Laurie West-Knights QC, head of the Hailsham Chambers Commercial Group 

Preamble

• This being the beginning of what I intend to be regular updates, I fell across a judgment at [2010] Lloyd's Rep. IR 198: Lewis v Norwich Union Healthcare Limited. To quote Insurance Law Monthly: 

"Non-disclosure and inducement

Lewis v Norwich Union Healthcare Ltd [2009] EW Misc 2 (EWCC), a decision of Recorder West-Knights QC in the Central London County Court, is a further reminder to underwriters that the law relating to non-disclosure these days requires proof not just of objective materiality but also of actual inducement. If the insurers do not put up the underwriter responsible for writing the risk, they significantly imperil their chances of proving inducement. If the underwriter can be shown to have acted imprudently in any event, then those chances are even further reduced."

As is indicated by the Vendor Neutral Citation (also known as VNC, the purpose and genesis of which I, as a matter of general interest, say something about here - see the link at the foot of this page), that judgment is on BAILII, and indeed here it is. 

 

·         There is another judgment of mine, Barclay v  British Airways [2008] EW Misc 1 (EWCC), a decision under Article 17 of the Montreal Convention 1999 which governs accidents on and around passenger aeroplanes, also on BAILII, and it was reported in the Lloyds' Law Reports "proper". It went to the Court of Appeal as [2008] EWCA 1419 where my decision was upheld. I promise that my association with BAILII had nothing to do with either of these cases having being "reported" there (and I also explain those inverted commas in the article here on VNC). 

·         The source of the brief case notes on these pages is, unless stated otherwise, handed-down judgments which appear on BAILII. If anyone finds the fact that some links open in a new window unhelpful, or wants to make any other constructive suggestion, I am happy to be e-mailed. I refer to all such new cases (unless in, say, the CA Crim Div or the Division of the High Court or the Administrative Court) simply so that people can see whether they are of interest to them or not. 

·         This venture is in one sense the completion of a circle going back, for me, over 15 years when I started to campaign for what became http://www.bailii.org. One of the objections to the publication on www.bailii.org of all handed-down judgments, as to which see more when I discuss VNC etc,  was that there would be too many and that they would be undigested and have no headnotes. Well, as I look at all new cases in any event, I used to provided at least a minimum "headnote" to assist with a filtering process which BAILII cannot fulfil. I stopped doing that at the end of last year as it was, sadly, too time-consuming, but the previous materials are still here.

My professional profile can be seen here

A brief personal outline is here

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Laurie West-Knights QC

mail: LJW-K QC.