury cases do not necessarily apply in the context of a claim arising out of a death. The law in this area can result in some seemingly counterintuitive outcomes, with someone who is worse off financially after a family member’s death being unable to recover for any dependency, whilst another family member who is substantially better off after the death still being able to recover damages.

Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have been required to review various aspects of the law relating to dependency claims in recent months. This webinar will review these recent cases and assess how they have developed the law in this area.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Chouza v Martins
• Assessing the extent of a financial dependency
• When and how should the court move away from the conventional percentages
• Distinguishing between financial dependency and pure loss of income
• Young v Downey
• Loss of a chance in the context of a dependency claim
• Steve Hill Ltd v Witham
• Assessing when a dependency claim arises
• How should loss of services be valued?
• Paramount Shopfitting v Rix
• Distinguishing between a loss of dependency from earnings from the deceased’s work and income derived from their assets
• Looking at the practical realities of the deceased’s earnings

This webinar was recorded on 13th May 2022