Scots Personal Injury Law Updated

4 Dec 2024

The Scottish Law Commission has published its Report on Damages for Personal Injury, including a draft Damages (Scotland) Bill. The Report, which concludes the SLC’s project on Damages, recommends a number of reforms to modernise the law on damages and clarify areas currently causing difficulty. Our recommendations seek to achieve greater fairness in the context of awards of damages for personal injury in Scotland by:

  • Updating the definition of “relative” to reflect modern society;
  • Extending the class of persons entitled to damages for services rendered to an injured person to include, for example, friends and neighbours;
  • Clarifying what qualifies as a “contribution” towards a permanent health insurance scheme, for the purpose of determining whether a payment made to an injured person under that scheme should, or should not, be deducted from an award of damages;
  • Confirming that injured persons are entitled to opt for private medical treatment, care, accommodation, and equipment, rather than rely on NHS or local authority support;
  • Resolving the pleural plaques time-bar problem, so that an asymptomatic condition such as pleural plaques will no longer result in a time-bar preventing recovery of damages for a later-developing symptomatic condition such as mesothelioma;
  • Requiring increased supervision by the courts where damages are awarded to young children.

Lady Paton, the SLC lead Commissioner for the project, said:

“It is important that the law on damages for personal injury is fair and reflects modern society; and also that it operates in a clear and consistent way. The Report examines some areas of the law of damages and recommends reforms modernising the law so that it is fit for today’s society.”

The Damages team would like to thank everyone who contributed to the project, including those who responded to our Discussion Paper and our Advisory Group members.

The Report and accompanying documents including a News Release and Executive Summary are available via the project page.