Hugh James

I instructed Hugh James on a No Win, No Fee clinical negligence case following the loss of my baby at Lewisham Hospital due to medical malpractice. The case has been ongoing for around three years. Unfortunately, despite the extremely sensitive nature of this bereavement case, I experienced over two months of complete silence from my solicitor. Emails and phone calls were not returned, which caused significant distress and concern about the handling of my claim. I expected compassion, transparency, and basic communication. Sadly, this was not my experience.

Three years ago I started an action for clinical negligence against a GP. It was a "No-Win-No-Fee" action. Of course the famous phrase "No-Win-No-Fee" is not what most lay people think it is. It is a Condition Fee Agreement. You take out an After The Event insurance policy at the beginning. It's there to guarantee the huge legal fees that solicitors charge. If you lose then you pay nothing and get nothing. If you "win" then the premium is deducted from your award and a maximum of 25% Success Fee is also deducted. This is okay, but only so long as you actually WIN and the other side pay out proper compensation. Hugh James moved at the pace of an asthmatic snail on sedatives. Endless emails followed. Worst of all, they engaged a fantastically expensive neurologist, Dr Oliver Foster, who was a superb expert witness not just for me but also for the defence. Thus NHS Resolution, got away with offering a paltry £10,000, which after deductions as mentioned ended up as £7500. My actual medical expenses caused by this GP were approaching £6000, so I in effect ended up with £1500 - after three long years of stressful legal action. I would avoid them for this sort of litigation.

Living with catastrophic injuries is a daily struggle for me and Potter Rees Dolan have provided me with incredible support from the beginning. My solicitor Mark Robinson is always on the end of the phone to talk to me through-out my case, even if I just need reassurance and mental support he has been there to steady me on my most difficult days. I could not recommend them highly enough, I have a number of severe and unusual injuries but the team at Potter Rees Dolan have made sure that in addition to my case progressing with the right medical experts they are highly focussed on what I will need for my future care and mental health. They have also provided me with full support during the PIP process to help my family financially which I couldn’t have won without the experience and kind support of Suzanne Sutcliffe in the PRD welfare team. The legal process with catastrophic injuries takes a long time, every day is hard for me and my family and I cannot stress enough how comforting and reassuring it has been to have the team at Potter Rees Dolan behind me so far.

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Mark Robinson

Our family has received excellent service from this company and in particular from Hugh Potter. Throughout our long and complicated case we have been professionally and sympathetically supported, the quality of work is of an extremely high standard, and the advice we received along the way was always top notch and well communicated. I can highly recommend this company.

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Jonathan Hugh Conwy Potter

The team at Potters Rees have been nothing but professional helpful and caring in every aspect of my case. Rachel, Sami and Suzanne have been amazing with me and understand my condition so have helped me along the way step by step. I don’t have anyone else to help me and nothing is ever too much trouble for them. I don’t know what I would do without their help. Thankyou Paul

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Sami Omar Palmer-Latif

I would highly recommend Hugh James and specifically Sophie Nicol (Solicitor, Serious Injury). Sophie supported my family and I through a 4-year long claim following my young daughter sustaining an injury. The claim was finally settled with an extremely favourable result and throughout the whole process, Sophie has been supportive and clear, acting as our advocate and advisor throughout the process which has been invaluable when navigating the unfamiliar and peculiar legal system. Thank you for all the support.

I started my claim with Hugh James in 2018 and from the start I was informed and kept up to date on my hearing claim, then when Covid hit and everything seemed to go really slow but I know that Hugh James was doing a lot of work in the background gathering all my previous history, this had helped me a lot when I was looking at going to the Supreme Court, Nikolai and his team have helped me get to where I am now and have also got me a bigger claim than I ever expected. So I would like to thank all who have helped me at Hugh James

I did a so-called no-win-no-fee action with Hugh James for Clinical Negligence against an incompetent GP that caused me to suffer peripheral neuropathy. Like most solicitors, they moved at the pace of an asthmatic snail on valium. Endless emails and DocuSigns followed. I must say though that they did use a good counsel and their GP expert was okay. However, the problem was the very grand expert witness neurologist they engaged, a Dr Oliver Foster of Harley Street. He turned out to also be a great de facto witness for the defence by producing a Condition & Prognosis Report which effectively sabotaged my case. He suggested my symptoms might be partly psychological and it was possible I already had underlying neuropathy before I the took the stupid drugs the GP prescribed. Colchicine is defined as "extremely toxic in overdose". But NHS Resolution must have loved his report. So, mainly because of him I ended up accepting a derisory offer from the NHS - £7500. I had already spent nearly £6000 on consultants and drugs trying to stop the neuropathy. So that was £1500 for three long stressful years of litigation.

Having found ourselves in need of a medical negligence law firm , we made appointments with several firms to have initial meetings , within 5 minutes of meeting Gill Edward’s we had our minds made up . Gill stood head and shoulders above the others we had visited and left us in no doubt we had found the law firm to take our case forward . During our time with Gill and her team , we were kept up to date with everything that was happening and explained in a language we could understand . We would 100% recommend Hugh James ( Gill Edward’s ) Thanks Gill and the very professional and knowledgeable team .

Hugh James solicitors handled my case professionally and competently throughout. Sophie Nichol (personal injury specialis) was extremely diligent and informative, and concluded my case with an outcome I was more than happy with.