Andrew Prestwich
- Year called:
- 1986
- Email:
- andrewprestwich@ropewalk.co.uk
- Qualifications:
- LLB, University of Birmingham
- Practice areas:
- Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Disease, Fraudulent Claims, Costs, Business and Property, Planning and Environmental
Andrew Prestwich was called to the Bar in 1986.
He is a specialist in personal injury, clinical negligence, disease, fraudulent claims, costs, business and property and planning and environmental cases.
Personal Injury
He is a specialist in personal injury law. His busy practice is evenly divided between defendant work (much of it for local authorities) and claimant work (whether insurance, privately or union funded or Conditional Fee).
He deals with the full range of personal injury matters from minor injuries through infant settlements to convoluted cases lasting several days in Court.
He is a particular specialist in complex road traffic accidents including quantum and liability in fatal accident claims. He undertakes all of the highway and employers’ liability cases for one particular Local Authority.
Motor Vehicles
He has always had an interest in and knowledge of motor vehicles. His private interests in sports cars (particularly Lotus) and historic motor racing have enabled him to bring a high level of expertise to many cases. He has had a lifetime interest in (and knowledge of) vintage cars (currently owning one himself). He has a good working knowledge of cars, engines, the motor trade and motor insurers.
In recent years, he has undertaken a range of interesting cases related to his hobby, including a commercial contract case pertaining to the sale of a haulage yard, the contractual niceties of the sale of a haulage business (together with its operators’ licences and all vehicles), an Inquest into a fatal motorcycle accident at Pembrey Race Track, a claim pertaining to the European Working Time Directive and various cases pertaining to the mechanics of car and lorry engines.
He is a Class 1 Advanced Driver (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Gold Standard) and keeps up-to-date with the latest road safety developments and associated statistics. He contributes articles to ‘Care on the Road’, the advanced driving and road safety publication of RoSPA.
He has been involved in claims both for Claimant and Defendant arising out of fatal accidents (both on the road where he has been involved in particular in motor cycle accidents) and in other locations (most usually the employment setting). In 2009 he presented a lecture to accountants on Ogden VI and the way in which accountancy reports should be prepared when assessing damages in a fatal accident case.
Clinical Negligence
As part of his substantial personal injury practice, he also undertakes a full range of clinical negligence work.
Disease
Disease work, in particular asbestos-related diseases, Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome/Vibration White Finger and noise-induced deafness form a substantial part of his personal injury practice. He has acted both for claimants and defendants in all of these areas of work.
He has lectured on expert evidence in noise-induced deafness cases and has a particular understanding of the way in which noise affects the ear and the appropriate questions to be put to experts.
Limitation of action naturally plays a significant role in all disease cases. Again, he undertakes this work on behalf of both claimants and defendants.
Fraudulent Claims
He has experience in dealing with fraudulent claims involving motor accidents. He has dealt with cases of low impact collisions and alleged non-existent passengers. Cases of low impact collisions usually involve an expert engineering report. He understands the science behind these reports and is able to use such reports to best advantage or to cross-examine the writers of such reports as appropriate.
Cases of claims brought by people who allegedly were not present at the time of the accident seem to be more common now than ever before. He has a clear ability to display appropriate judgment and tactical awareness in such cases. He has also given a lecture on such cases and the relevant tactics and procedures to be adopted.
Costs
The important area of costs is of practical significance and one which he is currently developing. He fully understands the importance of this area of law and procedure to Solicitors and clients. He is familiar with the leading costs cases/authorities and can act in this regard both for claimants and defendants.
Business and Property
He undertakes all forms of land and property work including all manner of Chancery cases (including equitable remedies, property transactions and Inheritance Act claims). He enjoys all land-related cases (whether neighbour disputes, building disputes, planning matters or arguments about rights of way).
Commercial contract work also features prominently. He advises and advocates in all manner of commercial litigation from minor disputes about motor cars through building disputes up to large company disputes.
Planning and Environmental
Land disputes are of particular interest to him and planning is an obvious corollary of this. He undertook his first Planning Inquiry more than twenty years ago. He has acted in Planning Inquiries both for private individuals and for local authorities. He provides a full range of advice and advocacy services both to individual litigants and to local authorities.
General
He speaks fluent French, speaking French at home on a daily basis. He has a general interest in languages and a working knowledge of Latin.
Reported cases
Brookfield v Drury Chancery Division Registry (Leeds), 13 February 2009 (conveyancing mistake).
Manches LLP v Green (t/a Green Denman & Co) Queen’s Bench Division, 29 April 2008 [2008] EWHC 917(QB); [2008] 6 Costs L.R. 881 (professional negligence).
Re Clapham (Deceased) Chancery Division, 01 December 2005 [2005] EWHC 3387 (Ch); [2006] W.T.L.R. 203; [2006] 2P. & C.R. DG5 (trusts, negligence).
Ward v Jeld Wen UK Ltd Sheffield County Court , 01 April 2004 [2004] C.L.Y. 2874 (NIHL).
Hirst v Doncaster MBC Doncaster County Court 15 March 2004 [2006] C.L.Y. 2914 (RTA).
Leicester City Council –v- Aldwinkle [1991] 24 HLR 40 (The Court of Appeal hold that it is not an abuse of process for a local authority both to apply for and then to execute a warrant of possession of a dwellinghouse even when the Defendant tenant is absent from the premises due to ill-health).
Hollis & Co v Stocks Court of Appeal (Civil Division), 09 May 2000 [2000] U.K.C.L.R. 658; [2000] I.R.L.R. 712 (restrictive covenants).
Kevin Christopher Weet v (1) Roger Parker (2) Laverne Parker (1999) CA (Civ Div) (Buxton LJ, Hale LJ) 1/12/99 (where a Judge had plainly indicated in Court what Scott schedule was to contain, and both parties had been represented in Court by Counsel, it was foolish to ignore that indication and to merely rely on the actual terms of an unless order that a Scott schedule be served).
Michael Anthony Clarke (2) Stephen Clarke (T/A T Clarke & Sons) v Barry Winsley (1998) CA (Nourse LJ, May LJ) 8/6/98 (where a judgment was deficient in the reasons given for the Judge’s findings the Court of Appeal would not interfere if it was possible to determine the basis on which the Judge had made those findings).
Harrison v Leake & Anor (1989) CA (Slade LJ, Balcombe LJ) 10/10/89 Times, October 12, 1989 ( a Court can only assess damages on the basis of evidence put before it and cannot enter judgment on a bare claim for unliquidated damages).
