Al-Masarir v Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Presiding Mr Justice Saini

In the recent matter of Al-Masarir v Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mr Justice Saini recorded Mr Keith Carter (on the instructions of Leigh Day):

“[…] gives evidence of the Claimant’s likely career prospects and earnings: (a) “but for” the psychiatric harm he sustained and (b) in light of the wrongs committed. It is appropriate that this issue, which is also relevant to damages, should be addressed by expert evidence because of the unusual source of the Claimant’s earnings. In short, these earnings were made as a YouTube content creator, a career which has no clearly defined path or earning structure. It would not have been possible for me to form a view about the loss of earnings without the assistance of expert evidence in that field.”

“Mr Carter provides some helpful graphs in his report which include a projection of the Claimant’s YouTube viewership (subscribers and total views). This is with the aim of identifying income streams that would have been earned but for the wrongs. […] I agree that this is appropriate on the evidence before me of the past success of the Claimant and Mr Carter’s helpful analysis.”