Sam Aynsley

Overview

Sam practices in personal injury, clinical negligence, business and property, and other related areas of law. He is an exceptional all-rounder, having been recognised in the directories across his three main practise areas for some years. His common law foundation (including criminal jury trials) suits him to regulatory instructions in the criminal courts along with his increasing specialism in actions against the police (claimant-side only).

The directories note Sam’s diligent and aggressive approach to litigation. He now practises almost exclusively on the multi-track, mainly CFA funded, and takes pride in maintaining his incredibly busy ongoing caseload, quickly identifying and addressing complex issues as and when they arise through the course of litigation. Sam recognises that a successful litigation outcome depends on agile collaborative teamwork between busy counsel and instructing solicitor/cilex, each bringing their own experience and skillset to a case, each working to unique professional pressures; many of Sam’s instructing solicitors/cilex now view him as an extension to their own team.

Sam travels nationwide for conference, mediation and court appointments and is also an accredited mediator. He accepts instructions on a direct access basis where appropriate, generally limited to initial conferencing/advisory work, followed occasionally by ADR, but with any further protracted litigation to be conducted alongside a solicitor/cilex.

Away from work Sam uses his Plymouth Argyle season ticket as often as its burdens of distance and despondency allow and he also enjoys road cycling.

Business and Property

Sam is listed as a leading junior in the Legal 500 Directory for Private Wealth, Probate, and Tax. His mainly practises in wills and property (particularly IHA1975, substantive validity, TOLATA, and boundaries/easements). His commercial caseload continues to include six-figure contractual disputes, although he has specialised away from Director/Shareholder disputes and other more niche/specialised areas of commercial practice.

The widespread breaches of fiduciary duty of the unscrupulous unregulated probate industry will soon likely cause public scandal and outcry. Sam has a particular interest in litigating against such entities, successfully securing repudiation of fees billed and paid inter vivos for anticipated post mortem administration against one such “firm” (predictably since liquidated, likely rendering such services incapable of performance), and is presently instructed in a claim with fraud alleged against a similar “firm” on his advice. Sam will usually act on a CFA basis in such claims, believing that this blight on society could largely be eradicated by the regulated legal sector working collaboratively on such a funding model, with personal enforcement against wrongdoing individuals usually feasible.

Sam encourages early instruction and conferencing and regularly attends mediations on behalf of his clients achieving favourable outcomes and understands the importance of distilling issues of risk and commerciality into straightforward advice for lay clients. His areas of practice include:

Property

Including:

TOLATA;
Proprietary estoppel;
Boundary disputes;
Easements;
Common land and greens;
Land registration;
Conversion.

Probate

Including:

IHA 1975
Substantive validity (Undue influence, lack of testamentary capacity, want of knowledge and approval);
Administration of estates, including claims against unregulated probate firms

Commercial and Consumer

Including:

Contractual disputes;
Debt claims;
Consumer Rights Act 2015 and claims for defective goods and services.

Landlord & Tenant – Commercial and Residential

Including:

Renewal of business tenancies;
Dilapidations;
Relief from forfeiture;
Possession claims (including RH(W)A 2016 for residential possession in Wales);
Deposit protection scheme;
Unlawful eviction;
Housing disrepair (please note Sam only accepts Defendant instructions in this area);
Applications for Antisocial Behaviour Injunctions and subsequent committal proceedings.

Personal Injury

Sam is recognised in both the Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 directories in Personal Injury. He acts exclusively for Claimants (save occasionally for uninsured Defendants). Other than a few historic matters for longstanding clients Sam acts exclusively on the Multi and Intermediate Tracks, his experience covering the spectrum of liability issues arising in personal injury claims, including:

Service user assault;
Industrial disease (including (M)NIHL, HAVS, COSHH, repetitive strain, asbestosis);
Fatal accidents;
Secondary victims;
Police claims (including trespass and other non-PI relief);
Prison claims;
Animals;
Landlord liability;
Product liability;
Highways including Land Law/McGeown defences;
Injuries and illness abroad/at sea/in air.

Sam’s instructions include catastrophic injuries, brain damage, and pain without organic cause. He regularly drafts statements of case in assault and disease claims requiring command of voluminous evidence and detailed and careful pleading, as well as schedules of >£500,000.

Sam recently secured what is thought to be the first finding of dishonesty against a Defendant resulting in the disapplication of fixed costs after trial – Claimant in PI case beats fixed costs by proving defendant’s dishonesty | Law Gazette.

Clinical Negligence

Sam is recognised as a leading junior in the Legal 500 Directory in Clinical Negligence. He receives increasingly complex instructions including those of the utmost seriousness and gravity, recent and ongoing matters including:

Gynaecological negligence, including;

Hypoxic brain injury consequent to negligent midwifery; full admission of liability and causation following conferencing with liability experts, resolving quantum as led junior to Christopher Kennedy KC, anticipated 8-figure settlement;
Missed cervical malignancy metastasising into avoidable stage 4 cancer because of delayed examination;
Negligent treatment of endometriosis, the Defendant unwittingly fitting the Claimant with two mirena coils several years apart; exacerbation of gynaecological and psychiatric sequalae.

Surgical negligence, including:

A Claimant suffering an incision to her bladder during surgery with consequent bladder and kidney injury including avoidable nephrostomy;
A Claimant suffering blunt trauma injury whilst anaesthetised for unrelated surgery, unmeritoriously defended on the averment that the Claimant could not directly evidence the occurrence of her injury.

Negligence in care/supervision, including:

An elderly Claimant falling from their bed when cot sides were not raised, sustaining brain injury and fractures;
An elderly Claimant being inappropriately manoeuvred on a Sara Stedy and inadequately supervised so that they fell and sustained injury.

Accident and Emergency negligence, including:

A Claimant being kept waiting in an A&E waiting area despite complaining repeatedly of breathing difficulties before sadly dying of respiratory arrest;
A Claimant, after multiple fruitless visits to A&E with breathing difficulties, fortuitously being at A&E yet again when suffering respiratory arrest in reception before being resuscitated; if he was not at hospital he would almost certainly have died. Psychiatric injury and exacerbation of pre-existing asthma.

Birth fatality

Patient suicide consequent to negligent supervision/discharge despite known risk of suicide

Dental negligence