James Counsell QC speaking at 2017 conference on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ child safety crisis

James Counsell QC is a widely recognised silk in the fields of personal injury and clinical and professional negligence.

He specialises in acting for survivors of historic sexual abuse. To raise further awareness of this, James is speaking at a conference being held in London to address the Jehovah’s Witnesses child safety crisis on 26 April.

The conference aims to highlight the issue of abuse to ensure the future protection of members, whilst addressing the legal responsibility of elders and their duty of care. Panelists will be discussing the issue of how the Watchtower hides child sexual abuse from secular authorities and has stonewalled both the media and the legal system.

As lead counsel, James recently represented the claimant in the landmark case of A v The Trustees of the Watchtower Bible Tract Society and Others [2015] EWHC 1722 (QB). This was the first successful claim in the UK against the Jehovah’s Witness organisation for historic sexual abuse committed by one of its ministerial servants. It was also the first successful claim for the vicarious liability of its elders in failing to safeguard a young, vulnerable member of  the congregation.

James now acts for a large number of other claimants abused by Jehovah’s Witnesses and other organisations in similar claims.

For more information about James’ practice, click here.

Details about the conference are available here.

For a more detailed press release on this subject, please see BBC and THE TIMES.

News 26 Apr, 2017