Keeping Negligence Simple

Donal Nolan (University of Oxford), James Plunkett (Independent), Keeping Negligence Simple, L.Q. Rev. pp. 175-181 (2022):

In this case note, we consider the UK Supreme Court decision in Meadows v Khan [2021] UKSC 21, [2022] AC 852, which concerned the scope of the duty of care that a GP owed to a patient who was a carrier of the haemophilia gene. Although we agree with the decision in the case, we argue that the approach of the majority Justices was unnecessarily complex, and that the issue should have been dealt with as a question of remoteness rather than duty. We also subject the majority’s six-part ‘roadmap’ for negligence cases to critical review, and conclude that it is likely to obfuscate rather than illuminate.