Refusal of medical treatment

Geest plc v Lansiquot (PC TLR 16 October)

If a defendant intended to contend that the claimant had failed to act reasonably to mitigate his or her damage by refusing medical treatment, notice of such contention should be clearly given to the claimant long enough before the hearing to enable the claimant to prepare to meet it. The burden does not lay on a claimant who has refused medical treatment to prove that his refusal was reasonable: the statement in Selvanayagam v University of the West Indies ([1983] 1 WLR 585) to this effect was wrong.