Areas of Expertise

• Personal Injury

  Personal injury is Cassandra’s primary area practice.  She has amassed considerable experience in this area.  She represents claimants and defendants in cases involving all areas of personal injury.  Her experience includes, but is not limited to, claims involving employer’s liability, road traffic accidents, occupiers’ liability, accidents on highways, accidents abroad and claims involving liability arising under the Defective Premises Act 1972.

  Cassandra regularly provides personal injury talks and is a keen contributor to the Ropewalk Personal Injury blog.

  Cassandra’s most recent successes include:

  • Successfully representing defendants at the final hearing of the committal proceedings in the case of Jet2 Holidays Ltd v Hughes & Hughes.
  • Successfully representing a claimant who slipped and sustained personal injury at a waterpark.
  • Successfully representing a claimant who sustained an injury at work whilst manoeuvring a heavy patient using a glide commode.
  • Successfully representing a defendant supermarket in proceedings brought by an employee who alleged that she suffered a spider bite at work.
  • Successfully representing a defendant insurer in personal injury proceedings where the Claimant discontinued his claim after being cross examined and agreed to pay the Defendant’s costs and to a set aside of the provisions of qualified one way costs shifting.
  • Successfully representing a claimant who slipped on algae whilst using a communal path on his housing estate.
  • Successfully representing a defendant employer in proceedings brought by an employee who alleged that he sustained an injury whilst manoeuvring a defective dolly at work.
  • Successfully representing a claimant who brought a claim against her employer after she sustained injury when she fell off an Omni-trolley that she had not been trained to use.

  Cassandra has experience of acting for claimants and defendants in cases involving accidents abroad, holiday sickness claims and claims involving the Montreal Convention.  Cassandra’s successes in this area include obtaining favourable settlements in the following cases:

  • Claimant whose claim involved complex issues of causation, allegations of dishonesty and a dispute as to the appropriate standard of care.

  Claimant whose accident left him bedbound and whose claim involved complex issues of foreign law.

• Motor

  Cassandra has extensive experience of all matters relating to motor claims.  She is routinely instructed to represent claimants and defendants at all stages of proceedings.

  She advises in all matters ranging from the most straightforward to the most complicated road traffic cases.  Her experience includes cases involving issues relating to a defendant insurers’ status, claims involving unnamed and untraced drivers and claims against foreign insurance companies.

• Credit Hire

  Cassandra has considerable experience of credit hire litigation having cut her teeth on this area during her first few years of practice.  She has an extensive knowledge of credit hire law and all of the issues that credit hire litigation involves.

  She maintains an up-to-date knowledge of developments in credit hire law, recognising that mastery of the principles established in the plethora of credit hire cases can mean the difference between a claim being allowed or dismissed or, the difference between a claimant recovering thousands of pounds or a nominal sum.

  Cassandra has considerable experience of representing both claimants and defendants.  Her sharp eye is a particular asset when it comes to assessing financial disclosure in cases where impecuniosity is in issue.  Cassandra is adept at cross-examining claimants on all issues relating to credit hire and cross-examining rates witnesses in relation to basic hire evidence.

• Counter Fraud

  Cassandra has considerable experience of representing defendants in all areas of counter fraud work.  She is particularly adept at testing the evidence of claimants in cases where there are allegations involving phantom passengers, staged and induced accidents, low velocity impacts and exaggerated claims.

  Cassandra is a skilled cross-examiner and a persuasive advocate.  This has led to her considerable successes in proceedings defended on the grounds that the claim is not proved or is fundamentally dishonest.  She is flexible and agile in her approach to cases.  She understands the need to keep the evidence in a case under review and to tailor the approach taken to the case accordingly.  For example, she recognises where it is appropriate to advance arguments of exaggeration where the evidence does not support an argument that a claimant has completely fabricated their injuries.

  Of her many successes, Cassandra’s most memorable case involved a claimant whose genuine personal injury claim was dismissed pursuant to section 57 Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 on the ground that her daughter, (a minor), was not in the vehicle at the time of the index accident and as such, her daughter’s stayed personal injury claim was fundamentally dishonest.

• Commercial Dispute Resolution

  Cassandra has a special interest in all areas of commercial litigation.

  She has experience of acting for both claimants and defendants, advising on paper and settling pleadings. She has experience of consumer credit, sales of goods, breach of contract, conversion and insolvency matters.

• Costs & Litigation Funding

  Cassandra has extensive experience in costs matters. She is regularly instructed in provisional and detailed assessment hearings and deals with a range of costs issues including Part 36 offers and enforceability of conditional fee agreements.

  She has considerable experience of Costs Management Hearings and costs budgeting generally. Her experience includes a costs appeal, which provided some much-needed clarity of the word “budget” in Civil Procedure Rule 3.14.

• Clinical Negligence

  Cassandra continues to expand her clinical negligence practice.  Her experience includes drafting pleadings and advising claimants and defendants on breach of duty, causation and quantum.

  Cassandra has represented and achieved successful outcomes for both claimants and defendants at Costs and Case Management Conferences.  Cassandra’s experience also includes conducting pre-trial review hearings.

  Cassandra is happy to accept instructions in all areas of clinical negligence and has a particular interest in cases involving misdiagnosis and delayed treatment.

  Cassandra’s successes include achieving a favourable settlement for a claimant who developed pressure injuries whilst bedbound as an inpatient at hospital.

  Cassandra maintains an up-to-date knowledge of developments in clinical negligence law and is a keen contributor to the Ropewalk Clinical Negligence Blog.

• Disease

  Cassandra has a steadily developing disease practice. She has considerable experience of advising both claimants and defendants in claims involving noise induced hearing loss, advising on issues of limitation and drafting questions to experts. Her experience also includes advising in cases involving hand-arm vibration syndrome.

  Cassandra has extensive experience of representing claimants and defendants at interlocutory hearings and Costs and Case Management Conferences. She has achieved numerous successes both pursuing and defending applications for defendant expert medical evidence, repeat audiograms and responses to Part 18 requests.

  Cassandra has experience of acting for both claimants and defendants at limitation and noise induced hearing loss trials.

• Inquests

  Cassandra has experience of representing families at pre-inquest reviews and has represented interested parties at inquests. Cassandra recognises that inquests are painful and highly emotive. Her empathetic and understanding manner is a significant asset, particularly when acting for family members.

About

• Appointments

  • Deputy District Judge
  • Direct Access

• Professional Memberships

  • Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA)

• Qualifications

  • LLB (Hons), University of Birmingham