Rachel has a broad health and human rights practice and accepts instructions across the full breadth of personal injury, clinical negligence, the Court of Protection, inquests and inquiries, actions against the police, and public law. Rachel’s work focuses on representing vulnerable individuals seeking redress against the state and private organisations in healthcare related matters.
Rachel is able to bring her expertise in personal injury and clinical negligence cases to the rest of her practice, especially in actions against the police and public authorities. Her work often involves the intersection between issues of negligence and breaches of the Human Rights Act. She has experience of working in Group Litigation matters and is currently instructed in the Hillsborough civil claims for misfeasance.
Rachel regularly acts for families in a wide range of inquests and is particularly experienced in cases involving community care, medical treatment and mental health considerations, often where Article 2 ECHR is engaged as a result of the deceased being in custody or detained under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Rachel is currently instructed on behalf of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru in the UK Covid 19 Public Inquiry.
Prior to commencing pupillage, Rachel was a paralegal to a senior junior barrister at a leading personal injury chambers in London, specialising in complex catastrophic personal injury and clinical negligence work. In this role, Rachel worked on multi-track litigation with a particular focus on cases involving traumatic brain injuries. As such, she gained experience working on a wide variety of work, including preparing Schedules of Losses for high value cases. She is able to bring this experience to her current work and is regularly instructed in both fast track and multi-track cases across a full breadth of personal injury and clinical negligence work.
Before this, Rachel worked as a Public Law Caseworker in the immigration and asylum sector for a leading solicitor’s firm in London. She gained experience in both asylum appeals and judicial reviews, including those with complex false imprisonment or immigration aspects. In addition, she assisted with drafting grounds and representations to the Single Competent Authority for victims of trafficking as well as applications for Legal Aid funding.
Rachel has built on her previous experience in personal injury work, having been supervised by Christopher Johnson and Nick Brown during pupillage. She is instructed in fast track and multi-track matters in a range of cases, including road traffic accidents, public liability, employers’ liability and industrial disease claims. She regularly advices on prospects of success and quantum and is able to bring her previous experience to high value claims.
Selected work includes:
Successfully representing Claimants at fast-track personal injury trials.
Conducing Costs and Case Management Conferences in multi-track claims.
Successfully resisting applications for strike out.
Successfully obtaining default judgment against a Defendant for failure to comply with directions.
Representing a Claimant at a disposal hearing and successfully beating the Claimant’s previous Part 36 offer, resulting in additional damages and indemnity costs outside of the fixed costs regime.
Drafting Particulars of Claim and Schedules of Loss in high value claims.
Advising on issues of expert evidence.
Advising on the suitability of Part 36 offers.
Representing protected parties at Approval Settlement Hearings.
Rachel has experience in drafting pleadings, undertaking conferences with experts, and conducting hearings in a broad range of clinical negligence cases. She is available for instructions for written work, preliminary hearings, interim applications and trials.
She has particular expertise representing vulnerable claimants, including recent instructions for claims involving the provision of care to a victim of sexual assault and to individuals detained under the Mental Capacity Act.
Rachel accepts instructions in Court of Protection proceedings. She has experience of welfare matters under s.16 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and regularly represents parties involved in challenges to deprivations of liberty in care homes and hospitals under section 21A, having been instructed on behalf of P (via their litigation friends, including the Official Solicitor), family members and local authorities.
Rachel also accepts instructions in property and affairs matters and is well placed to advise on matters that intersect across both pathways. She has experience in dealing with complex financial deputyship applications.
Rachel has also gained significant experience working on complex matters, having been supervised during pupillage by Leonie Hirst. She has also assisted other senior members of Chambers in difficult cases regarding the section 21A eligibility requirements and reporting restrictions orders.
Rachel is also developing a practice in Mental Health law and accepts instructions in matters arising under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Rachel is instructed in actions against the police, including claims for assault and battery, false imprisonment and trespass. She is able to bring her experience in both personal injury and public law and is familiar with claims under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010.
She is able to assist in claims against public authorities for breaches of Article 2 ECHR, often arising out of inquests, and Article 5 ECHR, following periods of unlawful detention. Rachel has experience of drafting complex Schedules of Loss in these cases, assisted by her previous work in both personal injury and public law.
Rachel represents bereaved families at inquests, in particular where there are issues around the provision of health services in the community, or the deceased was deprived of their liberty in hospital, prison or police custody.
She has worked with families across all stages of the inquest process to secure positive outcomes ahead of the final hearing, as well as being instructed as sole counsel and led as junior counsel in final hearings.
Rachel is developing a practice in public inquiries. She is currently instructed on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, acting for Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru.
Rachel has a strong academic background in public international law, having completed a specialist undergraduate degree in European and International Law. This included a year at the University of Geneva, where she undertook modules in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
Rachel also worked as a Research Assistant for Greenpeace East Asia during this time, looking at systemic international legal challenges with a particular focus on the right to a healthy environment.
She is using this experience to develop her international human rights law practice and recently assisted with research for an international report into the treatment and detention of political prisoners.
