Anthony Cole specialises in personal injury and clinical negligence litigation and has done so since he qualified in 1996. He has obtained hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation for many of the claimants he has represented.

He is a member of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and has been involved in a number of high profile group actions. He was part of a team of lawyers representing children damaged by the MMR vaccine. He has also been a member of teams representing Gulf War veterans and patients wrongly given LSD in the 1960s. Anthony has a particular interest in representing patients who may have been wrongly discharged from hospital and have then gone on to self harm or attempt suicide. He deals with all types of personal injury claims, be they small or high value, including work place accidents, road traffic accidents, occupier’s liability claims, Motor Insurers Bureau claims, Criminal Injury Compensation Authority claims, and disease claims (e.g. asbestosis, deafness, and work related upper limb disorders).

Recent Settlements

SETTLEMENT 1

I recently settled a case for a 17 year old young man who had suffered a serious head injury in a road traffic accident in August 2002. In addition to his head injury he suffered a fractured jaw, facial injuries and injured elbow and hip.

The young man was only 8 years old at the time of the accident. He was injured when he cycled in to a path of a bus in a residential street in South London.

I initially instructed an Accident Reconstruction expert to prepare a report. The expert concluded the bus was driving too fast. Had it been driving a little slower the driver would have seen my client and avoided a collision.

The bus driver’s insurers got their own Accident Reconstruction report which was supportive of their position i.e. the bus driver would never have been able to avoid hitting my client. The matter was on its way proceeding to a full trial on liability.

In the event as the matter neared trial the Defendant made an offer of two thirds/one third in my client’s favour which was accepted and ultimately approved by the Court. It was fortuitous an offer was made because on contacting various witnesses it transpired that my client had a history of playing chicken with buses in the street in the past. That said it did not excuse the bus driver from travelling too fast on what was a residential street.

I then had the task of trying to work out quantum. The client was only very young when he had his head injury and has never worked. He remains unemployed. He had always wanted to go in the Army but this was not open to him as a result of his head injury.

When I last met with him with Counsel in conference he had made a good recovery but the neuro-psychologist we instructed did say that he would always be “slow” although he did not require any care and assistance.

We had hoped to use his brother as a comparator but his brother of a similar age had never worked either and so this was unhelpful. In the end after some negotiation an offer taken in to account the liability split was accepted of £134,000.

This case is particularly satisfying to me as other solicitors had looked at the case prior to my instruction back in 2006 and had not wanted to take the case on because of its difficulty.

SETTLEMENT 2
 
I acted for a young girl who was in a secure mental unit with a history of self harm. 
 
Whilst in secure accommodation, after many attempts at suicide, on one occasion she was searched and found to have in her possession a lighter.  The searching nurse did not think it sensible to take the lighter from our client.  Our client was able, later that evening, to set fire to her T shirt despite being on one-to-one observation. 
 
She suffered serious burns to her body and had to have a tracheotomy. 
 
A Letter of Claim was sent to the hospital in question. The claim was dealt with by the NHSLA.  After the obtaining of an expert nursing report, an expert report from a psychiatrist and plastic surgeon,  the claim settled  without the need for the issuing of Court proceedings for £25,000.00.
 
 
SETTLEMENT 3
 
I acted for an individual who whilst in secure accommodation at the Priory Hospital , Marchwood, was able to go into the grounds of the hospital and to create a "witche's brew" from yew tree material which he then ingested. As a result of the ingestation he suffered a number of heart attacks but did make a full recovery.
 
Again, after obtaining an expert nursing report (from the same nursing expert funnily enough as in the the first case) and after making a pre-action application for disclosure of records as against the hospital the claim settled in the end for £6,000.00. There was no guidance as to the level of damages from the JSB guidelines so we valued the claim on the basis of a serious food poisoning claim (where guidance is given)

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