News & Events
News & Events
We are pleased to announce that in collaboration with the DIFC Academy, members of Outer Temple Chambers will provide training on Common Law Advanced Advocacy Skills. The DIFC Academy of Law have launched this course for Emirati Advocates and other civil law trained lawyers, in-house counsel, and legal professionals seeking to diversify their skills and enhance their professional development. From February to April 2020, James Counsell QC and Sarah Crowther QC will be teaching Trial advocacy and witness handling and examination. John McKendrick QC and Ben Bradley will be teaching Oral Submissions and Appeal Advocacy. Keith Bryant QC and Jonathan Hand QC will be teaching Appeal Advocacy. James Counsell QC commented: “The team from Outer Temple Chambers is delighted once again to…
News 6 Jan, 2020
Ben Bradley (instructed by Anna Higham, Stewarts) has successfully established at trial that his client, Tahir Younas, would have avoided spinal cord injury, absent of the negligence of his GP. Mr Younas suffered a spinal cord injury after he collapsed in a car park on 24 January 2014. His collapse was caused by a cardiological condition, known as intermittent AV block. He had been suffering related symptoms in the run up to his collapse. It was agreed that had Mr Younas been fitted with a pacemaker before his collapse, his fall, and consequential spinal cord injury would have been avoided. His GP conceded that he had acted in breach of duty by failing to refer the Claimant to a cardiologist,…
News 31 Oct, 2019
Ben Bradley spoke at the recent Pan European Organisation of Personal Injury Lawyers (PEOPIL) Young Lawyers Conference in Manchester, on 29 March 2019. Ben contributed to a lively panel discussion with young lawyers from across Europe, focusing on the interrelationship between criminal proceedings and personal injury law. Outer Temple has close ties with Clifford Law Offices of Chicago, Illinois, with members of Chambers joined at the Conference by US attorney, Jack J. Casciato. Jack presented on aviation claims brought under the Montreal Convention. The Conference, held at the Manchester offices of Irwin Mitchell, was also attended by Outer Temple International Illness and Travel law team members Ian Denham, Dan Clarke, Tom Gibson and Olinga Tahzib together with Business Development Director, Paul…
News 15 Apr, 2019
Ben Bradley, instructed by Angela Kirtley, Partner at Irwin Mitchell LLP in Newcastle, recently represented the family in an inquest touching the Death of LC. LC had been a voluntary inpatient at West Park Hospital, receiving treatment for an underlying depressive illness. Despite express instructions to the contrary from the lead consultant, LC was permitted to go on leave without such leave being risk assessed to confirm (amongst other things) who he was going on leave with, and where he was going. Sadly, LC was thus permitted to leave the hospital, committing suicide shortly thereafter. Having heard competing legal submissions from the interested parties, the Senior Coroner for County Durham recorded a conclusion of ‘suicide, contributed to by neglect’. Local press interest in…
News 19 Dec, 2016
Floyd LJ has refused the Jehovah’s Witness church permission to appeal against the judgment of Globe J, in which James Counsell and Ben Bradley successfully appeared for the Claimant (see judgment here). In his initial ruling Mr Justice Globe imposed vicarious liability upon the Jehovah’s Witnesses (“JWs”) organisation both for: the acts of sexual abuse committed by one of its ministerial servants, Peter Stewart (“PS”), upon the Claimant (“the abuse claim”); and; the failures, on the part of its Elders, to safeguard the Claimant from acts of further sexual abuse, in circumstances where they knew PS was a paedophile, but viewed him as being repentant for his sins, thereby permitting him to remain in the congregation (“the safeguarding claim”). In…
News 7 Jul, 2016
Following on from the Wheelchair Challenge & Awareness Day, organised by Bolt Burdon Kemp Solicitors, with the able assistance of the Back-Up Trust and the Wheelchair Rugby Experience, the video footage of the day is now available for everyone to view. Outer Temple Chambers members, Harry Trusted, Eliot Woolf and Ben Bradley, who took part in the challenge, have learnt essential wheelchair skills and are now better informed on the accessibility challenges that many have to deal with every day. Eliot said: “I loved every single second of it – the programme should be enshrined in statute and made compulsory for all.” Click here to watch the video of the wheelchair event.
News 5 May, 2016
Three Outer Temple Barristers were invited to take part in a wheelchair awareness day, organised by Bolt Burdon Kemp Solicitors, with the able assistance of the Back-Up Trust and the Wheelchair Rugby Experience. Harry Trusted, Eliot Woolf and Ben Bradley spent the morning learning essential wheelchair skills with the Back-Up Trust. They were then sent off into the wilds of Islington in said chairs to (amongst other things) board a bus; buy a coffee; undertake a weekly shop; tackle cobbled streets and find a wheelchair accessible beauty salon. The afternoon was spent playing the brutal sport of wheelchair rugby, run by the inspirational athletes at the Wheelchair Rugby Experience. All three barristers have emerged relatively unscathed, but better informed and…
News 4 Apr, 2016
A v The Trustees of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society [2015] was the first historic sex abuse case to be brought against the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In an article that first appeared in the Personal Injury Law Journal (141, December 2015/January 2016 edition), James Counsell and Ben Bradley discuss the legal implications of the decision in the case, and some learning points arising from their involvement.
News 15 Dec, 2015
Gerard McDermott QC and Ben Bradley (instructed by Daniel Herman, Stewarts Law LLP, Leeds) successfully represented the claimant in a 2 day preliminary issue trial pertaining to the causation of a stroke following an RTA. Mr Young, a 77 year old man, was seriously injured following a head on collision whilst driving back from a funeral. As a consequence of the accident, he went on to suffer a heart attack and then, subsequently, a spinal haematoma which rendered him paraplegic. 22 days after the initial accident (and 18 days after the heart attack), Mr Young suffered a non-haemorrhagic stroke, causing left side paralysis. The issue in the preliminary trial related to whether the stroke had been caused by the road…
News 24 Aug, 2015
In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Globe has today imposed vicarious liability upon the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) organisation both for: the acts of sexual abuse committed by one of its ministerial servants, Peter Stewart (PS), upon the Claimant (“the abuse claim”); and; the failures, on the part of its Elders, to safeguard the Claimant from acts of further sexual abuse, in circumstances where they knew PS was a paedophile, but viewed him as being repentant for his sins, thereby permitting him to remain in the congregation (“the safeguarding claim”). James Counsell and Ben Bradley (instructed by Kathleen Hallisey of AO Advocates) acted for the Claimant, in what is the first case of this nature to be brought against the JWs.…
News 18 Jun, 2015
Solicitors and counsel acting for members of the military know that such claims carry their own distinct risks and thus cannot be viewed as “stereotypical” employers’ liability-type claims. In Broni, Woof and Barbour v Ministry of Defence [2015] EWHC 66 (QB), Supperstone J has confirmed that military claims do not fall within the auspices of the CPR Fixed Uplift regime as defined at Part 45 Section IV (which fixes uplift for employers liability claims at prescribed levels). In holding that members of the military were not engaged in a contract of service, it followed that they did not fall within the definition of an employee as defined by Employers Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 (“the 1969 Act”). In these circumstances,…
News 28 Jan, 2015
Harry Trusted and Ben Bradley have obtained an award of c.£1.5m for a former Sergeant Major in the Army Air Corps (net of an agreed liability deduction of 37%; equating to c.£2.4m gross). On 13 November 2006, the Claimant went into the Defendant’s hospital with the intention of ameliorating his loud snoring. The operation made no difference to that condition and later investigations appear to establish that it could not have achieved that purpose in any event. However, the Claimant did go on to suffer a significant reactive arthritis arising out of an alleged post-operative infection. Thereafter, he developed symptoms of chronic pain which left him catastrophically injured. The Defendant challenged expert assertions regarding a pessimistic prognosis, with some of…
News 15 Dec, 2014
