Dunfermline Cycling Club Joins Call for Stricter Liability

[classic33]

Informed Cities
"Dunfermline Cycling Club (DCC) has joined the company of CTC Scotland, Scottish Cycling, Pedal on Parliament and Spokes in becoming a public supporter of the Road Share campaign for stricter liability.

The campaign, which was launched by specialist law firm Cycle Law Scotland in April 2013, is working to change Scottish Civil Law to offer more protection to the most vulnerable road users involved in road traffic collisions by introducing a strict liability regime on compensation in line with the majority of Europe."

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Strict luability. is that a very formal Hawaiian shindig?

 

[classic33]

I do wish that campaigners would learn the difference between strict liability and the presumption of liability...

The law firm have it wrong?

 

[spen666]

The law firm have it wrong?

The announcement has it wrong

 

[Recycle]

Whatever the semantics, I wish Scotland luck. They still have charge over their own laws and have a parliament less egg-bound than the bunch of crooks that have taken up residence on the north bank of the Thames.

Perhaps they can shame the rest of the UK into doing what is standard practice in most of the continent.

 

[HJ]

Maybe I could set the record straight here, first off, the RoadShare campaign group was found by Brenda Mitchell of Cycle Law Scotland, but the campaign is now separate from Cycle Law Scotland. When it was founded, the initial campaign was for Strict Liability, however, after long discussion the steering group decided that the political reality was that we were unlikely to get Strict Liability passed into law anytime soon. Therefore, the campaign was changed to work towards getting a private members bill based on Presumed Liability, although it is envisaged that there will be a strict liability where the victim is under 14 years old or over 70 years old. Of course the final decision is for the Scottish Parliament to make and not the campaign group. It should be noted here that Scots Law is different from English Law, in that since at least the 14th Century Scots Law has been based on Roman Law, and therefore is far closer to modern European law than English Law.

The majority of the steering group would probably like to see full strict liability as they have in France, however, being pragmatic it is realised that it is more likely that the Scottish Parliament will adopt a form presumed liability similar to that in Swiss law. Either would be a considerable improvement on the current situation and incidently (if the mainland European experience is anything to go by) reduce the cost of motor insurance, so everyone is a winner (except the claims litigation lawyers).