BADLY injured people should not have to take a financial risk with compensation payouts, the Royal Court was told yesterday.

Oxfordshire-based chartered account Rowland Hogg was giving evidence on the third day of a case in which the guardians of former Commonwealth Games cyclist Manny Helmot (pictured) are claiming £18m. for injuries he suffered in a road accident in November 1998.

Much of yesterday was taken up with discussion on the Lord Chancellor’s 2.5% discount which, under the UK Damages Act, is taken from payouts and is supposed to be offset by the plaintiff’s income from investment of the capital sum.

Courts make awards in the UK on the basis of safe and predictable investments being available.

‘What has happened in recent years has only served to accentuate that argument,’ said Mr Hogg.

Poor returns have pushed investors into more volatile markets.

He believed payouts should be based on earnings from stable investments such as government index-linked gilts.

Mr Hogg told the court he understood that under Guernsey law, compensation payouts could be made only through a one-off lump sum. He said the UK now had a parallel scheme which allowed for annual payouts, alleviating the need for courts to make assumptions on life expectancy and for the current cost of care to be considered.

Appearing for the plaintiff, Mr Hogg said he disputed the 2.5% figure set by the Lord Chancellor in 2001.

For the defendant – insurance company Tradex and its reinsurers – Advocate Andrew Ayres said Mr Hogg had made a lot of legal argument in his report for somebody who was not a lawyer.

He drew the court’s attention to other cases in the UK in which he said Mr Hogg had attacked the Lord Chancellor’s figure.

* We have been asked to say that Dylan Simon, who has been named as one of the defendants in the £18m. civil claim by the guardians of Manny Helmot, has not been an active party to the defence case.  The action is being defended by lawyers representing insurer Tradex and its reinsurers.
Mr Simon, the driver of the car which collided with Mr Helmot in 1998, said the first time he was aware of the case was when a report appeared in Tuesday’s Guernsey Press.
He has further asked us to say that he has not been involved in any aspect of the defence, which has included video evidence.