Sixteenth edition of the Judicial College Guidelines – what’s new?

England and Wales

On 11 April 2022, the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) 16th Edition was published, superseding the 15th Edition, which was published on 26th November 2019.

The Guidelines are the go-to tool for litigators and courts when assessing the value of General Damages in personal injury and clinical negligence claims. The Guidelines are based on damages figures awarded by the Courts and set out, in brackets, the recommended general damages sum for different types of injuries, alongside a short narrative which indicates the factors practitioners should consider, when determining which bracket best applies to the injuries in their case. The Guidelines are not law but serve as a useful steer for legal practitioners alongside case law and aim to achieve consistency across the board.

So, what’s new?

Practitioners will be comforted to learn, not that much. There are, however, a handful of changes lawyers need to be aware of when calculating General Damages:

  • The figures in the latest edition reflect the 6.56% increase in RPI since the 15th edition and are given as neatly rounded figures. Where there have been no recent decisions in relation to specific types of injury, the inflation uplift may be the only discernible change.
  • The Simmons v Castle 10% uplift is no more, save for in Chapter 6 (Injuries to Internal Organs). The rationale being that there are increasingly few cases where the uplift applies, with mesothelioma cases being the obvious exception. Fear not, if the pre-uplift figure is still required, the Guidelines provide a formula for calculating this.
  • Chapter 4 introduces a new distinct sub-category of psychiatric injury to reflect awards made to victims of sexual abuse, following the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse and its Accountability and Reparations Investigation.
  • A new Chapter 8 focuses on worked-related limb disorders, including a new section dedicated to a host of ‘cold injuries’. These include frostnip, frostbite and non-freezing injuries resulting damage to soft tissue, nerve or vascular systems.
  • In previous editions, the section covering injury to reproductive organs focused primarily on the loss of fertility and reproductive capacity. The scope of this section has now been widened to capture injuries resulting in sexual dysfunction, loss of sexual function and the related psychological consequences in both sexes.

All personal injury and clinical negligence practitioners and insurance claims handlers are strongly advised to study the Guidelines applicable to their respective practice areas It is anticipated that the new Guidelines will be available through online legal databases within the coming days.