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
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The Archangel’s Way
May our god of the high moor, of tor and of the singing rivers, guide you, protect you and inspire you with truth, goodness and beauty until your journey’s end. -The Archangel’s Way Blessing. Well done for surviving another year: a year of war, and plague and plunging economic news. 2023 will be a better…
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51st state
One of the problems that will face any incoming Labour government in 2024, is the state of the County Court, and in particular the backlog of small claims, and the fact that it takes 51 weeks for a small claim to proceed through the court system. A well advised new administration should be able to…
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Schrodinger’s Request
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” -Albert Einstein I fondly remember from the 1990s, in the days before the introduction of the Civil Procedure Rules, spending Fridays dictating my pleadings in chambers. Defence, Request for Further and Better Particulars, and Interrogatories, followed by Defence, Request for Further…
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Bluebell time in Kent
It happened on April 19, 1964. It was bluebell time in Kent. –Hinz v Berry [1970] 2 Q.B. 40, Lord Denning MR If there was a prize for the most turgid judgment of the year, a strong contender for the trophy would be the judgment in the conjoined credit hire appeals of Yousaf v Davis…
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Save the Children
We did it! At dawn today, Sunny and I left the house, and completed the long delayed sponsored walk to Save the Children. Originally due to take place in July, it was postponed by reason of the intense heat, and then further delayed by my recovery from illness. Many thanks to all those who sponsored…
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In the back of my cab
I have argued credit hire claims in respect of taxis, or plated private hire vehicles, on many, many occasions over the years both for and against claimants. There is always something new in this subspecies of credit hire claim. For many years, insurers had difficulties getting BHR evidence in order to prima facie establish a…
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Summer’s lease
The school year has ended, and like the children, I am now away until September. Alas, I have been struck down with ill health, and rather than heading to Portugal, I am having surgery instead and will spend the rest of August convalescing. Have a splendid summer whilst I am away. This blog will reopen…
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The Dukes of Hazzard
At 5.25pm on Saturday evenings in the 1970s, it was possible to settle down in front of a television set, which offered no less than three channels to choose from, with cheese on toast with a poached egg on top and to engage in the willing suspension of disbelief for 50 minutes or so, that…
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