When apportioning responsibility for damage under the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 s.1 the court first assessed the parties' causative contributions and then, in the light of that assessment, but not confined by it, decided what was a just and equitable apportionment. It was open to the court to take into account the extent and degree of the defendants' departure from reasonable standards of care under the second part of the process of apportionment, though not under the first.

[2005] EWHC 1905 (QB)