Nick Brown

Nick Brown specialises in clinical negligence, legal negligence, personal injury, civil actions against the police and inquests.

Nick Brown undertakes the full range of clinical negligence work ranging from obstetric and neonatal management to cardiac surgery, paediatric orthopaedics, life threatening wound infections, life threatening pneumonia, drug induced psychosis, dysthyroid eye disease, nephrology and diving medicine. He has a particular interest in brain injury and severe psychiatric injury. He has experience of disciplinary cases in the medical field and has acted in a number of claims on non-consent to medical treatment.

Nick Brown was one of the Claimants' nominated counsel in the Hepatitis litigation and he is currently one of the counsel advising the Porton Down Veterans in relation to their group action arising out of the experiments which were carried out at Porton Down between the 1940's and the 1980's.

Much of Nick Brown's legal negligence work arises out of lost or mishandled personal injury actions and clinical negligence cases. He was junior counsel in Masterman-Lister v Brutton & Co.; Masterman-Lister v Jewell Anor. [2002] EWHC 417 (QB); [2002] EWCA Civ 1889, the first appellate authority for the test of mental capacity under the 1983 Act and the rules of court in this country. His other legal negligence work includes mishandled criminal litigation and lost or mishandled civil actions against the police. He was junior counsel in McLoughlin v Grovers [2002] PNLR 21; [2005] EWCH 1741; [5/7/2006] CA.

Nick Brown does complex personal injury cases involving fatal accidents, severe multiple injuries, brain injuries, epilepsy, occupational induced asbestosis, severe psychiatric injuries, severe back injuries, burns, fibromyalgia, severe leg injuries including below knee amputation, eye injuries, and work related stress induced psychiatric disorders and heart conditions.

Nick Brown has regularly acted for claimants in civil actions against the police. His clients have included claimants wrongfully charged with murder, kidnapping and rape and claimants who have suffered severe psychiatric injuries.

Nick Brown often represents families at inquests. He acted for the Maddison family both at the Porton Down inquest arising out of the death of a serviceman in an experiment involving the application of sarin nerve gas by government scientists in 1953 and the Ministry of Defence's subsequent unsuccessful attempt to overturn the jury's verdict of unlawful killing by way of judicial review. The inquest into Mr Maddison's death was the first occasion when the test of lawfulness for non-therapeutic human experimentation has been considered in this country. Nick Brown has considerable experience of inquests into deaths in custody. He recently acted for the family of Anne Marie Bates following her death at HMP Brockhill in 2001.

Before coming to the bar, Nick Brown worked for a firm of solicitors. He spent six months working on the 1987 Birmingham Six Appeal. Since then, he has represented a number of victims of miscarriages of justice in this country and abroad. For three years between 2001 and 2004, he was one of the attorneys of record of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prominent African American political activist, journalist and writer, who is on death row in Pennsylvania. He was admitted pro hac vic to the state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under the auspices of the Britain & Ireland Human Rights Centre, Nick Brown has regularly produced briefings and draft amendments for MPs and others on forthcoming criminal justice, criminal appeals, policing and counter-terrorist legislation over the years.

Year of Call

1989

Education

BA Law First Class, Cambridge

Email Address

n.brown@doughtystreet.co.uk

Specialist Teams

Nick Brown is a member of the following specialist law teams:

• Actions Against the police
• Human Rights
• Medical Law & Personal Injury Team
• Public and Administrative Law