Santiago v Motor Insurers’ Bureau [2023] EWCA Civ 83 was an important case for those involved in low value personal injury cases who, following Aldred v Cham [2019] EWCA Civ 1780, found themselves in a place where the cost of translating witness statements were not recoverable from the Defendant.
It was all aggravated by the change to PD 32 para 18.1 to ensure that the “witness statement must, if practicable, be in the intended witness’s own words and must in any event be drafted in their own language“.
The cost wasn’t the main issue, it was the fact that witnesses were claiming their witness statements were incorrect and they were unaware that the meaning had changed. Subtle difference can have quite the impact. This was one of the criticisms of Ganham J in Correia v Williams [2022] EWHC 2824 (KB). He said that having a statement which was prepared in English could not then be translated in to the witness’ own language because “that would be a double translation from Portuguese to English and then back to Portuguese, and the claimant will be being asked to confirm something which is essentially leading questions, setting out what somebody else has interpreted (accurately or otherwise) his original instructions as…”.
Real life example
Some of you may know that I did karate for about twenty years. I started when I was about 5-6 years old and the style I did was a traditional association who used Japanese terminology. So for I had a very good understanding of Japanese phrases within the confines of karate.
As expected in karate, there were various types of kicks and here are a few examples:-
- Roundhouse kick – Mawashigeri – 回し蹴り
- Knee kick – Hizageri – 膝蹴り
- Front kick – Maegeri – 前蹴り
One can easily presume that ‘geri’ means ‘kick. Think again. If you do not use a word in front of ‘geri’ then it retains its standalone meaning, which is diarrhoea (下痢). If one wants to say kick combination then you would say ‘Keri-waza’ because the work for kick in isolation is ‘keri’.
This is of course an exaggerated example of how (subject to context) translation of a word can lose its meaning and why people would be in awe of Bruce Lee’s diarrhoea, rather than his kicks.
How to ensure your statements in another language are prepared correctly
You can now rely on Santiago to recover the cost of translation and of course, you need to do it correctly to ensure you comply with Corriea. You can read my previous post about how to prepare foreign statements correctly to comply with Corriea.
If you follow the process you will ensure that that the statement is in your witness’ own words but also will not have translation issues. Those who are a fan of the TV show friends will know the following when Joey uses a thesaurus on his letter to an adoption agency on behalf of Chandler and Monica:-
Monica: Alright, what was this sentence originally? (shows the sentence to Joey)
Joey: Oh, ‘They are warm, nice, people with big hearts’.
Chandler: And that became ‘they are humid prepossessing Homo Sapiens with full sized aortic pumps…?
Joey: Yeah, yeah and hey, I really mean it, dude.
Monica: Hey Joey, I don’t think we can use this.
Joey: Why not?
Monica: Well, because you signed it baby kangaroo Tribbiani
Information
AJH Advocacy Limited, a Limited Company which is regulated by the Bar Standards Boards (entity number 190758), ceases trading on the 12th January 2026.
From the 12th January 2026 and onwards, Alec Hancock will practice as a Barrister at Magdalen Chambers in Exeter. For instructions on matters on or after 12th January 2026, please contact Magdalen Chambers via clerks@magdalenchambers.co.uk or by telephone on 01392 285 200.