Practice
Areas of work
Claimant and defendant, from a fast track trial to a contested chancery matter. If you are not sure whether something is in my line, ask my clerks and they will tell you straight.
Personal injury and clinical negligence
The bulk of my practice. I am instructed on liability and quantum from the first advice through to trial, and I do a lot of approval hearings in children's cases. I am comfortable across the whole value range, and just as comfortable saying that a claim pleaded at one figure is worth rather less.
Housing
I act for tenants and for landlords, including local authorities and registered providers. Disrepair and fitness claims form the largest part of it, and I draft as readily as I appear: particulars, defences, replies and schedules, as well as the hearing itself. The Legal 500 lists me as a leading junior for social housing.
Civil and commercial
Contractual disputes, money claims and enforcement, and the property and insolvency work that grows out of them. My years as a solicitor running a firm mean I tend to look at the commercial shape of a dispute as well as its legal merits, which is usually what the client wants to hear about.
Costs and Part 36
Fixed recoverable costs now reach a great deal further than they used to, and the arguments that matter are often about which stage a case reached, which band it falls in, and what Part 36 does to the answer. I advise on all of it, appear on it, and have built a free calculator that works the figures out and drafts the order.
Mediation
As an accredited civil and commercial mediator I take appointments across the same subject matter I litigate in, which means I arrive already knowing where the pressure points usually are. Mediations can be arranged quickly, in person or remotely.