Richard Burns

Year called:

1969

Email:

richardburns@ropewalk.co.uk

Qualifications:

LLB, University of Bristol.

Practice areas:

Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Disease, Fraudulent Claims, Regulatory, Local Government

Richard Burns was called to the Bar in 1969.

He sits as a Recorder on the Midland Circuit.

He specialises in personal injury, clinical negligence, disease, fraudulent claims, regulatory and local government claims.

Personal Injury

He undertakes a wide range of cases ranging from straightforward RTA’s to catastrophic injury, fatal accident and other high value claims for both Claimants and Defendants.

He has found that most of the major claims he is instructed in for whichever side, are able to be settled successfully with his assistance by round table negotiations taking place early in the litigation or even ahead of proceedings being commenced.  This usually results in a considerable saving of time and costs, to the benefit of all the parties.  In the past few years he has been involved in numerous successful negotiations of this kind.

He was among the pioneers of computerisation at the Bar and has a thorough knowledge of IT systems.  His experience allows him to work very flexibly away from Chambers at evenings and weekends to meet tight deadlines for the return of advices and pleadings.

He prides himself on his practicality and approachability and has a thorough knowledge of the procedural aspects of litigation.  He specialises in producing schedules and counter schedules of loss in ‘Excel’, an extremely flexible spreadsheet format which has proved to be a very effective method of presenting quantum in complicated cases in a clear and judge friendly manner.

As an owner and breeder of horses and dogs, he has a special interest in claims under the Animals Act 1971.  These have included horse riding accidents, attacks by dogs, injuries to stable staff and agricultural workers and collisions caused by livestock straying onto the highway.

To give an example of his present case load, he acted for a child who was born with cerebral palsy after her mother was involved in a RTA.  Liability was never in issue but causation was very problematical because the mother suffered only minor injuries.  However with his assistance, the correct experts were obtained who were satisfied that the injury had been the result of a placental abruption.  Liability and causation were eventually admitted and an interim payment of £¾ million obtained.  The case was subsequently settled by a one off payment of £8 million.

Reported cases include: CA: Worsfold v Howe [1980] 1 W.L.R.1175 (car emerging onto major road; whether entitled to inch forward though vision blocked) and most recently Smith v Nottingham Police [2011] (appeal against finding of 75% contributory negligence against a young woman pedestrian) and HL: Longden v British Coal [1998] A.C. 653 (occupational pensions; incapacity pension paid from contributory scheme; calculation of damages in respect of pension loss).

Clinical Negligence

Since joining Ropewalk Chambers he has developed an extensive clinical negligence practice.

He formerly acted mainly for Defendants but in the last ten years he has acted almost exclusively for Claimants in a wide range of clinical negligence claims.

Examples of cases where he has assisted Claimants to obtain substantial six and seven figure awards are for a child born with severely handicapped with cerebral palsy as a result of the failure of a hospital trust to detect that it was suffering from hypoxia during mother’s labour; a man who was rendered blind following the failure of a hospital trust to diagnose giant cell arteritis; a young woman who was wrongly told she did not have cervical cancer and a Fatal Accidents Act claim arising out of the death of a woman whose GP failed in time to diagnose a perforated duodenal ulcer.

At the other end of the scale of severity in terms of damages amongst many cases he has acted for a baby accidentally lacerated whilst being delivered by caesarean section and for a boy who obtained damages following the failure of his treating doctor to diagnose a testicular torsion in time to preserve a testicle.

Disease

He has over twenty years experience of occupational or insidious diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma, asthma, noise-induced hearing loss, hand/arm vibration syndrome and other work-related upper limb disorders and workplace stress.

His practice was formerly heavily weighted towards employers, particularly in the area of noise induced hearing loss.  However, in recent years he has more frequently been instructed for Claimants.  The vast majority of his cases for claimants have settled and in most of these cases he was closely involved in the antecedent negotiations.

An example of a substantial case he has recently been involved in concerned a works manager employed by a large food manufacturer who had sued his employers for work place stress.  An admission was made and withdrawn prior to the coming into force of CPR 14(1)A and a judgment had been obtained in default of the service of a defence.  Applications by the defence initially to set the judgment aside and latterly to adduce evidence of causation, were unsuccessful and the claim was settled by a round table negotiation for a substantial six figure sum.