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Roger is instructed nationally by the leading firms of solicitors and insurers.  He acts for claimants and defendants in complex and high value claims, often involving life altering injuries.  He deals regularly with traumatic brain injuries, pain conditions and spinal fractures.  Roger has settled a claim recently for in excess of £500,000.  

Road Traffic Accidents

High value credit hire claims for both the Claimants and Defendants.  

Occupiers' Liability

Roger recently achieved a strike out of an occupier’s liability claim against a landlord on the ground that the landlord was not the occupier and an omission could to not be negligent.  There was therefore no ground for bringing the claim.  QOCS was disapplied and the defendant was awarded its costs. 

Employers' Liability

Considerable experience of warehouses, shops, logistics and the implementation and enforcement of health and safety policies from a previous career in retail area management.

As a specialist employment and personal injury barrister Roger is well placed to deal with the cross-over issues in EL cases particularly in relation to jurisdictional issues and compensation.

Product liability

Roger has been recognised by Chambers & Partners for product liability cases.

Public liability

Vicarious liability for assaults by employees.

Highways claims including issues over whether the highway is maintainable at the public expense.

Dog bite and horse riding cases.

Child supervision cases.

Roger has regularly been instructed by insurers in fraud cases for several years.  In the majority of such cases, Roger succeeds in achieving a finding of fundamental dishonesty, the disapplication of QOCS and an indemnity costs award in favour of the defendant.

Roger is used to dealing with the full range of fraud issues including LVI, induced / staged accidents, undisclosed accidents / injuries and exaggerated claims.  He is regularly instructed in cases involving voluminous social media posts, medical records and insurance / financial intelligence. 

Examples of recent cases include:

-      Achieving the dismissal of a personal injury claim arising from a collision in a car park where breach of duty had been admitted and damage had been caused to both vehicles;

-      Defeating a claim by a taxi driver who had failed to disclose his involvement in over a dozen previous accidents;

-      In another claim, when Roger was first instructed, liability had been admitted, the claim had been allocated to the multi-track and listed for a CCMC.  During the course of the litigation Roger successfully applied for the defendant to resile from his admission and for the claim to be re-allocated to the fast track.  At trial Roger succeeded in achieving the dismissal of the claim, a finding of fundamental dishonesty, disapplication of QOCS and an award of indemnity costs in the defendant’s favour.

Roger has been recognised by Chambers & Partners as rising star for employment work and by the Legal 500 for several years.  He acts for employers and employees and, for over a decade, has appeared regulalrly in long tribunal hearings.  He also appears in the EAT.

Unlike most employment barristers, Roger held senior management positions in large corporates prior to coming to the bar.  He was one of the youngest retail operations managers for TM Retail with a responsibility for 17 shops and over 100 staff.  In this role he chaired internal disciplinary hearings.  This expereince has given him a useful perspective when it comes to relating to corporate clients, particulalrly those in the retail field. 

Examples of previous cases in Roger's particular areas of expertise: 

Discrimination:

• Successful defence following a 20 day hearing of a chief executive accused of sexually harassing a fellow director.  Not only were all the claims dismissed but a maximum costs award was also achieved;
• Successful defence following an 8 day hearing of a school accused of disability discrimination in respect of a head of department;
• Successful defence of a large corporate accused of pregnancy related discrimination in relation to its maternity pay policy.

Employment status:

A specialist in this area, Roger has lectured widely on the subject.  He has appeared in a number of multi-day hearings for both sides involving this complex issue. 

Unfair dismissal:

• Successful defence of the employer of a carer dismissed for sickness absences due to minor ailments;
• Currently instructed by an employer who dismissed an employee for refusing to allow a client to enter its premises unless he removed his religious headwear. The incident was videoed on a mobile phone and uploaded to social media where it went viral and attracted international attention.

Whistleblowing:

• Regularly appears in complex claims involving multiple protected disclosures.

TUPE:

• Represented a school academy accused of failing to provide employee liability information relating to equal pay claims pursuant to reg. 11(2)(d) TUPE 2006.

Roger is authorised to accept instructions on a direct access basis.

Reported cases

KINGSTON UPON HULL CITY COUNCIL v (1) P SCHOFIELD (2) C MORRIS (3) J WEBSTER [2012] All ER (D) 342 (Nov) EAT

A complaint that an employer had wrongly evaluated an employee's job under a job evaluation scheme could not give rise to a claim for unlawful deductions from wages, since it was not a claim for a quantified or quantifiable sum

LECTURES/SEMINARS

• Employment Status
• Working time & NMWR issues for on-call workers

Recognised by Chambers and Partners as a rising star for clinical negligence work, Roger has represented a number of claimants over the years.  

Recent examples include:

• Failure to stabilise a complex ankle fracture;
• Failure to diagnose lumbar fractures;
• Failure to diagnose a hip infection rendering a hip replacement beyond repair such that the claimant could not walk without a frame;
• Failure to diagnose hormone deficiencies in a female which resulted in her developing male patterned baldness and facial hair;
• Failure to prescribe eye drops resulting in eye sight deficiency.

Credit hire

Roger deals with high value credit hire claims for both Claimants and insurers, particularly with respect to taxi drivers and those who thought they were entitled to a courtesy car.

Motor Fraud

Multiple previous accidents, LVI, staged accidents

Roger is regularly instructed by insurers in noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) and Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) claims.  He has particular experience of dealing successfully with limitation and de minimis issues.  Recent examples include:

• A successful claimant discontinued his claim following receipt of Roger’s skeleton argument for an appeal on the issue of date of knowledge in a HAVS claim;
• A claimant discontinued following de minimis arguments in a NIHL claim.