News

19/10/2018

Book Launch – Ben Collins QC co-authors ‘Criminal Injuries Compensation’

News

On 24th October 2018, the above publication will be available from the Oxford University Press. To pre order, please click here.

The publication, written by David Miers in conjunction with Consultant Editors Ben Collins QC and Judge Nicholas Wikeley, includes the following:

• An analysis of the statutory provisions governing the making of compensation orders, and of their relationship with other sentencing options and with civil damages
• Detailed commentary of court and tribunal decisions on the interpretation of the earlier statutory Schemes where their provisions continue to apply in the 2012 CICS, and of any decisions directly on the 2012 Scheme
• An analysis of the background to and introduction of offender compensation within the development of restorative justice, and of the tensions to which it gives rise
• An assessment of the place of state and offender compensation within the government’s overall responses to the victims of violent crime

New to this Edition:

• An extensive update of the original 1997 text, State Compensation for Criminal Injuries. The second edition takes into account all of the changes in CICS 2012 to the defining elements of a claim; primarily the definition of a criminal injury, the rules on eligibility, and the restrictions on the levels of awards to ‘serious’ personal injury and to offences against children or involving sexual offences
• A very substantial rewriting of the chapters on assessment of compensation and on deductions to reflect the new basis of assessment for loss of earnings / earning capacity; that is, statutory sick pay
• Five completely new chapters covering Offender Compensation, with detailed discussion on compensation orders and restorative justice

Criminal Injuries Compensation cases form an important part of Old Square Chambers’ work. Ben Collins QC is a leading expert on the law of criminal injuries compensation, having appeared in almost all of the major cases in the field in recent years, including JT (CA 2018 – same roof rule), A&B (CA 2018 – effect of convictions rule on trafficking victims), Y (CA 2017 –genetic disability as injury), Clifford (CA 2016 – approach to multiple minor injuries), CP (CA 2015 – whether excessive drinking in pregnancy is a crime), RS (CA, 2013 – nervous shock) and Jones (SC 2013 – meaning of “crime of violence”). Robert Moretto has also appeared in many reported criminal injuries cases. Members of Old Square Chambers frequently represent injured victims of crime, in particular where both civil and statutory compensation is in issue, together with routinely representing prison officers, police officers, hospital staff and other workers who are vulnerable to assault at work and are well placed to advise in respect of both statutory compensation and civil liability.

Ben Collins QC, Book launch, Criminal Injuries Compensation, Oxford University Press