Personal injury, travel and aviation.
Katherine Howells specialises in personal injury, clinical negligence, travel, aviation and associated commercial proceedings. She has extensive experience acting for both Claimants and Defendants. Katherine’s domestic practice has a focus on high-value fatal and traumatic injuries sustained in road traffic accidents and workplace accidents or assaults, particularly brain injuries and psychiatric and pain conditions, together with cases involving occupiers’ and public liability issues and hospital acquired injuries. She also has a significant travel practice with a particular specialist knowledge of and interest in aviation matters. Katherine deals frequently with claims involving accidents overseas or foreign nationals injured or killed in the UK, questions of jurisdiction and applicable law, the right to cross border recovery of benefits under EC Regulation 883/2004, claims under the Package Travel Regulations and Athens Convention, Montreal Convention passenger injury, delay and lost or damaged baggage claims, delayed and denied boarding and downgrading claims under EC Regulation 261/2004 and accidents on board aircraft (including hot air balloons and microlights) or at airports or airfields. She is also experienced in dealing with contractual and other recovery proceedings made by tour operators against foreign suppliers, aviation maintenance disputes and claims concerning IATA Ground Handling Agreements. Katherine’s recent reported cases include Bianco v Bennett [2015], Yapp v Foreign and Commonwealth Office [2014] and Donkers & BGV v Storm Aviation v Lufthansa [2014]. In 2017 Katherine advised and represented the Defendant airline Germanwings in relation to the claims in England arising out of a crash in the Alps in 2015 thought to have been caused by the deliberate actions of the co-pilot which lead to the death of all 146 passengers and 6 crew on board the aircraft.
Called 1994, Gray’s Inn.
Travel & Tourism Lawyers Association; Personal Injury Bar Association.
Sandhurst School; Magdalen College, Oxford (1993 BA Hons Jurisprudence 2(1)); Inns of Court Law School (1994 Bar Vocational Course).