Book review: Personal Injury Pleadings Sixth Edition

• Personal Injury Pleadings Sixth Edition
• By Patrick Curran QC
• Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell (May 2019)
• ISBN: 9780414070776

Clarity is everything. The reason why this superb textbook has sailed triumphantly into its sixth edition is the ability of its author, Patrick Curran QC, to bring that essential quality to the table at all times. It demonstrates the necessary precision of proper pleadings and does so with real scholarship and excellent example. Sir John Mummery has identified the quality of this writing and he is right to do so.

The latest edition has 11 new chapters geared to today’s challenges in personal injury litigation and a complete revision of its structure and content. Valuable case notes are part of the mix and, for example, the way in which applications for relief from sanctions should be evidenced and pleaded. Even for those who do not stray often into its territory, it is a joy to use.

"The reason why this superb textbook has sailed triumphantly into its sixth edition is the ability of its author, Patrick Curran QC, to bring that essential quality to the table at all times"

Read also with joy the droll and sometimes colourful prefaces of previous editions, and the present delightfully nostalgic one (for the author has found in his old chambers, Farrar’s Building, a good place to revise this essential textbook; and long may his work thrive).

On the bench and out in the fields of play, judges and practitioners will find this an indispensable companion. For our judgments and our submissions can be built on solid rock and where we succeed, we have been buttressed by real erudition. Most of all, by clarity.

Reviewer: Nigel Pascoe QC is a silk at Pump Court Chambers and a member of the Counsel Editorial Board.