Andrew Mclaughlin > Chambers of Matthew White > Bristol, England > Barrister Profile
St John's Chambers Offices
St John's Chambers
101 VICTORIA STREET
BRISTOL
BS1 6PU
England
- Set Profile
- Go to...
Andrew Mclaughlin
Work Department
Clinical Negligence, Personal Injury, Industrial Disease, Personal Injury Fraud, Property Damage & Insurance Disputes
Career
Call : 1993
Andrew McLaughlin is a leading barrister with a national practice in the fields of personal injury, industrial disease and clinical negligence. A member of St John’s Chambers for more than 20 years, he holds the position of Head of the Personal Injury Practice Group. His focus on client service and enviable ability to turn paperwork around quickly and efficiently has seen him develop into one of the busiest barristers in the country.
His meticulous preparation and tenacious advocacy skills have helped him successfully defend his clients’ interests at trial and as part of settlement negotiations in some of the highest profile injury litigation of recent years.
Andrew is ranked as a Tier 1 barrister in The Legal 500 for personal injury and Band 1 in Chambers UK for personal injury and industrial disease for which he is ranked as a national expert in the Spotlight Table. With a high value multi-track practice, Andrew’s cases are usually in the High Court and Court of Appeal. He is regularly instructed as a leading junior on cases where silks have been instructed on the other side. Notably, in 2021 he comprehensively defeated a well-known KC in the case of Walkden v Drayton Manor Park, securing a finding of fundamental dishonesty. The claim was originally pleaded at £1.6m.
Andrew’s defendant-focused practice sees him being counsel of choice for the majority of national firms and their insurer clients especially in complex cases where fundamental dishonesty and fraud is alleged. His expert knowledge of counter-fraud litigation tactics is in high demand and Andrew is often asked to speak to claims handlers on how to spot the signs of fundamental dishonesty and claims inflation.
Andrew’s caseload includes claims arising from road traffic accidents, accidents at work, public/occupiers’ liability, and involve catastrophic injuries such as tetraplegia and severe brain and spinal injuries, chronic pain disorders, functional neurological disorder, amputations, stress at work, fatal accidents, sexual abuse, serious psychiatric injuries, upper limb disorders, noise-induced hearing loss, asbestosis and mesothelioma. He also often represents companies and public bodies in some of the highest level of claims of misuse of private information and data breaches.
In addition to his main practice Andrew also regularly undertakes work on behalf of individuals and companies facing prosecution for breaches of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and subordinate legislation.
Memberships
- Member of the Personal Injury Bar Association Scholarships Benefactor’s and Blackstone scholarships from Middle Temple
Education
- BA (Hons) York
- A Panel of GLD counsel, dealing with the most complex work on behalf of government
- Attorney General’s List of Panel Counsel 2012 – 2023
Lawyer Rankings
Regional Bar > Western Circuit > Personal injury
(Leading Juniors)Ranked: Tier 1Andrew McLaughlin – St John’s Chambers ‘Andrew is excellent at drafting erudite defences and counter schedules. He is adept at probing cross-examination of witnesses at trial and putting forward complex cases in a straightforward fashion. He has in-depth medical knowledge and is a masterful tactician in mediations and without prejudice settlement meetings.’
St John’s Chambers is ‘an impressive set with a number of high-quality barristers’, praised by some as ‘the strongest set in the South West for claimant personal injury litigation’. Christopher Sharp KC handles medically and legally complex claims, often involving catastrophic brain and spinal injuries, for both claimants and defendants, while Andrew McLaughlin, a ‘tenacious advocate with vast experience’, represents insurers in high-value, multi-track claims. In Jenkinson v Robertson, Matthew White, ‘a master of fine detail’, represented a claimant in his appeal against an initial finding that he had been fundamentally dishonest in his claim following a road traffic accident. Jimmy Barber, ‘excellent at getting to the important issues in a case‘, specialises in claims involving accidents abroad, hearing loss, asthma, freezing injuries, and chronic pain, as well as in cases with complicating procedural issues.