Leigh Day

Personal injury: claimant

Partner specialising in personal injury, mesothelioma/asbestos, work accidents and road traffic accidents. Harminder has taken numerous cases to trial, the longest one involving a six-week trial relating to a complex multi-party action concerning allegations of fumes and dust exposure in the glass industry. She has a formidable reputation as one of the country’s leading litigators. She has successfully given evidence in court after being cross-examined by the defendant. She has had several cases reported due to being ground-breaking, such as: The Queen (oao Tony Whitston, Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK) v Secretary of State for Justice and Association of British Insurers [2014] EWHC 3044 (Admin); judicial Review regarding LASPO; Coventry and Others (Respondents) v Lawrence and Another (appellant) [2012] EWCA Civ 26 (intervention on behalf of the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK to prevent victims from paying success fees and ATE premiums); Meenakchi Ghoorah (Widow and Administratrix in the Estate of Gooroochandra Ghoorah deceased) v West Essex Clinical Commissing Group & 4 Others [2014] (after a four day trial, recovered the highest amount for damages for a mesothelioma victim in the sum of £87,500 - Harminder beat her own previous records as set in the cases of Najib and Beesley); Zambarda v Shipbreaking (Queenborough) Limited [2013] EWHC 2263 (QB) (significant win after a 3 day trial in the High Court); Baker v Tate & Lyle PLC Sept 2012 Westlaw & Lawtel (Harminder was instructed by a mesothelioma victim who was unable to trace his former employer/their insurers, she instead pursued the owner of the factory where the claimant was sent to work. At a contested show cause hearing before Master Whitaker, she successfully contended that the Asbestos Industry Regulations 1931 and the Factories Act 1961 both imposed specific duties on occupiers and not just employers and that those duties expressly tended to all the persons working at the relevant factory. Baker is understood to be the first judgment on occupiers’ liability in an asbestos disease case); Mohammed Najib v John Laing Plc [2011] EWHC 1016(QB) (two day trial in the High Court. The judge made the highest award for general damages at that time for a mesothelioma victim and uniquely awarded a sum for alternative treatment); Jacqueline Sloan v Halsen Insulation & Engineering Company Ltd (approved QBD) Senior Master 12/11/2009 (this is the first case in which periodical payments have been awarded to the dependant in a fatal case); Jane Beesley (widow and executrix of the estate of John Lambie deceased) v New Century Group Ltd [2008] EWHC 3033(QB) (the highest care award to date and, at that time, the highest award for general damages for the widow of an asbestos victim).

Qualified as a legal executive in 1993; partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse 2010; partner at Leigh Day 2012. Publications of note: Regularly lectures on asbestos disease and she advises MPs who attend the All Party Group on Occupational Health and Safety. Lead response to the Ministry of Justice’s Mesothelioma Pre-Action Protocol – 2 October 2013.

APIL, Fellowship status.

Exploring, lobbying and raising money for charity.