No.18 Barristers Chambers
no18chambers.comno18chambers.comBarristers
Theo Huckle KC
- Phone023 8073 6812
- Email[email protected]
- Profilewww.no18chambers.com
Position
Areas of practice include: Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence, Inquiries and Inquest
Career
Theo specialises in Complex and Catastrophic Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Industrial Disease and Product Liability work.
Theo advises in and conducts cases of high levels of complexity and damages valuation, as well as in test and group litigation, and in appeals. He invariably finds himself acting for Claimants, and likes to think that's because they get first choice. :-)
Theo is fully qualified for and will welcome instructions to advise under the Bar's Direct Access scheme. Please refer to the chambers guide for Public Access clients here.
Theo has almost unparalleled broad experience as a common law barrister specialising principally in the injury claim fields, often with a human rights focus. That experience includes:
Consulting Editor, Halsbury's Laws, Vol. 29, Damages General Editor of the Butterworths' Personal Injury Litigation Service Visiting Professor of Law at the Dickson Poon School, King's College London. Counsel General for Wales 2011-2016, member of the Welsh Government as Wales's devolved Law Officer with a broad remit advising across public law fields. Member Bar Council 1988-2008 Exec member of the Personal Injury Bar Association (PIBA) since 2000 PIBA lead representative and 2020 Vice-Chair of the Wellbeing At The Bar Working Group Bencher of Lincoln's Inn Author or contributing editor of Guide to Periodical Payments (Future Loss in Practice) and Munkman on Employer's Liability (LexisNexis Butterworths) and Occupational Illness Litigation (Thomson Sweet & Maxwell) and Apil Guide to Noise Claims (Jordans),and many articles in the New Law Journal, JPIL, PILJ and Apil's PI Focus Times Lawyer of the Week, December 2016 PI Awards Claimant PI Lawyer/Case of the Year, shortlisted 2017, 2018, 2019His time as a Law Officer has given Theo a highly strategic approach to complex dispute resolution and team leadership.
Theo works digitally and his clerks will be pleased to help you provide instructions/briefs under our fully GDPR compliant service.
As well as what some consider an unusual interest in drafting spreadsheet schedules of loss, Theo likes to undertake a range of interesting cases, particularly those involving novel and complex points, and recent work includes:
acting for the psychiatrically injured police officers who attended at the Grenfell Tower fire and aftermath, instructed by Tristan Hallam and Louise Taylor of Penningtons Manches Cooper; see here and the first judgment: De Costa & Ors v LFC & Ors [2020] EWHC 2718 (QB). advising on the legal issues arising out of non-provision of PPE to clinical and other “front line” workers during the Covid-19 pandemic; see here; advising on the legal issues arising out of the stopping of “normal” healthcare services for diagnostics and treatment of existing patients in neurology, oncology, cardiology, surgery and other fields, to hold resources ready to combat the feared “overwhelming wave” of Covid-19 infections, and failures in recommencing those services including in urgent cases; see here; the groundbreaking success in Royal Opera House v Goldscheider [2019] EWCA Civ 711, selected as one of The Lawyer's Top 20 Cases for 2019, in which the Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of Nichola Davies J [2018] EWHC 687 (QB) in favour of a world class orchestral viola player who suffered career-ending noise injury during rehearsals for the ROH's 2010 Wagner Ring Cycle; instructed by Chris Fry, Theo led Jonathan Clarke in this first authoritative decision on the 2005 Noise Regulations and first finding of “acoustic shock” as a mechanism of serious injury; a series of Helmand Fever (Q Fever) cases brought against the MOD by servicemen infected in the Afghanistan campaigns and suffering serious debilitating chronic fatigue syndromes; in the lead case judgment was entered against the MOD for serious disclosure failures after a series of hotly contested interlocutory battles: Eaglesham v MOD [2016] EWHC 3011 (QB) Andrews J and a multi-£m settlement was achieved in 2019. Theo led Paul Kilcoyne in all three cases, instructed by Sue Bowler of Coffin Mew for Mr Eaglesham and by Dianne Yates of Hilary Meredith for their clients Mr Taylor and Mr Bass; leading advice teams on quantum aspects of the successful group metal-on-metal hip prosthesis product liability claims conducted by Michelle Victor at Leigh Day.Theo believes that seriously injured clients should always be visited by counsel in their homes if possible, and that experts should always be firmly tested in consultation before finalising their reports. If expected to present and argue a schedule of loss in high value cases, he wants to know it inside out and preferably have drafted it himself, or advised in detail upon it before service in its final version.
Theo is happy to help with detailed anticipated fee breakdowns in spreadsheet form to assist with budgeting of complex cases.
He is fully supportive of the growing awareness of Wellbeing issues, and represents PIBA on and is currently Vice Chair of the Bar Council's Wellbeing Working Group.
Theo is both committed to promoting access to justice and (besides his beloved rugby and skiing) loves the sport of rowing (to which he came as a junior and youth rugby player, and he continues to be an enthusiastic sculler), and so was pleased to be invited to become a non-executive board member and trustee of both JUSTICE and Welsh Rowing after a long career being at best reasonably competent in a variety of sports. He is Chair of Welsh Rowing and a member of the Board of British Rowing, and has recently also accepted an invitation to join the Board of Advocate (Bar Pro Bono).