|
Before coming to the Bar in 2003 Fiona practised for nine years as a solicitor in Scotland specialising in clinical negligence and personal injury claims. She also undertook a considerable amount of professional disciplinary work, representing doctors and dentists before the GMC, GDC and HPC.
Clinical negligence
Wide experience including psychiatry, obstetrics, gynaecology, peri-operative and post-operative care, anaesthesia, accident and emergency medicine, palliative medicine and failure to obtain consent to surgical procedures
Professional discipline
Appears on behalf of doctors and nurses before the Interim Orders Committee and Fitness to Practise Panels of the GMC and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Recent experience includes representing a dentist before the GDC, which resulted in the first appeal by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence of a Scottish healthcare professional to the Court of Session (Scots equivalent of the High Court) on the grounds that the GDC’s sanction against the dentist had been too lenient.
Group litigation
Experience includes presently acting as second junior for the MoD in the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder group litigation, brought by ex-servicemen alleging that the Army Medical Corps failed to diagnose and treat their PTSD.
Inquests
Fiona has acted in inquests covering a wide variety of issues including deaths in custody, suicides and failures in medical care. Recent experience includes representing the family of a young woman who died of methadone toxicity (while in custody) at a four week inquest, which culminated in a verdict highly critical of the care the deceased had received. Fiona advises families in relation to judicial review proceedings following inquests.
Mediation
Fiona is a CEDR accredited mediator who has mediated a variety of disputes both as a lead and assistant mediator, including multi party commercial disputes, clinical negligence, personal injury and contractual disputes. She also contributed to CEDR’s response to the Chief Medical Officer’s Report Making Amends.
Other work
Product liability
Fiona has advised and appeared in product liability claims. In particular, she has acted in group litigations against the manufacturers of breast implants and in the ongoing Fetal Anti Convulsant group litigation. Multiple Claimants v Sanifo- Synthelabo Ltd & Anr [2007] EWHC 1860 (QB).
|