News & Events
News & Events
The Court of Appeal has handed down judgment in an important appeal in the case of FXF v (1) English Karate Federation Ltd, (2) David Jonathan Donovan, in which James Counsell KC and Olinga Tahzib act for the Claimant James and Olinga act for a Claimant (referred to as ‘FXF’ to protect her anonymity) – a highly successful karate athlete – who brings a claim for personal injury arising out of sexual abuse by her karate coach between 2008 and 2014. The Claimant claims that the two Defendants are vicariously liable for the abuse she suffered and directly liable for failing to discharge their own duty of care towards her. On 13 July 2023, James and Olinga appeared for the…
News 26 Jul, 2023
Four Claimants, all represented by James Counsell KC and Benjamin Bradley, have settled their claims for damages against Chelsea Football Club for undisclosed six figure sums in abuse proceedings. The Claimants settled their claims for damages against Chelsea Football Club for undisclosed six figure sums on 7th February at a pre-trial review hearing. The claims, which were listed for a six week trial, involving 62 witnesses, in four weeks’ time alleged that two former employees, Graham Rix, the former England international footballer, and Gwyn Williams, whilst working for the club’s youth training programme in the 1990s, racially abused these four young black footballers when they were aged between 14 and 18. At a court hearing in May 2021, the High…
News 8 Feb, 2022
“Football club vicariously liable for historical sex abuse but a girls’ boarding school is not.” LexisNexis PSL invited James Counsell QC to analyse his recent high profile sexual abuse cases. Following on from the judgment in BXB v Watch Tower (handed down on 30 January) come two more historical abuse judgments in claims brought against institutions—one against Blackpool Football Club and the other against a girls’ boarding school. Both claims raised very similar issues and were tried by the same Judge (Griffiths J) but they ended with diametrically opposite results. James Counsell QC acted for the claimants in all three cases and examined their implications for other cases in the pipeline, for Lexis Nexis PSL. Excerpt from article DSN v…
External Publications 30 Mar, 2020
Hard on the heels of the indemnity costs order made against Blackpool FC, comes a second judgment against Jehovah’s Witnesses relating to sexual abuse offences. James Counsell QC has secured yet another judgment on Monday 23 March (BXB v Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society of Pennsylvania and Another [2020] EWHC 656, LTL 24/3/2020 : [2020] 3 WLUK 321) just three days after he obtained judgment against Blackpool FC where the Defendant, this time the Jehovah’s Witnesses, refused to negotiate in the face of repeated efforts by the Claimant’s solicitors to engage them in settlement negotiations. Jehovah’s Witnesses Liable for Rape Chamberlain J had previously given judgment against the organisation on 30 January 2020 after he had found the organisation…
News 24 Mar, 2020
