In my recent experience of Stage 3 hearings, whilst the non-binding County Court decision of Blair v Jaber [2023] EW Misc 3 (CC) and the introduction to the Judicial College Guidelines (16th Edition) is commonly referred to when seeking an increase in damages to account for inflation, the more recent High Court decision of Dee v Welsh Services [2023] EWHC 2765 (KB) is less commonly referred to. I hope that this short article will increase awareness of this important decision.
The key paragraph which I have been referring to is Paragraph 61 which reads as follows:
“The introduction to the Guidelines reflects RPI increases to September 2021 only and therefore needs to be uprated further to reflect recent inflation. I am reliably informed that the Hargreaves Lansdown inflation calculator produces an uprating to 10th November 2023 of 22.6% which I will apply in my summary. For completeness, I note that the defendants had submitted that any RPI adjustment should be considered in the context of being a guideline not a tramline so they did not favour the application of a precise statistical sum, but I considered that there was no justification in this case not to apply a real-life percentage uplift where I was relying upon the Guidelines rather than reported cases to value this particular injury.”
The Hargreaves Lansdown inflation calculator, which can be found at https://www.hl.co.uk/tools/calculators/inflation-calculator, currently calculates inflation up to January 2024. The increase is 22.4% which is a helpful starting point. The introduction to the 17th Edition of the Judicial College Guidelines, which will apply from the date of publication on 5th April 2024, makes it clear that awards should be uprated from inflation from August 2023 until the date of any assessment of damages. As such, I consider that the decision of Dee v Welsh Ambulance Services should continue to apply with revised dates and rates of inflation.
The case of Dee v Welsh Ambulance Services can be found at https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/KB/2023/2765.html.