Defending a high value, unusual and complex diving related personal injury claim

We were instructed to defend a multi-million pound claim and court action for an alleged career ending injury with complex issues of decompression illness, suspicion of pre-existing medical conditions, hyperbaric medicine, allegations of medical negligence and complex quantum and causation issues.

Key highlights

• We were chosen to act because of our knowledge of the offshore industry, maritime expertise, medico-legal experience and expertise in defending complex, unusual and high value personal injury claims
• We successfully secured a negotiated settlement at a substantial reduction of the sum sued for, obtaining a realistic settlement after in-depth investigations and forwarding a solid defence to the claim. We also secured a significant contra award of expenses in favour of our client given the strategic early Tender (Scottish part 36 offer) deployed by us.
•  We were able to successfully defend this case not only due to our handling of the tactical issues but also by working as a team with the client specialists, external medical hyperbaric and dive experts, industry specialists from across the world and medical experts at the cutting edge of their specialisms from across the UK, Norway, and the USA.
• The outcome of this case could have had serious issues for both our client and the wider sector. 
  

Outcome

We successfully represented our client and their insured in a multi-million pound personal injury action raised in the Court of Session. The case involved complex legal issues regarding liability, causation and cause of injury.

An incident resulting in a personal injury with long-lasting impact on the injured party is , of course, distressing for those directly involved however, such an incident also has the potential to affect the reputation, commercial health, and future of the business accused of fault. In this case, our immediate and ongoing instruction mitigated the claim brought against our client, successfully securing early resolution with an award of expenses (costs) in our client's favour.

The efficient forced settlement of this action on our client's terms avoided a costly two-week Proof in the Court of Session, lost management time and potential reputational damage.