Date of Knowledge in UK Law

To distinguish between the immediate impairment of the plaintiff's mental condition caused by these acts, apparently minor and transient, and the much more serious long-term impairment of the plaintiff's mental condition, the attributability of which to the Webbs' conduct was only appreciated later, is not in my judgment to defeat the intention of the legislature but to promote it.

In this context "knowledge" clearly does not mean "know for certain and beyond possibility of contradiction". It does, however, mean "know with sufficient confidence to justify embarking on the preliminaries to the issue of a writ, such as submitting a claim to the proposed defendant, taking legal and other advice and collecting evidence".

It means knowing with sufficient confidence to justify embarking on the preliminaries to the issue of a writ, such as submitting a claim to the proposed defendant, taking advice, and collecting evidence: 'suspicion, particularly if it is vague and unsupported, will indeed not be enough, but reasonable belief will normally suffice'. In other words, the claimant must know enough for it to be reasonable to begin to investigate further.

The investigation upon which the claimant should reasonably embark is into whether in law he has a valid claim (in particular whether the act or omission of the defendant involves negligence or other breach of duty, being a matter of which the claimant is specifically not required to have had knowledge under section 14(1)) and, if so, how that claim can be established in court. The focus is upon the moment when it is reasonable for the claimant to embark on such an investigation.

Time starts to run against the claimant when he knows that the personal injury on which he founds his claim is capable of being attributed to something done or not done by the defendant whom he wishes to sue. This condition is not satisfied where a man knows that he has a disabling cough or shortness of breath but does not know that his injured condition has anything to do with his working conditions.

Miss Lee's evidence relevant to the issue I am now considering is little more than bare assertion. It is asserted that in fact knowledge that the loss allegedly attributable to the breaches the claimant now wishes to advance were attributable to the negligence of the defendant was only acquired as a result of advice from an expert. As I have noted already, both parties asked me to determine this application as a conventional application for permission to amend.

In applying the section to the facts of these cases, we shall proceed on the basis that knowledge is a condition of mind which imports a degree of certainty and that the degree of certainty which is appropriate for this purpose is that which, for the particular plaintiff, may reasonably be regarded as sufficient to justify embarking upon the preliminaries to the making of a claim for compensation such as the taking of legal or other advice.