Leanne Woods

Clinical Negligence

Leanne has a wealth of experience in clinical negligence claims and undertakes a full range of work for both claimants and defendants. She conducts trials in the High Court and County Courts, and can also rely on her experience of questioning expert witnesses in inquests.

Recent examples of Leanne’s clinical negligence instructions are:

• Failures in privately funded fertility treatment
• Complex birth injuries
• Advising a private healthcare institution on vicarious liability and non delegable duties.
• Failures in A&E treatment leading to tetraplegia
• Brachial plexus injury arising from birth
• Failures in mental health care leading to self-inflicted death of a high earner

Selected Cases

• L v Optimax Clinics and V: Represented an ophthalmic surgeon in claim concerning corneal decompensation.
• S v NHS Trust: Acted for child who suffered a brachial plexus injury at birth.
• T v an NHS Trust: Represented claimant in high value catastrophic spinal cord injury which led to paraplegia.
• FS v a fertility clinic: Acted for claimant in an unusual claim arising from private IVF treatment.
• JW v an NHS Trust: Acted for claimant who suffered incomplete tetraplegia caused by the defendant’s admitted negligence (led by Henry Witcomb QC). The primary dispute was quantum and the matter settled for a very significant sum.
• WG v an NHS Trust: Represented claimant in a claim arising from failures in consent and performing spinal surgery. After a mediation the defendant accepted the claimant’s six figure settlement offer.
• Chadwick v Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals Trust: Successfully defended NHS Trust in a trial relating to wound dehiscence.
• DS v Ministry of Defence: JSM settlement for more than £500,000 in a claim arising out of an alleged failure to diagnose colon cancer.
• JC v an NHS Trust: Acted for claimant who suffered significant injury after the defendant’s failure to properly investigate and diagnose a sports injury. The claimant was a barrister and the damages included a tricky claim for loss of earnings. The matter was successfully settled at mediation.
• BG v Dr A: Acted for defendant in JSM settlement of high value claim for long term psychiatric injury arising out of over-prescription of benzodiazepines and failure to diagnose PTSD.
• Manzi v Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2016] EWHC 1101 (QB): Acted for claimant in claim arising out of retained products of conception.