Deka Chambers

This week John Schmitt covers a decision regarding a Defendant seeking to withdraw from a pre-action admission of liability: 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 (𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬) 𝐋𝐭𝐝 𝐯 𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐭𝐝 [2026] 𝐄𝐖𝐇𝐂 393 (𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦). In this most fiendishly difficult of procedural areas, he is a most welcome and erudite guide. Meanwhile, 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 examines another case involving a service point revolving around service by email, usually but by no means always a dangerous enterprise. In other news, we were intrigued to note recently that the Court of Appeal has provided a further elucidation of the decision of the 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐯 𝐓𝐔𝐈 [2025] 𝐔𝐊𝐒𝐂 48, familiar to all our readers. In a very different context, in 𝐌𝐑 (𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧) 𝐯 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 [2026] 𝐄𝐖𝐂𝐀 𝐂𝐢𝐯 473  the Court commented [78]: “It is necessary to identify, first, the nature of the ‘rule’ which was at issue in TUI. The rule is not a rule that (subject to exceptions) a party to litigation may not make submissions impugning the credibility or reliability of the evidence of a witness unless the witness has been cross-examined about those points. The rule as explained in the cases summarised by Lord Hodge is narrower than that. It is based on fairness, and on the principle, referred to by Bean LJ in his dissent, that litigation should not be conducted by ambush. The rule does not apply if the witness already knows, because the questions have been articulated earlier in the litigation, that his evidence is disputed, and, he is not, therefore, taken by surprise. The rule, rather, is that if he does not know in advance about the disputed matters, and has not been cross-examined about them, submissions cannot be made impugning his credibility (unless an exception to the rule applies).” It is now clear, if it were not before, that the rule articulated in Griffiths does not operate – as some commentators have believed – as a quasi reversal of the burden of proof, but rather as a procedural safeguard intended to ensure fairness in the most general sense. As such it is really an expression of the overriding objective, perhaps nothing more. 🔗 dekachambers.com/2026/05/26/the… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw #PersonalInjury

In 𝐏𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐫 𝐯 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬 [2026] 𝐄𝐖𝐂𝐀 𝐂𝐢𝐯 650 the Court of Appeal has confirmed that an application to extend time to comply with a court order, made prior to the deadline for compliance, operates to prevent any sanction associated with non-compliance taking effect. This is important because it means that the application is not one for relief from sanctions under CPR 3.9, but one to extend time under CPR 3.1. In reaching this conclusion, the Court of Appeal has resolved the apparent tension between CPR 3.8 and 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐦 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐯 𝐁𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 [2014] 𝐄𝐖𝐂𝐀 𝐂𝐢𝐯 661. Simon Brindle acted for the Claimant and was instructed by Ralli. Read the case summary and judgment on the Deka Chambers website: dekachambers.com/2026/05/22/cou…

This week Charlie Stonehill considers a difficult philosophical question: is there any distinction between not telling the truth and lying? Readers will readily appreciate that the question is not just an abstract one; the answer to it matters for the purposes of QOWCS and other costs considerations. The team is also looking forward to a trip to Barcelona, where Dominique Smith will be chairing a session at the The Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL) joint mass torts and product liability/women in law conference. If you’re attending, do come and find us – Bethany Hutchison will also be in attendance and will be delighted to meet you. 🔗dekachambers.com/2026/05/18/the… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw #PersonalInjury

𝐍𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐯 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 [2026] 𝐄𝐖𝐇𝐂 113 (𝐊𝐁) After previously striking out the claimant’s libel claim against the first defendant, the High Court struck out a false imprisonment claim against the first defendant as there were no reasonable grounds for bringing it. Mrs Justice Williams also struck out a data protection claim as there were no reasonable grounds for bringing that claim and its pursuit would be an abuse of process. The court also refused the claimant’s applications to amend his claim to add a claim in false imprisonment against further defendants and for them to be added to the proceedings for that purpose, to add a new claim of conspiracy against the defendant and proposed defendants, and to add a data protection claim against one of the proposed defendants Simon Butler and Anirudh Mandagere acted on behalf of the Second and Third Defendants. They were instructed by Advocate. #DekaChambers

Stephanie Hayward and Imogen Todd will be attending the @legalcheek Awards this evening. Deka Chambers is delighted to be nominated in the following categories: ⭐ Best chambers for quality of work 2026 ⭐ Best chambers for colleague supportiveness 2026 ⭐ Best chambers for facilities 2026 📌 The Legal Cheek Awards 2026 is taking place at Kings Place, London, on Thursday 14 May 2026 #DekaChambers #LegalCheekAwards2026 #LegalCheekAwards

We will be attending the Advanced Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Conference by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (@APIL ). The following barristers will be at the conference: ➡️ Laura Johnson KC ➡️ Edward Lamb KC ➡️ Stephen Glynn ➡️ Laura Begley ➡️ Christopher Stephenson ➡️ Jeremy Ford ➡️ Robert Horner ➡️ Linda Nelson ➡️ Sabrina Hartshorn ➡️ Christopher Lowe From our clerking team Michael Goodridge and Jaime Brooks will be attending. Details of the conference: 📌Leonardo Hotel and Conference Venue Hinckley Island in Hinckley 📅 Wednesday, 13 - 15 May We are looking forward to meeting new faces and reconnecting with colleagues and friends at the conference. #DekaChambers #ABSCI26

Imogen Todd looks at the recent decision in 𝐗 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘 (𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧: 𝐀𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫: 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞) [2026] 𝐔𝐊𝐒𝐂 13, in which the UK Supreme Court ruled that courts have no inherent jurisdiction to revoke a valid adoption order outside the limited statutory exceptions or the appeal process. 🔗 Read more here: dekachambers.com/2026/05/12/x-a… #DekaChambers

This week we focus on how, and where, to resolve disputes; and remind our readers (again) of the dangers of failing to comply with service requirements. ➡️Sarah Prager KC has news of another unsuccessful jurisdictional challenge; ➡️Conor Kennedy considers how to reconcile competing dispute resolution clauses in related contracts; ➡️William Dean takes another look at service requirements and the consequences of failing to comply with them. Meanwhile, we note that the claim in the Dyson litigation has now settled without admission of liability; watch this space for what the author considers to be an inevitable avalanche of ESG related claims against English-registered companies operating abroad. 🔗dekachambers.com/2026/05/11/the… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw #PersonalInjury

We are hosting a Clinical Negligence half day conference on 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 in Bristol on 8 July 2026. The topics that will be covered include: ➡️Diagnosis of brain injury, including developments with 4T MRI - Dr Steven Allder ➡️Evidence and presentation in brain injury/FND cases - Laura Johnson KC and Lucy Lodewyke ➡️Quantification of FND cases - Mark Bradley and Anirudh Mandagere ➡️Fundamental dishonesty - Linda Nelson and Ella Davis If you are a clinical negligence practitioner and would like to attend, please register your interest by filling in the registration form: TO REGISTER 🔗 forms.office.com/Pages/Response… If you have any queries or have colleagues who would like to attend please contact events@dekachambers.com

A quick by reminder this week that the new Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements (Amendment) Regulations 2026 are now in force. In summary, the new Regulations amend the existing 2018 Regulations in relation to holiday contracts entered into after 6th April 2027 to: ➡️ add a further category to the definition of “package” where travel services are provided to a traveller under separate contracts with individual service providers, if a single trader has facilitated, on the occasion of a single visit to, or contact with, the trader's point of sale, the separate selection of and separate payment for each of the travel services by the traveller (thus subsuming some linked travel arrangements into the definition); ➡️  remove the category of linked travel arrangements altogether (thus removing other linked travel arrangements from protection); ➡️ provide additional rights to refund and redress enforceable by organisers against suppliers. The full text of the Regulations is to be found here: 🔗 legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/455/… No doubt these amendments will be the subject of lively discussion at the ABTA travel law seminar, which will take place on 12th and 13th May and which will feature contributions from Dominique Smith and Sarah Prager KC, who look forward to seeing many of our readers there: 🔗 abta.com/events/travel-… In the meantime, we give you an analysis of a knotty limitation problem which has exercised the team on a number of occasions over the years, and which Julia Brechtelsbauer has now answered definitively. 🔗dekachambers.com/2026/05/05/the… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw #PersonalInjury

Deka Chambers is delighted to announce the progression of the following staff within our clerking and fees teams under the continued direction of Michael Goodridge and Gordon Walters: ➡️ Jaime Brooks and David Barrow - Practice Directors ➡️ Phillip Austin - Senior Practice Manager ➡️ Amy Seingier - Fees Manager ➡️ Matthew Shepherd, Jamie Moylen and Kian Day - Practice Managers ➡️ George Housden and Jay Levell - Deputy Practice Managers ➡️ Abigail Clark, Lily Mason and Ronnie Scarlett - Assistant Practice Managers

Barristers from Deka Chambers are pleased to have supported this year’s Lawson Mooting Competition at Inner Temple through sponsorship and by acting as judges in the later stages. The Lawson Moot is a multi-round competition administered by the Inner Temple Mooting Society. Participants are welcome from all pre-pupillage stages of education and training. It provides an excellent opportunity for future barristers to experience and practise advocacy on a variety of areas of law. On 1 April 2026, the semi-finals took place in front of four of our barristers, Gareth Munday, Thom Dyke, William Dean, and Amelia Katz. Four talented mooters proceeded to the final, which was judged by Andrew Warnock KC on 21 April 2026. The winner of the moot is Barnaby Potts. #DekaChambers

We are delighted that Dominique Smith has been elected as Chair of The Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL)’s Medical Negligence special interest group. Dominique is an experienced advocate and is regularly instructed in complex and catastrophic medical negligence claims, concerning treatment both provided domestically and overseas. Her cases often involve issues such as failures to obtain informed consent, delays in treatment and failures to diagnose. She has a particular specialism in cauda equina cases. She is a co-author of the leading textbook, Saggerson on Travel Law and Litigation, and has authored ‘A Practical Guide to Cross-Border Clinical Negligence Claims’. She is also ranked in the Legal 500 2026 as a Tier 4 leading Junior Counsel in clinical negligence. 🔗 Read more about Dominique’s practice here: dekachambers.com/barrister/domi… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw

Over a hundred attendees celebrated the launch of the 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬, 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 at the Avenell Club at the Emirates Stadium on Thursday the 23rd of April. The event was sponsored by Pathway Expert Chambers, which provides independent medical expertise for both claimants and defendants in serious personal injury and clinical negligence litigation. The book was edited Stuart McKechnie KC, and is co-authored by Jeremy Ford, Simon Brindle, Caroline Klage and Rhiannon Daniel. The management of catastrophic injury claims is highly complex. They involve ➡️ detailed care and rehabilitation regimes, ➡️ important decisions on accommodation, ➡️ sophisticated case management, ➡️ technical procedural matters often involving the Court of Protection, ➡️ significant use of expert evidence in multiple disciplines, ➡️ difficult issues on life expectancy and complicated settlement and ➡️ financial structures including periodical payment orders. The book is available for purchase here: lexisnexis.co.uk/store/products…

This week Tom Collins brings us a tale from the coalface – an example of a jurisdictional challenge successfully resisted, with reflections on the evidence required in these cases, which – it seems to us – are becoming more and more prevalent in the post-Brexit, pre-Lugano world. 🔗dekachambers.com/2026/04/27/the… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw #PersonalInjury

We are delighted that Paul Stagg KC, Edward Lamb KC, Simon Butler and Anirudh Mandagere are recognised in the Pro Bono Recognition List 2026. The List recognises lawyers who undertook 25 hours or more legal pro bono over the last year. 🔗 The list is available here: probonorecognitionlist.org.uk/Recognition-Li… #DekaChambers #ProBono

🌟 We are delighted that several members of our Travel Law team are recommended by the Lexology Index. 🌟 Matthew Chapman KC, Sarah Prager KC, Jack Harding, Dominique Smith and Thomas Yarrow are recommended in the UK Bar Aviation & Travel section of the index. The Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) provides data led research into leading lawyers and experts. 🔗 The Index is available here: lexology.com/index/report/u…

In his blog Civil Litigation Brief, barrister Gordon Exall, has called the 𝐀𝐏𝐈𝐋 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐲 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬, 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 “a book of considerable importance, assistance and utility” and said that it is a “𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐲”. The book was edited Stuart McKechnie KC, and is co-authored by Jeremy Ford, Simon Brindle, Caroline Klage and Rhiannon Daniel. The management of catastrophic injury claims is highly complex. They involve ➡️ detailed care and rehabilitation regimes, ➡️ important decisions on accommodation, ➡️ sophisticated case management, ➡️ technical procedural matters often involving the Court of Protection, ➡️significant use of expert evidence in multiple disciplines, ➡️ difficult issues on life expectancy and complicated settlement and ➡️financial structures including periodical payment orders. The book is available for purchase here: lexisnexis.co.uk/store/products… The review is available here: civillitigationbrief.com/2026/04/15/gui…

Now that Spring finally appears to have arrived, our thoughts have turned to intoxication – this week Sarah Prager KC examines the potential dangers for those serving alcohol posed by over-refreshed patrons. Meanwhile, Andrew Spencer considers a recent decision on case management in group claims. 🔗dekachambers.com/2026/04/20/the… #DekaChambers #TravelLaw #PersonalInjury

Southport Inquiry: publication of the Phase 1 Report On Monday 13 April 2026 Sir Adrian Fulford, Chair of the Southport Inquiry, published his Phase 1 report. Phase 1 of the Inquiry investigated the circumstances of the attack at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in which three young children lost their lives and others suffered life changing physical and psychological injuries. The report explores the role of online harms, the availability of weapons for purchase, the role of the perpetrator's parents and his contact with a range of public bodies prior to the attack. Laura Johnson KC was instructed in the Inquiry on behalf of Lancashire County Council by Paul Tarne of Weightmans. The County Council’s role as a core participant was due to its responsibility for Adult and Children’s social care, its Child and Family Wellbeing Service, its role as the Local Education Authority, its responsibility for the Pupil Referral Unit attended by the perpetrator and its Child & Youth Justice Service. ➡️ The link to the report can be found here: gov.uk/government/pub… southport.public-inquiry.uk ➡️ The link to the Chair’s closing remarks can be found here: …hport-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/2026/04/Southp… ➡️ The terms of reference for phase 2 have also now been published here: southport.public-inquiry.uk/southport-inqu…