This is a practical guide on how to approach a personal injury claim where an award for provisional damages may be appropriate. The book is structured as a step-by-step guide through a personal injury case from the initial uncertain medical prognosis, of which the new procedure is designed to eliminate the adverse consequences, to final settlement or judgment. At each step it indicates and examines the additional considerations which now need to be addressed because of the introduction of provisional damages awards. For this reason, it is a very helpful book for insurers and solicitors who deal with personal injury claims regardless of their experience in that area. It illustrates, for example, how provisional damages can be used in conjunction with split-trials and interim damages to achieve compensation that reflects the injuries to the plaintiff as closely as the tort system of personal injury compensation allows. It also emphasizes the additional care that must be taken when settling cases, distinguishing settlements of the provisional stage from final settlement of the claim.

The book is wholly practical with no discussion of the merits or shortcomings of the existing law and procedures. Establishment of a test to determine those fact situations in which provisional damages are available is attempted without comment on the justice of excluding the “forecast” situation (which incidently, has the ironic effect of leaving the plaintiff who is more certain to suffer serious deterioration in her health worse off if she does so suffer than a plaintiff who has less likelihood of suffering serious deterioration yet does so suffer). To conclude, the opening statement that “the new system of provisional damages makes a radical change to the law on damages in personal injury actions” is more an indication of the fervour of the writer for his subject than the impact of the change, which it is too early to judge but was envisaged and intended by the Law Commission to be limited to the exceptional case.