Product Liability: Mainly Claimant: UK-wide
Sources highlight the vast experience of this product liability department, and clients praise that the lawyers "respond quickly to clients' needs and have a no-nonsense approach – they know what they are talking about and get on with it." The team has been involved of late in many high-profile cases involving questions of product liability and negligence. Highlights include advising UK claimants against a major pharmaceutical in the fetal anti-convulsant litigation concerning the effects of its anti-epilepsy drug Epilim. The team has also been involved in other healthcare claims and in litigation surrounding major air and road traffic accidents.
KEY INDIVIDUALS David Body heads the firm's medical law and patients' rights practice, and earns praise from peers and clients for being "very clever, with a good track record, and very understanding towards the clients and their circumstances." He was the lead partner on the recently discontinued fetal anti-convulsant litigation. Andrew Tucker works alongside Body on pharmaceutical and medical device product liability litigation, and also has extensive experience in mining and industrial disease cases. One source said: "Whenever I needed help in specific cases he reacted quickly and professionally, taking care of the immediate needs of the victims of the faulty products."
This product liability team concentrates its expertise on representing claimants injured by pharmaceutical products and medical devices, and works closely with clinical negligence colleagues on such matters. It is currently acting for more than 200 claimants affected by defective artificial hip components. The firm has the experience to handle this type of group litigation on an international level.
KEY INDIVIDUALS Martyn Day heads the international and group claims department, and is praised as "a real fighter for his clients – he is very shrewd and does it with great charm." He has "a strong profile for group actions," and is "very clever and very smart with the science," according to peers.
This Midlands firm has a strong reputation for its ability to handle high-value, complex clinical negligence litigation, and its product liability practice is closely linked with this field. The team is "pleasant and easy to work with," and has recently represented individual claimants who have sustained injury following cosmetic procedures such as breast implants and Botox.
KEY INDIVIDUALS Sources describe Paul Balen as "a smart cookie and a very strong claimant's lawyer." He focuses on pharmaceutical and medical device product liability as it relates to medical negligence claims, and has significant experience of both unitary and group litigation.
This Cardiff-based firm has carved out a practice that extends well beyond Wales. Recent highlights for the 12-lawyer team include handling compensation claims concerning the high-profile outbreak of E. coli at a school in South Wales in 2008, and working on large group actions concerning defective hip prostheses and breast implants.
KEY INDIVIDUALS Mark Harvey heads the claimant group and the harmful products and overseas accidents team. He has focused on multiparty actions concerning defective medical devices of late, and is currently acting for hundreds of claimants in connection with PIP breast implants and De Puy hip prostheses. Sources say he is "a very good lawyer with a real specialism in the product liability field."
Russell Jones & Walker fields a 12-lawyer product liability team that stands out for its work on the headline-grabbing toxic sofa litigation and the Maclaren buggy controversy, where it successfully obtained compensation for individuals who had their fingers trapped in the buggy due to an allegedly defective design.
KEY INDIVIDUALS Birmingham managing partner Richard Langton specialises in group litigation and individual cases involving catastrophic personal injury. He is building the product liability practice at the firm and led the toxic sofa and Maclaren buggy consumer claims mentioned above. Peers consider him "a very bright individual."