Barrister: Andrew Ritchie QC

Clinical Negligence:

• AM v (1) Dr Shah (2) Medway Community Healthcare (3) Medway NHS Foundation Trust [2018]: Representing a 65-year-old retired IT consultant in a delayed diagnosis of cervical spine abscess. The Foundation admitted breach of duty and a settlement was reached. Read more here.
• P v Medway [2015]: Representing a man in his late 50s with bladder cancer who whilst receiving a replacement bladder suffered hemiplegia due to spinal haematoma caused by failed epidural injections for anaesthesia and inadequate onward surveillance post operatively. P ran an investment brokerage raising finance for hedge funds. Loss of opportunity to make future profits was in issue. Settled for £1.7 million plus PPOS for care.
• W v Royal Surrey NHST [2013]: Representing a child born with spastic cerebral palsy due to hypoxia, the injury being caused in part by the hospital’s failure to carry out a caesarean section. Liability settled at 70%.
• B v St Barts and the Royal London [2013]: Representing a nurse who suffered congenital malrotation of the gut and underwent an operation to resolve it which was carried out negligently leading to removal of the whole of her gut and reduced her life expectation. Settled for a large sum.

Cerebral Palsy Claims

• Potter v South Tees Hospitals NHST [2012]: Representing the claimant who suffered septicaemia due to negligent lack of prophylactic antibiotics during a kidney operation. Liability eventually conceded and damages settled at £1 million.
• W v South Yorkshire HA [2012]: Sheffield, acting for a child who suffered athetoid cerebral palsy due to negligence intubation during resuscitation after birth. Approved award: £2 million plus PPOS of £112,400 pa for life.
• Morris v Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust [2007] Cardiff DR: Lawtel, Hypoxia at birth, cerebral palsy, settlement, Lump Sum value £3 million, periodical payments for lost earnings £15,000 pa to age 70, stepped periodical payments for care £70,000 pa for life (index linked to the ASHE).
• Raichura v Leicestershire HA [2003] Lawtel, Leicestershire District Registry (HHJ Hall QC): The claimant, a 23-year-old man, received a "bottom-up settlement" or periodic payments settlement (with an old style lump sum value of £2,920,000) for the severe hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage sustained during his birth in November 1979. Cerebral palsy and tetraplegia, severe cognitive impairment, wholly dependent on others for his care and daily needs.

Failure To Diagnose Claims

• C v UCL [2017] Representing a panel beater who suffered minor spinal cord injury due to a missed diagnosis. Settled for a lump sum of £870,000.
• H v Imperial College Hospital [2017] Representing a 60 year old man with pre-existing Ankylosing Spondylitis who suffered a missed diagnosis of spinal haematoma and increased spinal chord symptoms as a result. Settled for £1.5 million lump sum.
• A v Medway [2016] representing a mid-60s retired mill manager who Medway Hospital failed to diagnose as having a cervical spine fracture after a fall, settled for £1.5 million plus PPOS of £215,000 pa.
• P v Medway [2015] representing a man in his late 50s with bladder cancer who whilst receiving a replacement bladder suffered hemiplegia due to spinal haematoma caused by failed epidural injections for anaesthesia and inadequate onward surveillance post operatively. P ran an investment brokerage raising finance for hedge funds. Loss of opportunity to make future profits was in issue. Settled for £1.7 million plus PPOS for care.
• Potter v South Tees Hospitals NHST [2012]: Representing the claimant who suffered septicemia due to negligent lack of prophylactic antibiotics during a kidney operation. Liability eventually conceded and damages settled at £1 million.
• Lanham v Mid Essex NHST & others [2012]: Representing a 42 years old man who suffered a stroke due to negligent failure to treat TIAs (transient ischaemic events). Settled for £1 million.
• Welsh v Plymouth Hospitals NHST [2011]: Failure to diagnose benign brain tumour leading to delayed brain operation and severe brain damage. Complicated expert evidence on breach and causation of tumour and on prospects of improved result with earlier surgery. Settled at £500,000.
• Deneven v Leeds Hospitals [2010]: Leeds DR, Representing child blinded by the hospital's failure to treat eye infection after birth. Approved award £1,000,000.
• Bingham v Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospitals [2010]: Representing the Claimant who suffered clinical negligence when the hospital failed to diagnose a prolapsed disc in his neck which caused cauda equina syndrome and left hemi-plegia (paralysis). Multiple medical experts on spinal compression. Spinal surgery and the prospect of a better outcome from earlier surgery. Settled for £225,000.

MIB Claims:

MIB Uninsured Driver Claims

• Lewington v MIB [2017] EWHC 2848, Andrew won the appeal agaisnt the MIB arbitrator's decicion. This case effectively destroyed the "off road vehicle" defence run by insurers and the MIB for decades to avoid paying compensation to the innocent victims of road accidents just because the offending driver was in an off road vehicle.
• Ademneskell v Bryan & MIB [2011]: The claimant was a pedestrian knocked down by an uninsured driver on an off road style trail bike. The MIB defended on the basis that as a matter of interpretation of the Road Traffic Act 1988 no insurance was required for off road trail bike. Hence they were not liable to compensate. Complicated European Law aspects and interpretation of statute. Case of general public importance. Case settled after the Secretary of Sate was joined to the action and the expert evidence was served.
• Carswell v Sec of State & MIB [2010] EWHC 3230 (QB): Representing a widow asserting that the Untraced Drivers Agreement 2003 was drafted in breach of European Law because it fails to provide adequately for the claimants legal costs.
• X v MIB [2009]: Representing brain injured child. Settled for £1.3 million plus PPOS of £32,000 rising to £70,000 for care and case management.
• Phillips v Rafiq & Motor Insurers Bureau [2007] EWCA Civ 74: Times, February 21, 2007. Fatal accident claim, interpretation of the Uninsured Drivers Agreement 1999 - representing the successful widow of the deceased could claim damages from the MIB despite her husband knowing that the driver was uninsured.

MIB Untraced Drivers Appeals / Arbitrations

• A v MIB [2012]: Appeal to the arbitrator against an award of £1,900,000 made by the MIB in a hit and run case under the Untraced Drivers Agreement 1996. The arbitrator Frank Burton QC, increased the award to £2,600,000.
• Andrews v MIB [2012] (Mr Justice Stuart-Smith QC): On Lawtel. Appeal to an arbitrator against the MIB refusal to make any award to a paraplegic man under the Untraced Drivers Agreement 2003. 3 day hearing. Award: the MIB were held liable and ordered to pay the costs in full, not as limited by the Untraced Drivers Agreemetn 2003..

PI Claims:

Brain Damage Claims

• X v Y [2012]: Approved by Eady J, Representing a 16 year old man who suffered severe brain damage in a road traffic accident. Liability admitted, quantum settled at £2.2 million lump sum plus PPOS of £71,000 pa increasing by RPI.
• Habtu v Mckenzie & MIB [2012]: The Claimant who Andrew represented was injured in a road traffic accident by an uninsured driver. He suffered severe brain injuries, hip fractures and needed constant care and support with a case manager. Case settled for £1 million plus periodical payments of £72,500 per annum for life.
• Morby v Richards [2006]: Birmingham District Registry. For the successful Claimant. £1,012,000 in damages for the Claimant who suffered a severe brain injury in a road traffic accident.
• Russell v Smith [2003] QBD: HH Judge Rich QC. 30/7/2003 Lawtel, For the Claimant. Liability trial. Child claimant with brain injury after road traffic accident on bike, contributory negligence.

Mesothelioma Claims

• Streets v Esso [2009] QBD: Lawtel, £315,000 Fatal Accidents Act award for widow of mesothelioma victim.
• Purdue v Port Line [2008] QBD: Master Whitaker, living mesthelioma sufferer, summary judgment obtained against "bluewater" shipowners, on the basis that they had land based shipwrights. Date of knowledge 1955 of dangers from asbestos.

Amputation Injuries

• B v Wigan [2017] Representing an male off licence owner in his 50s injured on a road traffic accident who suffered a below the knee amputation. Settled for £2 million.
• Vaghji v MarkerStudy [2012]: Representing a one legged man who worked as a bus driver who lost his other leg in a road traffic accident. Recovering £1,300,000 in damages.
• Winters v Haq [2007] Leicester QBD: Acting for the successful Claimant, above the knee amputation in RTA, prosthetic leg, settlement of £700,000. Andrew Ritchie QC.

Multiple Injuries Claims

• Morjaria v Samwell [2009]: Mediated settlement. Representing successful Claimant, Damages £2 million, for a Cambridge student who was run over by a lorry. Loss of career in investment banking.
• Corr v IBC [2008] UKHL 13: Representing the successful Claimant in her Fatal Accident Act claim arising from the suicide of her husband caused by the Defendant’s negligence 6 years earlier. Employers liability, kind of harm, forseeability and causation.
• Horch v Thames Trains [2007] QBD: For the successful Claimant. Damages £1.5 million. Horrific burns & PTSD sustained in the Paddington Rail crash.
• Smee v Adaye [1999] March, QBD, HHJ Steele: Sitting as deputy, Kemp B2-011/1 & confirmed C.A 19.04.2000 Lawtel C7400040. For the Claimant, award £1.1 million, RTA, hip and leg injury, pension loss and future risk of retirement.

Product Liability Claims

• Thomas v Merck Sharpe & Dohme, 1.12.2008, HHJ O'Brien: Representing the Claimant who suffered ulcerative colitis whilst taking part in a drugs trial of Rofecoxib a Vioxx derivative. First successful judgment for Claimants on this drug.

Road Traffic Act Claims:

• X v Y [2017] Representing a 3 times convicted heroine dealer who was injured in a road traffic accident and suffered paraplegia. Settled before action for £3.6 million lump sum.
• YS v X [2017] EWHC Whipple J, approved settlement for a 33 year old woman injured in a road traffic accident which left her in a minimally conscious state. Damages agreed at a lump sum of £750,000 with PPOs for life of US$150,000 index linked to USA carers index.
• Miller v QBE [2006] EWHC 1529: Statutory interpretation of the Road Traffic Act 1988 S.145 - the Claimant police officer was not an employee of the insured hence able to claim compensation from the insurer under S.151 for his serious injuries when a criminal ran him down in a police car.

Spinal Injury Claims

• Clough v First Choice [2006] EWCA Civ 15, PIQR P22: For the Claimant, young man made paraplegic after swimming pool accident abroad.
• Oldham v Robinson [2004]: Settlement 9/8/2004. Lawtel. For the claimant, a 33-year-old man, who received £935,000 for the spinal injuries sustained in a road traffic accident in November 1998. Paraplegia and had no movement or feeling in his legs and no control over his bowel or bladder. Much reduced life expectancy.

Employers Liability Claims

• Wallis v Balfour Beatty [2003] EWCA Civ 72: Employers liability, breach of Workplace Regulations, causation. For the Claimant.
• Stiles v Thames Trains [2003] QBD: Master Whittaker, settlement. For the Claimant. Recovering £750,000 for a victim of the Paddington Train Disaster who suffered severe burns and PTSD.
• Wells v Watford NHS Trust [2000] April QBD: Lawtel L.R., N. Baker Q.C. sitting as deputy, Lawtel C7400041 For the Claimant. Liability trial, manual handling in the delivery suite in NHS hospitals, finding MHOR applies to delivery suites.
• The needlestick doctor [1998]: August, settled. For Claimant, PTSD, phobia of needles after needlestick injury. Loss of career. Settled for £450,000.
• Various v Tesco [1997] QBD: Settled. For Claimants, 40+ RSI cases against Tesco for checkout cashiers. Lead cases packaged for trial in High Court then all settled.

Civil Procedure Issues

• Thornhill v Bagas [2017] HHJ Robinson sitting as a deputy High Court Judge, awarding judgment for the Claimant in a liability only trial, the judge awarded penalty interest on costs against the Defendant when the Claimant beat his own 99% part 36 offer on liability.
• Samson v Ali [2012] EWHC 4146 (QB) Stadlen J. The first consideration and approval by the High Court of claimant’s obtaining counter surveillance evidence undermining insurance company surveillance evidence which was suspect.
• Samson v Ali [2012] EWHC 4146: Representing the Claimant who was served with surveillance evidence from the Defendant's insurer which appeared to have been selectively edited, speeded up and biased. Judgment obtained at a contested preliminary hearing allowing the Claimant to answer the Video evidence with her own counter surveillance expert's evidence which undermined the Defendant's evidence.
• Bajwa v British Airways Plc [1999] EWCA Civ 1519: Costs: Calderbank Offers. The value of an offer for the purpose of costs under CPR 44 is the balance between the sum offered less the value of deducted benefits. The CA will only interfere with a judge's discretion to order costs if he is plainly wrong or has erred in principle.

Inquests:

Croydon Tram Crash

Andrew is representing the families of some of those killed iin the Croydon tram crash at the Inquest.

Inquest Into the terrorist attack at Sousse, Tunisia 2017

Andrew Ritchie QC represented the families of 22 UK citizens murdered at the RIU Imperial Marhaba Hotel, Sousse, Tunisia during the 5 week inquest in the High Court in January / February 2017.

Press coverage includes:

• Daily Mail
• Express
• LBC
• Sky News
• The Guardian
• TTG
• Wimbledon Guardian

Inquest into the terrorist attack at In Amenas, Algeria 2015

Andrew Ritchie QC represented the family of Carlos Estrada before HM Assistant Coroner Nicholas Hillyard QC at the Inquest into the deaths at the BP gas facility at In Amenas in Algeria caused by a terrorist attack carried out by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb under the leadership of a man known as "Mokhtar Belmokhtar" and another known as "Lamine Bouchneb". Andrew led the questions posed by the relatvies of the deceased.

The verdict delivered in January 2015 contained many findings of fact about inadequate risk assessment, inadequate security and the total lack of armed guards at the gates to the accommodation facility.