Judgment has been delivered by the Court of Appeal in the appeals of McBride v UKI and Clayton v EUI, the latest battle in the 25-year campaign of litigation waged between motor insurers and credit hire companies. Benjamin Williams QC represented the Appellant in McBride, while Jonathan Hough QC represented the Respondent in Clayton. The appeals concerned the vexed and commercially important question of assessment of the benchmark “basic hire rate”, including the extent to which reasonable adjustments may be made in the assessment process. The judgment lays down principles relevant to assessment of damages in thousands of County Court cases each year.
