Cara Guthrie

Professional Negligence

Cara is instructed by both claimants and defendants in lawyers’ negligence cases, most usually over the management or settlement of personal injury or clinical negligence claims.

She has recently successfully represented a barrister in a claim about the settlement of a personal injury claim at the door of the court.

Selected Cases

• Dunhill v (1) W Brook & Co (2) Crossley [2018] EWCA Civ 50; [2016] EWHC 165 (QB): Successfully defended the barrister defendant at a trial on breach of duty and in the subsequent appeal as junior counsel. She alleged that her former solicitors and barrister had negligently advised her to settle her personal injury claim at an undervalue at the court door. Elisabeth Laing J heard the trial on breach of duty and dismissed the claim against both defendants. Laing J was not persuaded that the barrister defendant “had assessed the evidence incorrectly, still less, negligently”. Her decision was upheld on appeal.
• Thoseby v Bakers Solicitors (2010): Instructed to act as junior on behalf of the claimant. A Professional Negligence action arising from the solicitor’s handling of a Clinical Negligence cerebral palsy case. Breach of duty by the solicitor admitted but dispute about whether the Clinical Negligence action would have succeeded – therefore effectively a Clinical Negligence liability case. Had to take an early view about the value of the claim before quantum had been investigated. Settled in 2010 at a round table meeting prior to the liability trial for £1.3 million.