Articles
This site contains a substantial collection of writing on credit hire law and practice, developed over the past decade. The emphasis is practical: what the authorities mean, how the rules operate and where the real risks lie.
The latest specialist analysis appears below. If you are looking for a particular issue, the four gateways provide a quicker route into the archive.
Older articles should be read in the context of the law at the date of publication.
Damages
Impecuniosity, basic hire rates, need, period, mitigation and the recoverable measure of loss.
Agreements & Regulation
Enforceability, contractual liability, misrepresentation, credit hire and credit repair agreements, illegality and regulatory issues.
Evidence & Commercial Vehicles
Witness and documentary evidence, procedure, dishonesty, taxis, private hire vehicles, fleets and profit-earning chattels.
Evidence & procedure · Dishonesty & fraud · Taxi, fleet & commercial
Appeals & Costs
Appellate principles, QOCS, non-party costs orders and the procedural and costs consequences of credit hire litigation.
Recent analysis
-
Old soldiers never die
Every year it seems that I find myself arguing for or against the application of the principle of illegality in credit hire claims. The scenario is a common one. A claimant is involved in a road traffic accident. The defendant is to blame. Through diligent investigation by an insurance company or their instructed solicitors, it…
-
Abuse of process and multiple proceedings
One topic that arises from time to time in credit hire claims, is an argument that a claim is bound by a result in earlier proceedings, whether by judgment or by compromise. There may have been earlier proceedings between the same parties, but for different heads of claim. This scenario commonly arises where there are…
-
On writing
I enjoy drafting documents, including credit hire agreements for use in credit hire contracts and wider consumer credit applications. One has to be methodical and up to date on the applicable legislation in one’s approach to such drafting work however: the law reports are littered with examples of cases where things have gone badly wrong due…
-
A long shadow
Summer’s lease has now expired and in recent weeks I have been alternating the roles of common law barrister and Minister for Leaves, sweeping up fallen autumnal glories and composting them. One of the flurries of litigation that has absorbed me in the last month or so, relates to attempts to set aside judgments in credit hire…
-
The hinterland
I have never felt so popular, as I did some years ago when I had a road traffic accident. For weeks, months and years afterwards I was phoned by strangers solicitous for my welfare, and eager to assist me in getting compensation for the injury I had not suffered. Any accident is likely to involve…
-
The mills of god
An interesting appeal I dealt with recently concerned a £120,000 claim for credit hire: His Honour Judge Gargan sitting in the County Court at Middlesbrough in the case of Lee Hogg v Louise Newton County Court at Middlesbrough 18th May 2018 upheld the decision of District Judge Read made in 2016, and effectively dismissed the claim.…
-
The postman always rings twice
In the case of Miah v Minea County Court at Liverpool 26th April 2018 handed down recently, District Judge Baldwin refused to set aside a judgment for just over £84,000 of credit hire, directing himself according to the sequential tests imposed by parts 13 and 39 CPR. Although a decision at first instance, the judgment illustrates…
-
A free lunch
Yesterday was handed down judgment in the case of Katherine Ann Irving v Morgan Sindall [2018] EWHC 1147 (QB) one of the more significant credit hire cases of recent years. The judgment (subject to any second appeal) explains why pleas of misrepresentation or collateral contract to impeach by a defendant who has had a good run…
Researching an issue in a current case?
If the point arises in substantial litigation or an appeal and you would like specialist advice, please contact my clerks at Hailsham Chambers.