Practice Overview

With many years of experience in both professional negligence and personal injury litigation, Sarah has specialised in disputes involving health professionals or complex medical issues since taking Silk in 2008. She is recognised as a leading Silk in clinical negligence.

Chambers UK 2017 ranks Sarah as a Band 1 Silk in clinical negligence, describing her as “very bright, incredibly thorough and good company”, while she is described in Legal 500 2016 as “the best silk for defendant clinical negligence”. There is particular praise for her “really good manner with clients and witnesses” and her ability to do “an incredibly thorough job.” Sarah has a reputation as “an asset to any team” who “never fails to impress in terms of her medical knowledge”: with “incisive analysis and grasp of detail”, she “quickly identifies the key issues and gets to the point quickly” and has “excellent judgment”. Sarah is known for her “excellent grasp of medicine” and as “a fearsome negotiator at round table meetings, thanks to her robust and straightforward approach” and solicitors also value her “terrific” conference skills (Chambers UK).

Sarah acts for both claimants and defendants in clinical negligence claims against hospital trusts and health authorities, GPs and private providers, as well as members of the ancillary professions such as out-of-hours providers and physiotherapists. She is regularly instructed on behalf of the NHSLA. In Silk, her practice has focussed on claims arising out of obstetric and neonatal mis-management, claims for wrongful birth, spinal surgery, brain surgery, delayed diagnosis of infection (meningitis, vasculitis etc) and management of suicidal patients.

Recent cases include:

X v an NHS Trust [2016]
Representing defendant in defending claim for alleged negligence in conduct of spinal operation
A v University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust [2015] EWHC 366 (QB)
Assessment of damages in claim for cerebral palsy sustained at birth
S v an NHS Trust [2015]
Defending claim for alleged delay in delivery of second twin
P v an NHS Trust [2015]
Claim for damages for tetraplegia due to spinal cord ischaemia. Represented the defendant which admitted misinterpretation of MRI scans but disputed causation, alleging claimant’s paralysis would have been inevitable, even with earlier diagnosis of spinal cord ischaemia. Complex medical issues. Claimant discontinued shortly before trial
Z v an NHS Trust
Defending claim for alleged failure by doctor in Emergency Department to admit patient with chronic condition because of intercurrent illness.

Sarah has long experience of conducting personal injury claims and is mainly instructed in claims involving complex medical issues such as potential third party claims against medical providers or complex issues of medical causation.

Examples include whether death following bariatric surgery could be attributed to an earlier fall on a defective pavement; claim arising out of carbon monoxide poisoning by a defective gas fire; and claim for brain damage by infant following premature delivery after mother fell on defective pavement.

Sarah has significant experience of settling counter-schedules and conducting settlement meetings in maximum severity claims.

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