Personal Injury: Defence

We have a niche team of defence specialists who have been acting with great success for a number of years.

Exchange Chambers is a leading personal injury set. With a long-established reputation in this area, we represent defendants in a range of personal injury and clinical negligence matters.

Members of the team are accredited to a number of panels and are happy to work within fixed rate agreements.

We are regularly instructed by panel firms to represent defendants in both low and high value RTA claims on behalf of large Insurance companies, clinical negligence cases for NHS Resolution and NHS trusts and public bodies.

Chambers has a national reputation. A number of our members have been appointed to the Government Legal Panel and regularly act on behalf of government bodies including the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice. We attend inquests for government bodies and act for the Secretary of State in cases brought by prisoners.

The team has an exceptional reputation in handling claims of the highest value and complexity, involving:

• Accidents at work
• Catastrophic injury (brain/head and spinal injuries)
• Civil procedure
• Clinical negligence
• Employers’ liability
• Fatal accidents
• Fraudulent claim
• Highways claims
• Industrial disease
• Injuries in the workplace
• Inquests and public inquiries and their related judicial review hearings (At present, a Silk is representing core participants at the Grenfell Tower and Manchester Arena Inquiries)
• Military claims including NFCI claims
• Product liability
• Public liability
• Occupiers’ liability
• Road traffic accidents

A small selection of recent significant cases include:

• Silk represented the Ministry of Defence in the High Court. Preliminary trial of the issue of whether the MoD could rely on the defence of acte iure imperii where a soldier had suffered a brain injury on a horse riding exercise in Canada.
• Silk representing the MoD in a case which is ongoing where a young Royal Marine sustained injuries of the utmost severity in a training exercise.
• Silk representing a local authority, with a Junior from the Defence team, in ongoing claims brought by two young women the victim of sexual abuse. Damages are sought totaling nearly £20m.
• Silk representing a NHS Trust in an ongoing claim brought by a parent on behalf of twins who suffered cerebral palsy arising out of twin to twin transfusion syndrome during pregnancy.
• Silk represented the defendant in the Court of Appeal on an appeal concerning the quantum of damages for past/future loss of earning capacity and mitigation of loss.
• Senior Junior acted for the defendant against Leading Counsel in a Complex Brain Injury case where the claimant was struck in an accident at work. The case settled at £1.9 million.
• Senior Junior acted for the insurer defending a subtle traumatic brain injury claim. Exposed as fraudulent. Settled for an old offer of £10,000.
• Senior Junior currently representing the Ministry of Defence in a significant number of high-value claims for Non-Freezing Cold Injuries (NFCI) sustained by soldiers during training exercises and on deployment overseas. Issues of breach of duty, medical diagnosis and causation, combat immunity and the “loss of a chance” of longer military service often arise.
• Senior Junior represented the defendants in a claim arising from a riding accident at a livery yard in which the claimant fell from a horse and was rendered paraplegic. The claimant was represented by leading counsel. The claimant’s schedule of loss exceeded £4 million. Successfully negotiated a settlement of £150,000.

We provide in-house training for solicitors and hold an extensive series of personal injury and clinical negligence seminars in Chambers throughout the year. All members of the team are approachable and strive to work as part of a team.

What the Directories Say

“One of the leading personal injury and clinical negligence sets, not only on the Northern Circuit, but nationally, with a fantastic team of silks and juniors.”
Tier 2 Leading Set – Personal Injury (Northern Circuit), The Legal 500 2023