General liability

Written by Will McGregor

Key developments in 2025

Animals Act 1971

Few decisions in the past year can be said to have had more of a wide-ranging effect on personal injury litigation than Boyd v Hughes [2025] EWHC 435 (KB), the latest in a long line of decisions regarding the interpretation of the Animals Act 1971. Much maligned by commentators for its ambiguous wording, Section 2(2) of the Act imposes strict liability for foreseeable injuries caused by unrestrained animals. Mr Justice Cotter rejected the Claimant's claim, and key to his conclusion was that the actions of the horse in question could not lead to the expectation that a rider would fall off; the fall was a 'mere possibility', which case law had already established was insufficient to establish liability. Whilst providing useful clarification on the applicability of the Act in certain scenarios, the case has implications on various other substantive and procedural issues relevant to practitioners in the field, as set out in our article.

Secondary Victims

With 2024 seeing the Supreme Court's long-awaited decision in Paul v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2024] UKSC 1, it is not surprising we have recently seen a number of decisions on the law surrounding Secondary Victims. Most notably, in Young v Downey [2025] EWCA Civ 177 the Claimant brought a secondary victim claim arising from the killing of her father in the 1982 Hyde Park explosion. Her claim was rejected at first instance on the basis that, due to being 4 years old at the time, she could not have appreciated her father had been, or might have been, involved in the explosion. The Court of Appeal found that Mr Justice Spencer had introduced an additional requirement to the principles established in the landmark case of Alcock. The Judge had, in effect, gone too far and the decision was overturned, allowing the Claimant to recover damages for her psychiatric injuries.

What to look out for in 2026

Litigation Funding

The disruption to the third-party litigation funding market, precipitated by the Supreme Court's seminal decision in PACCAR [2023] UKSC 28, continues to affect the industry, casting doubt on the enforceability of various Litigation Funding Agreements ('LFAs').

The Civil Justice Council ('CJC') published its final report in June 2025, with the key recommendations including a reversal of PACCAR, and the introduction of more appropriate and proportionate regulation, all with the overriding aim of improving access to justice.

In December, the Ministry of Justice confirmedit will be taking legislative action to address PACCAR. LFAs will no longer be classed as Damages Based Agreements, making it much easier for Claimants to secure funding in class-action lawsuits against powerful, well-resourced organisations. All eyes are now on the Government, with 2026 likely to be the year that we see much-needed reform in this area.

Fixed Recoverable Costs & the Intermediate Track

The Civil Procedure Rule Committee has launched an interim stocktake of the extended Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) regime and the intermediate track, which continues to bed in following its introduction in 2023. The evidence-gathering exercise closed on 5 January 2026, and is intended to assess how the 2023 reforms are operating in practice and whether any short-term amendments to the Civil Procedure Rules are required.

The stocktake addresses key issues including allocation to the intermediate track and the operation of complexity bands, to settlement under Part 36 and the treatment of costs exceptions. Its findings will inform a full post-implementation review of the FRC regime, due to commence later in 2026. While radical change is unlikely, we can expect continued refinement that may influence allocation decisions, settlement strategy and overall cost certainty.