Success Stories
We jealously guard our reputation as one of the leading firms in the field. However we are also conscious of the adage that you are only as good as your last case. Here we set out some of our recent successes, so you can judge for yourselves:
Abuse in care
We took over conduct of this case from a firm of solicitors who had closed their abuse department. The claimant had been abused in case as a child and found the legal process very difficult to deal with. He wanted to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible. When we received the papers we immediately prepared to issue proceedings and invited the Defendants to make an offer to settle the case. The Defendants offered £7,500.00. This was not accepted. We issued and served the claim and made a formal offer to settle the claim for £20,000.00 and this was accepted by the Defendants.
Abuse by foster father
From the age of 8 to 13 Ms X was abused by her foster father. She was able to consider taking legal action when she was 32 but by then the statutory limit (6 years) for bringing a claim against the foster father was time barred. In one of the first cases of its kind, we sued the foster mother for failing to protect her from the abuse and successfully argued that the 3 year time limit should be extended. Ms X recovered £25,000.00.
Abuse in children's home
In I -v- D, we acted for a client who had been sexually abused whilst placed in the care of her local authority many years ago. The man who abused her was the manager of the children's home, and he had since died. Our client was extremely affected by the abuse and could not come to terms with what had happened to her for some years. We alleged that the local authority was responsible for her while she had been in care, and had failed to protect her. At all stages, solicitors for the local authority argued that our client had issued proceedings "out of time" and therefore could not recover damages. They also denied that their client was responsible. By doggedly pursuing several court applications for relevant documents we found out that the council had had suspicions about the manager for many years and even before our client was placed in his care. The defendant's final offer of £50,000 was accepted just before trial, and we also negotiated an unreserved apology from the council to our client.
Other notable successes where we are not restricted from "naming and shaming" the defendants are set out below:
- The London Borough of Greenwich formally admitted liability for their neglect of a client who was sexually and physically abused by one of their employees. They paid out £65,000 in damages plus costs a month before trial.
- We represented several clients who joined the St Leonard 's Cottage Homes Group Litigation against the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, winning £200,000 in compensation.
- The London Borough of Hillingdon paid out £35,000 to a client whom we represented under a "no win, no fee" agreement; so our fees were paid by the Borough too.
- The London Borough of Lambeth had to pay damages of £65,000 to a client who was abused in one of their children's homes by his swimming instructor.
We have also acted for clients in CICA claims for sexual and physical abuse in childhood, which we have run parallel to a civil claim for damages. We typically secure between £6,000 and £12,000 in compensation in these claims, even where our clients are technically 'out of time' for submitting their application.