Doughty Street Chambers offers a comprehensive clinical negligence, medical law and personal injury service, as well as being well known for having brought many of the high profile group actions and product liability cases of recent years.

In keeping with our multi-disciplinary approach to casework, where required we can also field experts with extensive experience of human rights law, international claims, public law, mental health, Court of Protection "best interests" and community care issues.

Client care lies at the heart of the team’s approach to personal injury and clinical negligence work. Particular emphasis is placed on dealing sensitively and tactfully with clients and making complex litigation readily understandable. We are also conscious of the need to be readily available to clients during fast moving litigation and we have accessible facilities for conferences both at our buildings and through secure online portals.

Our clinical negligence barristers offer a broad range of experience covering a wide spectrum of cases from cerebral palsy to misdiagnosis, anaesthetic awareness, surgical errors and fatal accidents. There is also specific expertise within the team in hospital acquired infection.

Our senior and junior personal injury barristers work on matters that range from catastrophic and spinal injuries to fast track personal injury work. A number of tenants also offer considerable experience in employment related personal injury, including accidents at work, industrial disease and workplace fatalities.

We also have a wealth of experience in sexual and physical abuse claims with many members being involved in IICSA.  Members of the team have represented abuse victims, including victims of torture and unlawful detention.

We offer substantial experience in advocacy at Public Inquiries and Inquests as well as in related judicial review hearings. Members of the team have appeared before the Ashworth Inquiry, the BSE Inquiry, the Porton Down Inquest, the Hillsborough Inquests, and we represent bereaved relatives at many inquests each year.

A considerable amount of legal negligence work arising out of lost or mishandled personal injury and clinical negligence claims and healthcare professional conduct and regulatory work is also undertaken.

Several of our barristers have also edited or contributed chapters to practitioner textbooks on personal injury law, clinical negligence, professional negligence and group actions.

Our barristers are also regular contributors to industry journals, on the speaking platform at industry conferences and we provide bespoke training and roundtable discussions for our instructing solicitors and other clients on litigation strategies.

For more information please contact our practice managers via the details which appear to the right.

Product Liability and Group Actions

In the field of product liability and group actions Doughty Street Chambers members have been involved in many of the high profile group actions in recent years for claimants and the team includes practitioners from all levels in Chambers.

Group litigation work stretches across many different areas of law, including product liability, domestic and private international law and human rights law. Members of Chambers have been instructed in leading cases including:

International law and institutional abuse: Ivory Coast toxic dumping, Gulf War Syndrome, South African mining claims, Bangladesh water poisoning litigation, Porton Down, Mau Mau litigation and Kenyan Rape and Masai claims against the Ministry of Defence,  North West Homes litigation and phone hacking litigation.

Healthcare cases include Tobacco, Fetal Anti-Convulsant litigation, MMR II, Northwick Park, Haemophilia, Norplant, Hepatitis C, Oral Contraceptive Pill, CJD, BSE, Myodil, Tobacco, Haemophilia litigation, Alder Hey, Seroxat, Sabril, Nationwide Organ Retention Litigation, Trossel and the Depuy Pinnacle Cup litigation and 3M hip prosthesis litigation.

The team has particular strength in healthcare product liability and defective products cases. A number of our barristers have been heavily involved in cases alleging defective hip products and breast implants, as well as individual cases arising from defective surgical blankets, surgical gloves, surgical pins and plates, and surgical monitors.

Individual practitioners write and lecture on topics concerning product liability and group actions. Robin Oppenheim wrote the section on multi-party actions in Bullen, Leake and Jacob, Sweet and Maxwell, 2012.

For more information on our clinical negligence barristers, personal injury barristers, or our product liability and group actions barristers, please contact our practice managers on 020 7400 9050.