The Court of Appeal has today handed down their judgment in respect of Hassam & Anor v Rabot & Anor [2023] EWCA Civ 19. This Appeal concerned two cases in which Claimant’s suffered both whiplash injuries and non-whiplash injuries in road traffic accidents. The purpose of the appeal was to determine how the Court should quantify damages between tariff and non-tariff injuries.

In a 2:1 vote by Lady Justice Nicola Davies, Lord Justice Stuart-Smith and the Master of the Rolls, it was determined that the way to approach mixed injury cases will now be as follows:

(i) assess the tariff award by reference to the Regulations;

(ii) assess the award for non-tariff injuries on common law principles; and

(iii) "step back" in order to carry out the Sadler adjustment, recognising that the sum included in the tariff award for the whiplash component is unknown but is smaller than it would be if damages for the whiplash component had been assessed applying common law principles.

(iv) Ensure that the overall award is not lower than if the non-tariff injuries had been the only injuries suffered by the Claimant.

Lady Justice Nicola Davies explained that there is one caveat, namely that the final award cannot be less than would be awarded for the non-tariff injuries if they had been the only injuries suffered by the claimant.This provides long-awaited clarity as to how to approach mixed injury claims, which have proven to be difficult for both Judges and advocates whilst the verdict of the Court of Appeal was awaited as a binding judgment.