Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

Clinical Negligence

Partner

Ben acts for individuals who have suffered catastrophic injury as a result of medical negligence. He specialises in birth injuries, adult brain injury, amputation and paraplegia.

Ben joined the firm as a trainee in 2008 and is a Partner within the firm’s highly acclaimed medical negligence team. His family background is in medicine and this has provided him with a good grounding in medical knowledge.

In the early part of his career, he became renowned regionally for acting on behalf of families at Inquest whose loved ones had died whilst being detained under the Mental Health Act or had taken their own lives whilst trying to access psychiatric services. He became a regular contributor to local media broadcasts on the levels of care being offered by psychiatric services in the local region and was a strong advocate for service improvement.

In large part, as a result of his work representing bereaved families, Ben started to gain recognition within his field and was awarded ‘Young Lawyer of the Year’ award at the 2014 LawNet Awards.

In September 2022, he was announced as a Finalist for Clinical Negligence Lawyer of the Year at the Personal Injury Awards 2022.

Ben now represents catastrophically injured clients. He is known for taking on difficult cases and achieving excellent results. A recent example of this was the 100% liability settlement he achieved for a young adult who suffered cerebral palsy and bilateral Erb’s palsy at birth 22 years ago. The case had previously been discontinued by another law firm and the legal aid funding certificate discharged before Ben’s instruction. Read a synopsis of this cerebral palsy case here.

Other recent case highlights include:

succeeding at trial on behalf of a client who suffered a stroke and consequent brain injury due as a result of the failure of the Defendant to administer heparin 67 hours earlier. Read a synopsis of the case here and view a copy of the judgement here. a multi-million-pound settlement on behalf of a lady who suffered paraplegia as a consequence of aortic surgery that she was not properly consented for. a seven-figure settlement for a young man who suffered a below-knee amputation resulting from a delayed diagnosis of infection; 100% liability settlement for a young lady who suffered a brain stem stroke as a consequence of the Defendant’s failure to identify and treat a blood clot on the brain. a six-figure settlement in circumstances where the repair of a 4th degree tear following childbirth was not performed to a reasonably competent standard. Read a synopsis of the case here.

On settling a recent case Ben’s client commented;

“He has an excellent ability in interacting with people and is extremely attentive to individual needs. He seems to care about the people he is dealing with and always made me feel comfortable, relaxed and important. After seeing some of the adverts about clinical negligence lawyers on the TV and hearing other people’s experiences I was apprehensive but it became very obvious very soon that not all claimant lawyers are the same”.

He is highly recommended in this year’s Legal 500 which states: ‘Meticulous’ solicitor Ben Ward is a rising star. – Legal 500. 

Ben is the former Honorary Secretary of the Norfolk and Norwich Medico-Legal Society and former Treasurer for the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society.

English