Fiona joined Fletchers in 2015 and has over 15 years of experience in personal injury and medical negligence claims. As a team leader, she is dedicated to supporting and advising her team and the clients she acts for.

Notable Settled Cases

Secured £12,500 in compensation for a 77-year-old man who experienced three unnecessary cycles of chemotherapy when a hospital failed to appropriately diagnose a return of prostate cancer.

Iain is a senior solicitor and team leader, managing a team of lawyers and handling his own cases. He and his team specialise in catastrophic clinical negligence cases and he has recovered tens of millions of pounds in compensation for clients.  

Iain is predominantly instructed in claims exceeding £1million, usually in relation to brain injury, spinal cord injury and amputations. He practices almost exclusively in the High Court and is a solicitor-advocate. Iain has obtained many multi-million-pound settlements, either by way of a lump sum and/or annual payments. He consistently achieves significant settlements on exceptionally complex claims.     

Highlights of recently settled cases  

JH v Dr D – 2021 – £1,625,000.00 for a 61-year-old female who suffered a spinal stroke during back surgery in 2016 when her blood pressure was allowed to remain too low during the operation. Liability was disputed in full in an extremely complex case and the matter settled 2 weeks before a 5-day liability Trial was due to begin. 

SF v Barnsley Hospital – 2021 – £600,000.00 for a 67-year-old female for the hip and sciatic nerve injuries that she sustained following a fall when recovering from a hip replacement procedure in January 2015. She suffered an acetabular fracture, sciatic nerve injury and foot drop. 

BXF v Dartford Hospital – 2020 – £1,075,000.00 for a 16-year-old boy, for the Volkmann’s ischaemic contracture he suffered in the left arm and hand after receiving negligent medical treatment 10 years before the initial instructions were received. He suffered pain in the arm, had limited functional use and a wasted appearance of the hand. 

RL v County Durham NHS – 2020 – £1,000,000.00 for a 27-year-old female who suffered liver cirrhosis following a delay of two years in the identification of a gene mutation and polycythemia vera disorder. She developed Budd-Chari syndrome, her liver was permanently damaged, and her life expectancy was reduced by approximately 10 years. 

DB v WSH NHS – 2019 – £1,000,000.00 for a 49-year-old male, requiring an above knee amputation to the right leg after presenting at hospital with acute limb ischaemia in May 2014. Liability was disputed.  

BM v County Durham NHS – 2019 – £1,275,000.00 for a 65-year-old female for negligent knee replacement surgery resulting in an above knee amputation.  

RCH v United Lincolnshire NHS – 2019 – £570,000.00 for the estate of a deceased man following his avoidable death from a treatable heart condition.  

MS v CB – 2019 – £420,000.00 for a 58-year-old female for the delay in diagnosing and treating a back injury she suffered following an operation in March 2015. She suffered foot drop and ongoing pain. 

JXP (a protected party) – 2018 – £9,862,000.00 for a 44-year-old female who suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage following a delay in providing surgical treatment of a brain aneurysm before its rupture. 

DXW v BTH NHS – 2018 – £7,250,000.00 for a 20-year-old male rendered paraplegic at T3 level following failures in the A&E department to properly immobilise an unstable thoracic fracture.  

RXW v X, Y & Z – 2018 – £2,500,000.00 for a 46-year-old male that suffered a left sided stroke causing significant neurological disability following alleged failure to correctly diagnose and treat a number of TIAs. Liability was denied by 3 Defendants.  

M v Essex NHS – 2018 – £342,000.00 for a 44-year-old female for alleged failures to prevent exacerbated cauda equina syndrome. Liability was denied. 

Testimonials 

Previous Legal 500 testimonials include:  

“Pragmatic and knowledgeable… a solid, safe pair of hands… a strong negotiator”. 

Client feedback: 

“Iain and Nina have been wonderful. The whole team from start to finish have given me a first-class service. I have already recommended them to others, and I will continue to do so.” 

“I can’t thank you enough for what you have done for me and my family. Your knowledge and skill is remarkable but your care and kindness means so much to me. I can remember my first meeting with Iain seems such a long time ago, but your compassion has never altered. You are all very special people. Please keep in touch, you have become more like family than solicitors.” 

Accreditations  

• Association of Personal Injury Lawyers – Accredited Senior Litigator 
• Member of the Law Society’s specialist Clinical Negligence Panel Accreditation scheme 
• Chambers and Partners ranked solicitor, Band 2, Liverpool & surrounds
• Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Rights of Audience civil proceedings) 
• Solicitor (Grade A) 

Francesca Paul is an Associate, Senior Solicitor and Team Leader within the Clinical Negligence Department.  She is one of the driving Solicitors in the Group Litigation Team dealing with this niche and specialist area of work that Fletchers undertakes.   

Francesca previously worked in Nottingham, dealing with Group Action work.  She now works at Fletchers, bringing with her those years of experience heading up a team of 10 people.  Francesca is involved in the early identification of potential new Group Litigation Work and analyses information from the collective pool of new enquiries into the business, of which there are hundreds per week looking for hot spots or recurrent issues which might suggest a potential pool of Claimants.   

One of the highlights for Francesca and her team is that they have successfully recovered over a million pounds in compensation for clients who have received treatment from a single orthopaedic surgeon who was operating in the Colchester area.  Her role requires a specific set of skills, patience and a forensic approach to detail whilst being able to see the wider picture.   

Francesca has previously acted for a claimant in a case that reached the Supreme Court in the case of NA v Nottinghamshire County Council. 

Michael has worked in the clinical negligence field since 2008. Prior to joining our legal team, he worked for the NHS in Northern Ireland; dealing with high value and complex cases, as well as public enquiries and coroner’s court investigations.

Michael is a well-respected lawyer with decades of legal experience. He thrives when investigating and winning medical negligence claims, dealing with a very diverse range of injuries. From orthopaedic injuries, ophthalmic injuries, surgical and organ injuries; to dental injuries and psychiatric claims – Michael has experience in them all.

Passionate about client care, Michael is focused on securing the best results for his clients.

Notable Cases

G W -v- Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust – Acting for the family of a man who passed away during negligent surgery, Michael secured £80,000 for his wife.

L S -v- Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – Michael managed to prove that the Defendant did not provide a ‘call bell’ to allow the client to call for assistance. We obtained telephone records to show that the client had to call the hospital from her bed; leading to a settlement in this case of negligent iron infusion.

Inquiry into Hyponatremia Related Deaths – Michael was involved with this Public Inquiry in Northern Ireland, assisting with the investigation. The Inquiry concluded with 96 recommendations for endemic changes, as well as disciplinary actions.

Client feedback

“Very helpful and professional. Thank you for everything.”

“Michael has been fantastic throughout. I really can’t fault anything.”

“If I could have given more than 10 out of 10, I most certainly would have. Excellent customer service. Kind, friendly and very, very professional. Many, many thanks.”

Publications & Accreditations

The red flag symptoms of sepsis in both adults and children

Bowel cancer: How often do you need to poo? ‘Needing’ to poo more is a red flag symptom

Red flags of blood cancer that hits 14,000 people a year