Personal Injury

Temple Garden Chambers has long been regarded as one of the leading personal injury sets in the country, which has been acknowledged consistently by the directories for many years.

Chambers UK 2022 notes that the TGC personal injury team is “well regarded for its handling of a wide range of matters” and that “cases at the cutting edge of personal injury law are also a key area of strength for the team.” The most recent Legal 500 personal injury rankings from 2021 set out that TGC offers “an abundance of talent at all levels” and that Chambers is seen as a “go-to for serious injury, catastrophic injury and fatal accident cases.”

Chambers has several personal injury Silks along with junior Counsel at all levels of experience. James Arney KC and Marcus Grant have both received the Chambers UK Bar ‘Personal Injury Barrister of the Year’ awards. Members of chambers have contributed to various publications including the Judicial College Guidelines, the Personal Injury law Journal, the Solicitor’s Journal and the New law Journal.

The size and depth of talent within the personal injury team means that Chambers is able to provide a specialist barrister, or team of barristers, appropriate to the particular demands of any given case. This is best demonstrated by the high regard in which individual members of chambers, and the personal injury team as a whole, are held in by satisfied instructing solicitors and their clients across the industry.

Chambers is rightly proud of the reputation that its members have of acting both for Claimants and for Defendants; in the medium to long-term the personal injury team does approximately 50% of work for each side. We believe this ensures that our barristers can provide advice and representation of the highest standard, which is independent and objective. As well as representing accident victims and union members, we regularly act for insurers, government bodies and companies, both large and small. We participate in several prestigious insurance panels, including those for the MIB, and in government civil panels. Several members of chambers are accredited by the Spinal Injuries Association. Members of chambers are willing to accept instructions under Conditional Fee Arrangements in appropriate cases, and many have acted successfully on a pro bono basis for particularly deserving clients.

We act in all forms of personal injury and related litigation. We have specialists across the full range of personal injury claims, with individual members experience including the following areas: catastrophic injuries, including brain and spinal cord injuries; fatal accidents; all types of industrial disease; employer’s liability; road traffic accidents; motor insurance fraud occupier’s liability; collective redress; child abuse; military claims; sports (participants and spectators); aviation; travel, including claims with a ‘foreign’ element and jurisdictional disputes; and Criminal Injury Compensation Authority claims. Chambers is well prepared for the foreseeable demands of the future, e.g. several members are already specialised in AEV Law which will regulate driverless cars.

Individuals within Chambers have taken a lead in developing the law in a number of niche areas, including subtle brain injury, chronic pain, counter-fraud and the deployment of surveillance evidence. Members of chambers have appeared in some of the leading cases in the personal injury field, a recent example is the Court of Appeal’s seminal decision in Swift v Carpenter. Chambers also has a history of involvement in high profile, newsworthy cases such as those arising from the Hillsborough Disaster, the Grenfell Tower fire and various terrorist atrocities.

There is considerable overlap between chambers’ personal injury team and its highly successful and much acclaimed costs & litigation funding team, which means that chambers is able to provide a full service in relation to the issues that frequently arise in claims of this nature such as costs budgeting, costs recovery inter partes, solicitor-client costs issues, CFA arrangements, ATE premiums and litigation funding.

The work of our personal injury practitioners also complements many of the other practice areas that exist within chambers in addition to those mentioned above, including clinical negligence, health & safety, inquests & inquiries, credit hire, insurance and product liability.

Members of chambers are acutely aware of the fact that the vast majority of personal injury work is now resolved outside Court and that, based upon current policy proclamations, this focus upon ADR is only likely to increase in the future. Members of chambers have experience of acting in all forms of ADR including mediations, arbitrations, Early Neutral Evaluations, Joint Settlement Meetings and Court administered settlement conferences. Chambers has bespoke ADR suites with disabled access: please see our Facilities page for further details.

In addition, Chambers also boasts a number of fully accredited and qualified mediators of differing levels of Call and experience, the details of whom can be found on the ADR page. There are also senior juniors and Silks in Chambers with experience of acting as evaluators and arbitrators.