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Solicitors and other professionals involved in cases concerning clients who have suffered from catastrophic injuries can hear from a range of experts at a special one day conference.

Durham-based EMG Solicitors’ annual conference has brought together a number of top speakers who will be sharing their knowledge at the Managing and Improving Your Catastrophic Injury Caseload event on Wednesday 26 April 2017.

The conference – now in its third year – is renowned for bringing together a number of respected professionals who will talk on a range of related and relevant topics during both group and seminar sessions.

The event is being held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Leeds city centre, enabling attendees and speakers from across the north and south to attend.

Among the speakers will be Emma Gaudern of EMG Solicitors (pictured), widely regarded for her expertise as a Court of Protection deputy, who will be leading a discussion on deputyship costs claimed in a special damages schedule.

Maxine Gibbs, managing director of Medicolegal Associates, is undergoing a charity trek across the Arctic Circle driving a husky sled on 11 December for Burning Nights, the Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome charity founded by Victoria Abbot-Fleming.

Victoria sadly had to undergo a double amputation after contracting CRPS ending her promising career as a barrister. Victoria has recently been named ‘Inspirational Woman of 2016’ by Aspire magazine and her journey, both living with this chronic pain condition and devoting her life to helping other CRPS sufferers, is very stirring.

Maxine will be mushing for four days over 200km and sleeping out on the ice during Polar nights - there is at best two hours of daylight a day with temperatures dropping to minus 30 degrees. Maxine herself suffers from chronic fatigue and has been training hard to be able to attempt the challenge.

Donations will be gratefully received for this amazing charity by clicking on the link here. Every penny donated goes directly to the charity.

The news of the trialling of the first ‘driverless’ taxi service in Singapore in August brought back under the public gaze the growing use of autonomous technology in vehicles and the prospect in the near future of fully autonomous cars.

The advent of such vehicles poses issues for the legal profession, the insurance industry in particular and also – for nothing is perfect – accident investigators.

The main issue for the insurance industry is that of liability. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has asserted that in cases where the vehicle is fully autonomous and there is no opportunity for the driver/passenger to intervene, then liability will rest with the manufacturer. Indeed, the motor industry itself, in a report for the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders by KPMG published last year, accepted that ‘…liability will shift from drivers to manufacturers’.

Bond Solon and The Times would like to personally invite you to participate in the first joint National Expert Witness 2016 survey. This survey is conducted by Bond Solon, the UK’s largest expert witness training company, in association with The Times newspaper.

Use the following link to participate in the survey: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/M3KQS7Q

The survey will be open until 28 October 2016. It is anonymous and includes up to 18 questions, which should only take a few minutes to complete.

The results will produce an interesting report highlighting some of the issues affecting expert witnesses. This report will be sent to experts who complete the survey before it is sent to anyone else.