High Court Extends Judicial Deadline in Adult Cerebral Palsy Case
Posted by sunce on September 25th, 2008
Twenty-seven year old Jonathon Khairule from Tile Hill Coventry has more than his share of physical disabilities. He suffers from cerebral palsy which renders him wheel-chair bound. His only means of communication is typing on a keyboard which he does with his nose.
Yet he had a kindly visit recently from “lady luck” in the form of a landmark High Court victory, which, in delivering a very compassionate decision, allowed him to pursue legal action against Tameside General, the hospital in Ashton under-Lyne, Lancashire, he believes is responsible for his severe disability.
In its defense, the hospital argued, with more than a little justification that the time had long passed for Mr. Khairule to bring a claim against them. And the law does state that personal injury claims must be brought within 3 years. For birth injuries, the 3-year clock starts ticking from the person’s 18th birthday. So he seemed to find himself between a rock and a very hard place.
Jonathon, who plans to begin his studies in Virtual Engineering this month (September), knew that he had C.P. from birth, but he just assumed that it was something which could not be avoided and that no one was at fault for his illness. When he was in his early twenty’s, he started looking into what had happened, more to understand rather than looking for compensation. Since he was already 21 years of age, no one was willing to get involved because of the 3 year limit on personal injury liability.
Irwin Mitchell was the only legal office that was willing to even try litigation on his behalf, and they too warned him that it would be an uphill battle. What they did discover was that there appeared to be serious concerns about the possibility of medical malpractice in the way his birth was handled, and they hoped that would prove enough of a mitigating circumstance to convince a judge to hear the case, notwithstanding the passage of three years.
Lindsay Gibb, the medical negligence specialist at the Irwin Mitchell office explained that Jonathon had first contacted their office in February 2004 which was more than a year and a half after his 18th birthday. On the surface, this was way beyond the time he could initiate a claim against the hospital. However the judge does have significant discretion to overlook the three year rule in a case where the judge is convinced that dis-allowing the 3 year rule would be fair and a fair trial could still happen.
This past July (2008), the High Court agreed with Mr. Khairule’s claim and issued a ruling paving the way for suit to be brought against the Strategic Health Authority.
