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Seven Bedford Row
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Local Authority Liability

7 Bedford Row's local authority liability team has unrivalled experience acting in personal injury and other claims brought against local authorities. It includes several recognised specialists in local authority liability and related areas.
For many years members of the team have advised and represented local authorities and their insurers. The team have appeared in multi-party and individual claims in respect of physical and sexual abuse against (amongst others) LB Camden, LB Hammersmith & Fulham, LB Tower Hamlets, LB Havering, LB Islington, Cheshire CC, Newcastle City Council, Birmingham City Council, Hereford & Worcester CC, Northumberland CC, Durham CC, Buckinghamshire CC, Cambridgeshire, South Tyneside, Sunderland City Council, and Northamptonshire CC.

Members are also instructed on behalf of private schools, care homes and other residential establishments, recreational organisations such as the scouts, charities including the NSPCC and Scope, the Catholic Church and the Church of England. More recently the team has established a specialist group of barristers who act for claimants in this area and who are currently instructed in eight of the published GLOs.

We appeared in the first multi-party local authority child abuse case to go to trial (the Frank Beck case) in 1996. Subsequently members of the team have appeared in some of the leading House of Lords and Court of Appeal cases as well as many cases in the High Court and County Court, inquiries and tribunals. Examples include X &Y v London Borough of Wandsworth; C v Middlesbrough County Council and Catholic Care v Young ; Lister v Hall; Barrett v Enfield (all House of Lords); B and B v A County Council; T v Boys & Girls Welfare Service; W v S County Council; L v London Borough of Tower Hamlets; C v Flintshire CC (all Court of Appeal); Multiparty (around 100) claims against Devon County Council in respect of Forde Park School (Approved School and Community Home); Multi-party (168) claims arising from abuse in nine Manchester children's homes; The North Wales Child Abuse (Waterhouse) Inquiry and The Leicestershire Inquiry.

As well as particular expertise in multi-party claims arising from institutional child abuse, the work of the team also takes in "Barrett v Enfield" type cases (including failure to plan life in care, failure to place for adoption, negligent placements in foster care) and "JD" claims (failure to remove children from abusive parents or foster carers). Members have been instructed in a large number of education claims, including group actions for failure to educate and failure to recognise and provide for children with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties.

The team is also regularly instructed in a wider range of cases affecting local authorities including stress at work and bullying claims, disciplinary proceedings and inquests.

  • Product Liability
  • Criminal Injuries Compensation
  • Sporting Injuries
  • Inquests
  • Criminal Prosecutions under the Health and Safety at Work Act

Recent cases include:

Members of the personal injury team have appeared in many recent high-profile cases in both the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal including A v Hoare [2008] UKHL 6 (landmark House of lords decision on the limitation period in cases involving deliberate sexual assault); Smith v Northamptonshire County Council [2009] UKHL 27 (House of lords ruling on the construction of the PUWER); Cobham Hire Services v Eeles [2009] EWCA Civ 204 (Court of Appeal decision on interim payments in large claims); Peters v East Midlands SHA [2008] EWHC 778 (leading Court of Appeal decision on whether a claimant has the right to opt for self-funding of future care and accommodation in preference to reliance on the statutory obligations of a public authority); E H Humphries (Norton) Ltd v Fire Alarm Fabrication Services Ltd [2006] EWCA Civ 1496 (circumstances in which a duty of care arises from a contractor's right to supervise the work of a sub-contractor); Hawley v Luminar Leisure Plc & Ors [2006] EWCA Civ 30 (the application of the "control" test in transferred vicarious liability; the meaning of "accidental bodily injury" in public liability) and Lister v Hesley Hall Ltd [2001]UKHL 22 (the leading House of Lords authority on vicarious liability).

We have appeared in many leading cases involving abuse in local authority care and “failure to remove”. To learn more about our work in this niche area please select the Local Authority Liability link.

 

Members practising in this area: