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The following are typical examples of the sort of sports law cases Steven has been involved with:

• Steven represented a household name former England cricket captain in a contractual dispute with a national tabloid newspaper.
• Steven defended a former Premier League and England international football player (now a TV personality) who was sued by someone allegedly injured after a prank went wrong.
• Steven represented a current Premier League and international football player in relation to a road accident involving suspected phantom passenger claims.
• Steven represented the Trinidadian international goalkeeper in a dispute with his agent over unpaid agency fees and ‘bungs’.
• Steven represented a household name former world darts champion in a contractual dispute arising out of his ownership of a public house.
• Steven represented a Great Britain rugby league international in a dispute with his insurers after his career was ended by injury.
• Steven represented a Super League rugby club in a contractual dispute with a former player.
• Steven represented a football league club in a dispute over the cost of match day policing.
• Steven represented a director of a football league club who was pursued personally for the debts of his club after it entered administration.

Steven has over 20 years experience of dealing with fraud ring, staged accident, fictitious accident, LVI, phantom passenger claims and the like.  

He deals with a wide range of claims from straightforward one Claimant exaggeration cases to fraud ring cases involving multiple claims advanced by organised criminal gangs.

Steven is often instructed by Defendant insurers in cases where wider strategic issues beyond the facts of the individual case require special attention.

Steven is very familiar with cases deploying new technology such as telematics and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) data. He has advised at high level personnel within major insurance companies as to the best way to present such evidence and has conducted numerous cases in which telematics evidence in particular has played a crucial role.

It is a simple fact that a fully pleaded fraud Defence or Counter Schedule bearing Steven’s name will often deter fraudsters (or their representatives) from pursuing their claims to a final hearing.

Steven travels nationally for trials and conferences and regularly secures findings of fundamental dishonesty at trial.

Typical examples of the sort of cases in which Steven has been involved are as follows:

• February 2019 (Central London CC): 3 x Claimants abandoned their claims at lunch on Day 2 of a 3 day trial following rigorous cross-examination which the Judge described as a ‘model’ of firmness ‘in the best traditions of the Bar’. The First Claimant was seeking over £220,000 worth of credit hire.
• February 2019: Advising a major insurer on strategies to deal with a suspected large scale conspiracy involving Claimants, accident management companies, hire companies and a linked firm of solicitors. Sums at stake run into the hundreds of thousands.
• January 2019 (Birmingham CC): Attending a fraud trial and persuading Claimant’s counsel to abandon his claim at the door of the court by pointing out certain damaging entries buried in the documentation which had apparently been missed by those representing the Claimant.
• January 2019: Pleading a comprehensive Defence in respect of a £200,000 credit hire claim arising from a suspected staged or fictitious accident.
• December 2018: Pleading a comprehensive Counter Schedule alleging fundamental dishonesty in a grossly exaggerated personal injury claim. The Claimant accepted the Defendant’s long-standing very low Part 36 offer within hours of receiving the Counter Schedule.
• December 2018: Pleading a Defence to a £227,000 suspected fraudulent credit hire claim.
• November 2018 (Birmingham CC): Securing dismissal of a £102,000 credit hire claim after a 3 day trial with a finding of fundamental dishonesty against the Claimant.
• October 2018 (Doncaster CC): Securing strike out of a claim, a finding of fundamental dishonesty and disapplication of QOCS at trial.
• September 2018: Advising senior personnel at a major insurance company at a round table head office conference on the possible applications / usefulness of ‘ANPR’ (automatic number plate recognition) technology in fraud and credit hire cases.

It is no exaggeration to say that Steven is one of the UK's leading practitioners in this area of the law. He has been involved in numerous ground-breaking cases over the years. Examples are:

• Dimond v Lovell [2002] 1 AC 384
• Burdis v Livsey [2003] QB 36
• Zurich v Umerji [2014] EWCA Civ 357
• Stevens v Equity Syndicate Management Ltd. [2015] 4 All ER 458
• McBride v UK Insurance [2017] EWCA Civ 144

Steven’s practice is nationwide. He will happily travel to accommodate a particular client’s needs, whether for conferences or court hearings.   

As well as conducting trials, appeals and other hearings, Steven is also in high demand for his advisory work and pleadings. He is instructed on individual cases of varying values and complexity and also provides insurers with high level strategic advice in relation to credit hire, fraud and other road traffic related matters.

In terms of fraud, Steven has over 20 years experience of dealing with fraud ring, staged accident, LVI and phantom passenger claims. He deals with a wide range of claims from straightforward one Claimant exaggeration cases to fraud ring cases involving multiple claims advanced by organised criminal gangs.

Steven also provides advice to both insurers and insured on issues relating to policy coverage and interpretation.

 He frequently lectures nationally on the subject.

Steven has over 20 years' experience in this field. He regularly advises on issues of contractual and statutory interpretation, following such cases through to mediation, joint settlement meeting or trial.

His involvement at all stages of the Dimond v Lovell litigation gave him a profound knowledge of consumer credit law which Steven has used to the advantage of clients in cases involving financial mis-selling and other disputes with (or between) financial advisers. 

He routinely acts for companies or individuals who find themselves embroiled in complex commercial disputes. Typical examples of such work are: representing a wealthy business client who contended that she had been mis-sold various mortgages over a 10 year period; representing a bottled water company whose product was contaminated by a third party bottle supplier; representing a materials supplier accused by a large caravan manufacturer of supplying sub-standard product; representing several companies who claimed they have been mis-sold swap / derivative financial products by their banks; representing a Super League rugby club sued for breach of contract by a former player.  

Steven has been a member of the Personal Injuries Bar Association for over 20 years.

He regularly represents both Claimants and Defendants where injuries have been sustained as a result of a road accident, accident at work, slip, trip or fall, defective product or otherwise. 

Steven accepts cases at all levels of value and complexity, although his personal injury work predominantly consists of mid to high range multi-track cases. Steven is happy to accept fast track work, but his fees for such work are likely to exceed inter partes recoverable fast track fee rates. 

He has intimate knowledge of the ‘6 pack’ regulations and the case law applying to employers’ liability claims. 

He similarly has long-standing experience of industrial disease work, with the balance of instructions spread evenly between Claimants and Defendants.

Steven began advising on litigation funding issues in 2001 (shortly after the law was changed to permit inter partes recovery of success fees and ATE premiums).

Since that time, he has advised a range of solicitors’ firms on the enforceability / compliance aspects of their client care and other funding-related documentation.

He has drafted and/or amended the CFA agreements used by several large firms of solicitors.

He has advised Claimant firms, after-the-event insurers and large scale claims organisations upon the enforceability of their scheme documentation, redrafting such documents where required to achieve compliance.

Steven has represented clients at costs joint settlement meetings where the costs in dispute have been as much as £1.5m.

He has appeared at numerous detailed assessment hearings (at the SCCO and elsewhere), dealing either with test case points or high value bills. 

He is currently involved in various cases which concern the interpretation of the CPR as it applies to low value RTA / EL / PL claims which exit the low value claims Portal and/or settle after being listed for a disposal hearing.

Examples are Phillips v Willis [2016] EWCA Civ 401 (the first Court of Appeal case relating to the RTA Protocol) and Bird v Acorn Group (a test case on the new fixed costs regime due to be heard in the Court of Appeal on 19th/20th October 2016.)

Steven also represented the Defendant in the case of Conlon v RSA [2015] EWCA Civ 92, which dealt with issues of retrospective reallocation and the recovery of small claims track appeal costs in the Court of Appeal.

Legal 500 2020 (Costs)

"Well known for his costs litigation expertise, which often crosses over his personal injury expertise. A very strong advocate"