Shakespeare Martineau LLP

Clinical Negligence (Lime)

Partner

Neil acts for claimants who have suffered negligent medical treatment or care from both the NHS and from private providers. He helps Robert Rose run the Clinical Negligence team. He passionately believes in fighting for justice for injured Claimants and sees his role as vital in policing the NHS. He believes that without experienced clinical negligence lawyers around, a lot of the dreadful mistakes would go unnoticed and unreported.

He has acted for a large number of Claimants in relation to the misdiagnosis of and failure to treat cancer. These include the case of a young Mother where there was a failure to properly remove a mole on her leg. It turned out years later that the mole was a melanoma which caused her death when her young son was only a year old. He also acted for a Father of three whose GP failed to diagnose a mass in his rectum. Sadly the delay made the cancer untreatable and lead to his premature death.

Neil deals with lots of complicated cases involving surgical errors. He has recovered large amounts of compensation where people have suffered injuries to their bile ducts whilst having their gallbladders removed. He recently recovered substantial damages for a man who underwent bowel surgery without giving informed consent, which caused him to need to be fed through total parenteral nutrition (TPN).

Neil deals with cases relating to birth injuries including wrongful birth and stillbirth claims. He has dealt with many claims involving gynaecological injuries sustained by women including during childbirth. He believes that the large number of gynaecological cases he sees relates partly to a lack of empathy between a lot of male gynaecologists and their patients.

Neil is a specialist in dental claims having parents who are both qualified dentists. He is very skilled at considering the dental records and x-rays / radiographs and advising Clients whether they have potential claims. With the cost and time pressures on NHS Dentists it is quite understandable that there are plenty of understandable but unacceptable and avoidable mistakes made. Neil has seen plenty of cases of incorrect extractions of teeth, failures to diagnose and treat gum disease, failure to treat decay and poor fillings and bridges.

He would like to see reform in the way that dentists are insured so that Defence Unions cannot avoid indemnifying dentists when they have absconded or left the county. He has become very frustrated in recent times to see that some Claimants have not received their just compensation when the negligent Dentist cannot be traced and the Defence Unions refuse to indemnify them.

Neil is a member of the Law Society’s Clinical Negligence Panel and Accreditation Scheme

Neil graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Liverpool and from the College of Law at Chester with a Distinction. He joined the firm in September 1999 as a Trainee Solicitor. He has specialised in Medical Negligence claims for over 15 years.