Personal Injury

Specialist legal advice in all aspects of personal injury law

Our personal injury team provides advice across all of the firm's sectors of focus and works alongside our casualty and emergency response team to provide unrivalled experience in dealing with accidents in core sectors including energy, transport, ports and terminals and aviation.

What we do in Personal Injury

We have a strong Personal Injury practice that has expanded significantly over the past five years. The practice developed as a result of our renowned expertise in shipping and the injuries suffered by crew, passengers and stevedores. Whilst this still remains at the core of our practice, we have also built up a strong reputation in dealing with accidents across many of our other core sectors.

The team has handled an unparalleled variety of instructions from high-profile clients across marine and non-marine sectors, including underwriters and their insureds, ship owners and their agents, airlines, railway companies, cruise and ferry operators, and shore-based logistics providers, as well as oil and gas companies.

Our team's in-depth knowledge in their field ensures they are able to deal with all aspect of an accident. Our particular expertise includes:

• Accidents at sea
• The impact of piracy/hijackings on crews
• Injuries sustained in the energy industry
• Injuries sustained when transporting or travelling
• Claims arising out of port work
• Claims arising out of aviation-related work
• Occupational disease
• Accident investigation
• Assessment of liability
• Assessment of quantum

At all times our aim is to protect our clients' interests by reacting quickly to accidents and assembling a team promptly to handle the variety of issues which can arise.

Our experience in Personal Injury

We continue to be instructed by the most high-profile clients in large and complex personal injury cases. We provide below some examples of our work in this area:

• Rig Collapse: we were instructed on a rig collapse involving the fatality of a crane operator. Our role initially included investigating the matter and taking witness evidence. We assisted Owners further by liaising with the relevant health and safety authorities and subsequently we dealt with the claims arising from the incident, including a separate accident which was triggered by the rig collapse. In that instance we advised tug owners as to their liabilities when personal injury claims were brought by three crew who sustained injuries in a collision with a vessel which was responding to the initial incident.

• Catastrophic rig helicopter crash: we advised on a case for one of the largest global ship/rig owners in a catastrophic incident involving a helicopter crash on one of its rigs in the Middle East, which claimed the lives of seven helicopter crew and passengers. We immediately provided casualty assistance to investigate and advise on the circumstances leading up to the helicopter crash and the systems in place on the rig for such incidents. The strength of our team working on this case, in terms of those with the relevant experience being immediately available to travel, assisted our clients to deal with the relevant authorities and the families of the deceased. The subsequent negotiating skills of the team were used in advising the clients on both liability and quantum. In this matter the team also advised on post-traumatic stress of those who witnessed the incident and the aftermath.
• Passenger Ferry Incidents: we are frequently instructed to provide advice following injuries sustained on board passenger ferries by both crew and passengers. This includes many incidents where passengers are injured whilst boarding vessels and involves the initial investigations, discussing evidence with Owners and advising on liability and quantum. We have also advised Owners on a shore incident, involving a limb-loss injury where a child was playing on the chains of a chain-ferry as it was approaching its destination. Given that the matter involved a traumatic amputation injury to a child, our team sensitively advised Owners on the liability and limitation positions, liaised with the MAIB and provided PR assistance. We have since advised on the specialist medical evidence to establish the child's rehabilitation requirements in which the team's medical expertise has been paramount.
• Fatality Claims: we often advise in cases where there have been fatalities. For example we have acted for ship owners through their P&I Club in a case where a fire in a fish factory off Chile claimed the lives of 52 people on board. The case highlighted the key to early investigation with a team member travelling to Chile to investigate. The firm's offices in the Far East were also utilised in settling the death claims, demonstrating the effectiveness of the firm's international network.