Stewarts Law LLP

Charles Edwards

Partner in the Personal Injury department. Charles is an experienced, collaborative practitioner with more than 25 years’ experience in the field of personal injury who thrives on achieving the best possible outcomes for his clients. He is listed in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame, which highlights lawyers who have received constant praise from their clients for continued excellence and are considered to be at the pinnacle of the legal profession. Charles specialises in the highest-value and most complex value personal injury claims, with a particular interest in claimants who have sustained either spinal cord or brain injury. He has experience in dealing with a variety of types of claims, covering road traffic accidents, accidents at work and in accidents public places. Over the past 20 years of his career at Stewarts, Charles has settled claims for clients totalling in excess of £200m. These include high-level spinal cord injury cases, brain injury cases involving minimally aware clients, high-earning City workers, and claims with an international element.

Ben Rogers

Partner in the Personal Injury department. Ben specialises in acting for claimants in catastrophic personal injury claims, and has particular expertise in spinal cord, brain, complex orthopaedic, amputee and burns injuries. He has a particular interest in technology and was the first lawyer to secure landmark awards of damages for the purchase and replacement of REX and Ekso GT exoskeletons. Ben has a proven record of successfully litigating complex liability and quantum claims arising from road traffic accidents, employers’ liability, occupiers’ liability and military claims and is recognised for maximising damages recovery for technological advances. Cases on which Ben has advised claimants include: Astrit Tafa v Matsim Properties & Ors, which resulted in piercing the corporate veil so as to obtain judgment for damages against a director of a company. This was vitally important because the company was uninsured but the director was personally wealthy. The high-profile case of Robert Uren v (1) Corporate Leisure (UK) Limited (2) Ministry of Defence, resulting in judgment for damages against both defendants on a 100% basis for the serious spinal injuries that the claimant suffered as a result of diving into an inflatable pool during an “It’s a Knock Out” style event. Dale Messenger v Ministry of Defence – acting on behalf of a serviceman who suffered serious spinal injuries during a live ammunition training exercise in the Falkland Islands. The claimant recovered 100% damages including in excess of £550,000 to cover the cost of an Ekso GT exoskeleton with its replacement and associated costs over the course of his lifetime, a first in this jurisdiction. Barnes v (1) David Ord (2) EUI Ltd (trading as Admiral Insurance). This case was a worldwide first (according to REX Bionics), as damages were recovered to cover the cost of a REX exoskeleton walking device for home rehabilitation, its replacement and associated costs over the claimant’s lifetime. Mark Polllock v (1) Enda Cahill (2) Madeline Cahill, an important case in the field of domestic occupiers’ liability. Damages were recovered on a 100% basis for a blind claimant who was rendered paraplegic when he fell from the window of a second-storey bedroom. It was established at trial that the window had been left open by the defendants without them giving the claimant any warning that they had done so.