Following a week long trial in the High Court, Mrs. Justice Andrews dismissed a claim brought by Gabrielle Shaw, a former client of Leigh Day, for damages arising out of the firm’s representation of her at her father’s inquest in 2011. In a strongly worded judgment, Mrs. Justice Andrews found that there was ‘no basis for criticism of their performance of their retainer in this matter. They carried out their instructions diligently and competently. The vague assertions [made by Mrs. Shaw] come nowhere near establishing any fault or failing on their part… Indeed, it is one of the more extraordinary features of this case that Mrs Shaw was constrained to concede in cross-examination [by John Whitting Q.C.] that there was no evidential basis (whether cogent or otherwise) for any of the propositions that she criticised Leigh Day for not having pursued either at the Inquest or in the Clinical Negligence proceedings.’
She concluded: ‘None of the allegations of professional negligence that have been made against Leigh Day came even close to being established on the balance of probabilities. Indeed, I have had no hesitation in concluding that the criticisms that were made of them were completely unjustified.’
John Whitting QC led Elizabeth Boon of Crown Office Chambers and was instructed by David Rees Smith of Womble Bond Dickinson.
Read more about Shaw v Leigh Day [2018] EWHC 2034 (QB) on Lawtel here or on the Law Gazette.
