William specialises in three areas: catastrophic and serious personal injury, clinical negligence and professional negligence (mostly – but not exclusively – arising from personal injury and clinical negligence claims). He approaches cases with tactical knowledge and experience, which complement his analytical ability to overcome the challenges that present in litigation. He takes a robust and pragmatic approach, enjoying a practice beyond his year of call. He considers the best results emanate from a team effort, working closely with his instructing solicitors at every stage of a claim. He is always happy to provide informal advice to instructing solicitors.
He is adept in drafting statements of case and extensive schedules of loss. He applies a meticulous approach to his paperwork. He attends conferences with experts and clients (in their homes if required). He has vast experience in Court (although he is a fully qualified mediator and believes firmly that every claim can be settled).
Personal Injury
William’s work is almost exclusively at multi-track level. He represents both claimants and defendants (1/3 defendant, 2/3 claimant) in road traffic accidents, accidents abroad, and public liability and employers’ liability claims. He recently won a fiercely contested two-day liability trial against the police force, where seven officers were injured of the course of a covert police operation; the claim settled for a substantial sum.
He has considerable experience of fatal accident claims. A large number of his cases involve chronic pain and similar syndromes. Earlier this year he was led in a case representing tetraplegic claimant injured in the workplace; the claim settled for over £9 million.
He is instructed regularly in cases with values in excess of £1 million as sole junior counsel.
Clinical Negligence
- Failing to diagnose necrotising fasciitis leading to a hindquarter amputation (ongoing).
- Failing to diagnose a meningioma resulting in epilepsy and a significant reduction in visual field (ongoing).
- Failing to prescribe anticoagulant medication resulting in an extensive stroke, rendering the claimant wheelchair bound (ongoing).
- Intraoperative damage to the spinal cord, leading to facial palsy and substantial neurological impairment.
- Failing to diagnose a diabetic plantar ulcer culminating in an above knee amputation.
- Failing to diagnose a ruptured Achilles tendon leading to delayed surgery and life changing injuries.
- Failing to diagnose a comminuted fracture to the distal tibia leading to the fracture displacing.
- Failing to diagnose bowel cancer leading to an untimely death.
- Failure to diagnose a perforated bowel resulting in an laparotomy, the development of sepsis and life-long gastrointestinal symptoms.
- Failing to induce labour resulting in intrauterine death.
- Causing intraoperative damage to the bladder leading to lifelong urinary and voiding dysfunction.
Professional Negligence
The majority of William’s professional negligence claims derive from the mishandling of personal injury and clinical negligence claims. He quickly builds a rapport and trust with clients, who approach him having become disillusioned with the legal process. His recent caseload includes under-settled claims, claims that were struck out or not issued within limitation, claims with failures to obtain appropriate evidence and failures to claim for provisional damages.