Success for Nia Marshall in Employer’s Liability Trial

October 8, 2025

Nia Marshall successfully represented a Claimant who was a Senior Support Worker acting in the course of her employment. The Claimant was attending to a service user (“SU”) who had an acquired brain injury at birth. This resulted in global developmental delay, moderate learning disabilities and high levels of anxiety arousal. The SU’s anxieties were known to spike very quickly if consistent and positive responses were not given. There was an obligation to continuously assess the SU’s environment for potential triggers.

While attending to the SU, the SU repeatedly kicked towards the Claimant’s abdomen and upper body. The Claimant sustained soft tissue injuries to her right arm, forearm and elbow. She subsequently sustained ulnar nerve decompression and underwent carpal tunnel release for median nerve decompression. The Claimant sustained ongoing chronic post-traumatic pain as well as scars following surgery.

At the beginning of the trial, Nia successfully opposed the Defendant’s application for an adjournment. The Defendant sought an adjournment on the basis that their sole witness was abroad on holiday. The Judge found that the Defendant conspicuously failed to explain the reason that their witness did not attend trial.

Nia also successfully opposed the Defendant’s submissions that the Claimant’s Particulars of Claim were insufficiently pleaded. The Judge found that while the pleadings were not particularly detailed, they were sufficient to encapsulate the Claimant’s allegations of the Defendant’s negligence. The Judge stated that he did not accept that the allegations of negligence could not be properly adjudicated on. The Judge was satisfied that the Defendant knew the case sufficiently that they were required to meet at trial.

The Judge was satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the employer had sufficient information about the SU to know that having a window to the outside world was likely to create an added danger for those staff in the kitchen with the SU. The employer was aware that the SU’s anxieties could spike very quickly. A reasonable employer would have frosted the SU’s window prior to this incident. The Judge acknowledged that documentation indicated that the employer frosted the SU’s window after the incident.

Nia was instructed by Jane Radcliffe, the managing partner at Pattinson & Brewer.