Dinner lady compensation claim leads to tag being banned in schools

In mid March the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph both published articles indicating that tag could be banned in schools as a result of a dinner ladies compensation claim.

The Telegraph described the case "Dinner Lady seeks compensation in cotton wool culture case".

This arises from the case of Michelle Orchard a Dinner Lady who was left partially paralysed after a schoolboy playing tag ran into her.

The article generated no less than 36 online comments from angry Daily Mail readers along the lines of "Health & Safety gone mad". As far as the readership was concerned the claim provides further evidence of a compensation culture which is spiralling out of control.

However on 3 April 2009 the Court of Appeal rejected the Dinner Lady's claim finding that the child’s conduct was simply the conduct to be expected of any 13 year old boy playing tag and was not negligent. The claim was dismissed and Mrs Orchard will not receive any compensation.

This is clearly a common sense judgment by the Court of Appeal which clearly puts to bed any argument that there is a growing compensation culture in this country. Whilst the Daily Mail did report the dismissal of the claim by that stage the damage had already been done and the image of a "cotton wool compensation culture" prevails. It is quite clear that the Courts interpret the law robustly in dismissing claims of this type but unfortunately that message rarely makes the headlines unlike allegations of a "cotton wool culture".

The arguments in this case demonstrate that personal injury law is an extremely complex and ever developing area of law. No case is guaranteed to succeed and advice should always be sought from a law firm specialising in personal injury law.

For more information about our personal injury services, please contact Jonathan White of the Personal Injury team on jonathan.white@harveyingram.com or call him on 0116 257 6145.

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