“A good deal has been written about the admissibility of bad character evidence in criminal litigation, particularly since the coming into force of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which swept away the previous statutory and common law similar fact and bad character provisions and introduced a new scheme for the admissibility of character evidence in criminal trials, based on relevance. By contrast, there is relatively little literature focusing upon the admissibility of similar fact evidence in civil cases, although in recent years there have been numerous reported decisions where the admissibility of what might be regarded as bad character evidence has been considered, including the clinical negligence case of Laughton v Shalaby. In this article, I consider the law in relation to the admissibility of similar fact evidence in civil cases, the decision in Laughton v Shalaby and its implications for clinical negligence litigation, and the circumstances in which evidence of past misconduct or negligence might be admissible in clinical negligence cases …”
€ (Westlaw)
Tracey Elliott, ‘The admissibility of “bad character” evidence in clinical negligence cases’ [2022] Journal of Personal Injury Law (2) C100-C104.
First posted 2022-07-02 12:00:24
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