Christopher Scorah

Clinical Negligence

Christopher has 15 years’ experience of representing both Claimants and Defendants in clinical and dental negligence cases. For many years he represented the Medical Protection Society, on a regular basis, in cases arising from General Practitioners’ negligence, generally arising from alleged failure to diagnose and refer, but now tends to be involved more in cases representing Claimants in claims arising from negligent hospital treatment. He has been led on several occasions in Cerebral Palsy cases arising from negligently managed birth.

Examples of cases include:

– Failure by a GP to refer a patient for further investigation of incipient bowel cancer, leading to early death

– Failure by hospital staff to manage an MRI scanning procedure adequately, leading to a patient sustaining hip injuries

– Failure by a GP to diagnose Bacterial Meningitis in a child leading to deafness and partial blindness

– Premature release of a psychiatric patient from hospital, leading to an incident of serious self-harm

– Provision of a shaving razor to a psychiatric in-patient, leading to an incident of grotesque self-mutilation

– Two cases involving failure to remove surgical material/swabs from patients after closing operative incisions

Personal Injury

Christopher practises solely in the field of high value, “multi-track”, personal injury litigation. He has represented litigants in numerous High Court cases fought to a conclusion after lengthy trials, and many which, instead, settled after extensive, detailed negotiations. He has considerable experience of drafting schedules and counter-schedules in substantial cases, where damages claimed amount to millions of pounds, and has been instructed to represent litigants at Joint Settlement Meetings, on a roughly weekly basis, over recent years. He also has considerable experience of being “led”, in particular by the Manchester Bar’s leading personal injury and clinical negligence Silks.

Christopher has a longstanding interest in “chronic pain” cases, involving complex medical evidence on the interplay between organic and psychological symptoms. He has cross-examined two of the leading national experts in Pain Management. He has a significant involvement in the developing area of the challenges now being made by Claimants to video surveillance evidence, and is presently instructed to attend a five day preliminary hearing on the admissibility of such evidence in a very high value claim. He is instructed by a wide variety of solicitors, including the major, national Defendant firms.

His experience and expertise are in the following areas:

Clinical and dental negligence
– Including cases of premature death arising from delayed diagnosis of serious conditions. Over the years, he has worked primarily for the Defence organisations, particularly in relation to General Practitioner negligence, but frequently accepts instructions from Claimants. Please see his separate clinical negligence profile.

Accidents at work
– In particular, factory and construction site accidents, causing serious and fatal injuries. In this area, Christopher’s practice has been equally balanced between Claimant and Defendant work. His most recent cases have included:
– Acting for a warehouseman in a successful but hotly contested claim, in a developing area of the law, arising form an assault at work by a fellow employee, causing serious brain damage.
– Three separate “RSI” cases, two of which included difficult medical evidence on “chronic pain” type conditions.

Occupier’s Liability claims
– Christopher has immense experience, over two decades, of representing both Claimants and Defendants in such cases. As examples, he has recently been instructed in high value claims arising from an accident to a child trespassing in factory premises and to a customer falling through stair railings in a public house.

Holiday claims
– In particular, serious and fatal injuries caused by foreign road traffic accidents, swimming pool accidents, falls from balconies etc. He has achieved a substantial damages award, at trial in an English court, for a drunk teenager who fell from a balcony in Spain in mysterious circumstances.

Road traffic accidents
– A significant proportion of Christopher’s work involves representing both Claimants and Defendants in road traffic accident cases, both on liability and quantum issues. He has extensive experience of very serious and fatal injury cases arising from pedestrian accidents, multiple vehicle motorway collisions etc. His most recent cases have included:
– Defending two separate million pound claims by cyclists, both settling at a fraction of the pleaded value, after careful written advice and subsequent negotiation at Joint Settlement Meetings.
– Successfully defending a lorry driver at a three day trial on liability, involving complex accident reconstruction evidence, against a respected Manchester silk, in a case arising from very serious injuries to a motorcyclist caused by a high speed collision on a country lane.
– Representing the insurers of a Defendant charged with intentionally killing a pedestrian, using his vehicle as a weapon.

Education

Law, St Anne’s College Oxford

Prescribed Information

Christopher Scorah is a practising barrister, who is regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Details of information held by the BSB about him can be found here.

Christopher Scorah’s clerks will happily provide no obligation quotations for all legal services that he provides. Their contact details can be found here. It is most common for Christopher to undertake Court services and advisory work for a fixed fee or a brief fee plus additional refresher days For advisory work, drafting and conferences it is most commonly charged at an hourly rate although fixed fees are available. Conditional Fee Agreements and Damages Based Agreements will be considered in cases with favourable prospects of success. Christopher will typically return paperwork within 10 days, however professional commitments, complexity and volume of documentation can affect these approximate timescales.