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2007 Called to the Bar of England and Wales
2006 Appointed Senior Visiting Fellow, University of New South Wales
2006 Publication of Mullany & Handford's Tort Liability for Psychiatric Damage (2nd ed.)
2005-2007 Member Confidentiality of Health Information Committee of Western Australia
2002-2006 Member Medical Board of Western Australia
1998 Member Mental Health Review Board of Western Australia
1998 Publication of Torts Tomorrow: A Tribute to John Fleming
1997 Appointed Adjunct Professor of Law, University of New South Wales
1997 Publication of Torts in the Nineties
1993 Publication of Tort Liability for Psychiatric Damage: The Law of ‘Nervous Shock’
1993 Appointed Inaugural Editor of the Tort Law Review
1991 Called to the Australian Bar
1991 Magdalen College, University of Oxford
B.C.L. (First Class)
1989 University of Western Australia
LL.B (Hons) (First Class)
Frank Edward Parsons Memorial Prize in Law (most outstanding graduand)
Email: nmullany@3serjeantsinn.com
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Nicholas’ practice includes the following:
Mental health – issues of capacity, consent to treatment, compulsory detention, treatment decisions concerning mental patients under the terms of the Mental Health legislation and at common law, representation in the Mental Health Review Tribunal and on judicial review and appeals.
Nicholas is a former member of the Mental Health Review Board of Western Australia.
He has lectured and written extensively on mental health law including numerous articles in various international legal journals and the leading international text on liability for psychiatric damage - Mullany & Handford’s Tort Liability for Psychiatric Damage (2nd ed, 2006) (by Dr Peter Handford).
Public inquiries and inquests – medical and mental health related issues, deaths following police involvement or contact including deaths in custody and prison, public inquiries and inquests following disasters and catastrophic events and judicial review.
Nicholas has a particular interest in more complicated matters and in judicial review and appeals. He has appeared throughout the United Kingdom in numerous lengthy inquests in which Article 2 of the ECHR has been engaged. He appears for interested persons of all categories including family members, trusts and individual doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.
Recent inquests include representation of a hospital trust following the death of a two year old boy from meningococcal septicaemia, of a hospital trust following the death of a neonate from an acute hypoxic ischaemic cerebral injury, of a mental health trust following the suicide of a young woman formerly under care, of a hospital trust following the death of a four month old infant who received ten times the appropriate dose of diuretic medication, of NHS Direct following the death of an elderly man from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, of a hospital trust following the death of an elderly man from complications arising from inguinal hernia repair, of a hospital trust following the death of a patient from multi organ failure and sepsis, of a hospital trust following the death of a dementia patient from bronchopneumonia, of a mental health trust and psychiatrist following a death in custody, of a general practitioner following the death of an infant from listeriosis, of a family of an elderly resident who died at a nursing home, of a hospital trust in an inquest concerning heparinisation following the death of a patient from pulmonary thromboembolism and deep vein thrombosis, of a mother following the death of a neonate, of a widow following the death of her husband in a road accident involving another driver who suffered an epileptic seizure, of a widow following the death of her husband after biopsy of the L4 vertebra and the L4/L5 disc and subsequent haemorrhage, of a widower following the death of his wife from cardiorespiratory failure consequent on a chronic gastrointestinal pseudo-obstruction causing massive distension of the abdomen, of a hospital trust following the death of a detoxifying prison inmate from streptococcal septicaemia, of a general practitioner following the death of a prison inmate from acute cardiac failure and of a general practitioner following the death of a patient from a cerebral abscess.
Clinical negligence – complex medical and legal issues including controversial or difficult duty of care, causation, consent, damages and limitation of action questions, actions for psychiatric injury (“nervous shock”), “wrongful life”, “wrongful conception”, “wrongful birth”, “failure to warn”, “failure to diagnose”, “loss of chance”, obstetrics, gynaecology, catastrophic injury, high value claims, appeals.
Nicholas has a particular interest in surgical cases including neurosurgery, gynaecological, urological, general, cardiothoracic, orthopaedic, vascular, plastic and cosmetic surgery. He has extensive experience appearing for both claimants and defendants in a wide range of cases including numerous complicated claims of maximum severity.
Recent cases include representation of a claimant mother in a multi million pound claim for catastrophic neurological injury sustained to her during caesarean section, of an infant in a similarly significant claim for severe perinatal injury sustained due to midwifery failures, of both claimants and hospital trusts in suits for serious injuries consequent on shoulder, bowel, urinary and breast reduction surgeries and of a hospital trust in defence of a consent claim referable to complicated and allegedly experimental epilepsy surgery.
Medical ethics – issues of capacity and best interests in relation to all aspects of treatment decisions concerning both adults and minors, issues in relation to other medical decision making, organ and tissue transplantation, removal and ownership of body parts, clinical research, consent, confidentiality, judicial review and appeals. He appears for interested parties of all categories including patients, family members and trusts.
Recent cases include representation of a mother whose son had been shot in an application by a hospital trust not to resuscitate him or administer additional treatment, of a mother whose son was in a persistent vegetative state following a car accident in an application by a hospital trust to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration, of a hospital trust in its application to withdraw treatment from a seriously neurologically compromised infant and of a hosptial trust in its application to compel an elderly schizophrenic patient to undergo mastectomy of her left breast and axillary node clearance.
Nicholas is a contributor to Medical Treatment: Decisions and the Law (2nd ed, 2010).
Human rights – impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on all aspects of medical and mental health law
Professional discipline - advisory work and representation of professionals from all medical and allied fields in disciplinary hearings in various tribunals, committees and panels including the General Medical Council, the General Dental Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council and on judicial review and appeals.
Sports law – medical related issues including treatment of sporting injuries, advisory work and representation of sportsmen and women in disciplinary hearings in various tribunals, committees and panels and on judicial review and appeals.
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Tame v New South Wales (2002) 211 CLR 317 (High Court of Australia) – liability for psychiatric injury
Koehler v Cerebos (Australia) Ltd (2005) 222 CLR 44 (High Court of Australia) – liability for psychiatric injury
Gibbs v Mercantile Mutual Insurance (Australia) Ltd (2003) 214 CLR 604 (High Court of Australia) – insurance/maritime law
Smith v ANL Ltd (2001) 204 CLR 493 (High Court of Australia) – constitutional law / acquisition of property (rights to sue for personal injury) on just terms
Klein v Minister for Education (2007) 81 ALJR 582 (High Court of Australia) – workers’ compensation
Carr v Western Australia (2007) 232 CLR 138 (High Court of Australia) – criminal law / evidence / admissibility of videotaped evidence of admissions recorded without consent
Prast v Town of Cottesloe (2000) 22 WAR 474 (Full Court of Supreme Court of Western Australia) – catastrophic brain injury / liability of public authorities and occupiers / “failure to warn”/ causation
Boyes v Colins (2000) 23 WAR 123 (Full Court of Supreme Court of Western Australia) – successful challenge to the then established practice of courts’ refusal to compel defendants to personal injury actions to discover or disclose prior to trial surveillance video tape evidence of plaintiffs / legal professional privilege
Annetts v Australian Stations Pty Ltd (2000) 23 WAR 35 (Full Court of Supreme Court of Western Australia) – liability for psychiatric injury (counsel for defendant)
Morgan v Tame (2000) 49 NSWLR 21 (New South Wales Court of Appeal) – liability for psychiatric injury
Re Monger; Ex Parte Dutch (2001) 25 WAR 96 (Full Court of Supreme Court of Western Australia) – workers’ compensation / nature of medical evidence necessary to satisfy relevant legislative provisions
Glossop v Commonwealth of Australia (1998) (District Court of New South Wales) – liability for psychiatric injury / case compromised during lengthy trial (counsel for defendant)
Jones v Moylan (1997) 18 WAR 492 (Full Court of Supreme Court of Western Australia) – compromise of infant’s claim for catastrophic brain injury/ parens patriae jurisdiction of court / payment of funds to next friends and private trustees
Brotherston v Royal Perth Hospital (1995) 15 SR (WA) 42a (District Court of Western Australia) – catastrophic brain injury arising from failure of intensivist / six week trial / the then highest award of damages made in the jurisdiction
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Tort Liability for Psychiatric Damage: The Law of ‘Nervous Shock’ (1993) (co-author with Dr Peter Handford). Foreword by The Right Hon. Sir Thomas Bingham.
This work has been categorised as “one of the most widely reviewed legal monographs ever published”. It has been cited extensively in the literature and analysed by law reform agencies and courts throughout the world including the House of Lords and the Court of Appeal.
The Law Commission has referred to the book as a “meticulously researched” work from which it derived “great help”. Reviewers have called it “a work of impressive scholarship at once indispensable to the practitioner” (the late Prof. John Fleming), a work of “impeccable” scholarship and a “magnificent compendium of material, unrivalled in its coverage and presentation” (Tony Weir) and a “superb treatment of the subject” (The Hon. Justice Allen Linden). It has been said that “this is a work that no law library should be without. Nor should any practitioner whose practice includes, or could include, cases of this type” (Prof. Gerald Fridman).
Torts in the Nineties (1997) (editor). Foreword by The Hon. Sir Gerard Brennan AC, KBE.
Torts Tomorrow: A Tribute to John Fleming (1998) (co-editor with The Hon. Justice Allen Linden). Foreword by The Hon. Anthony Murray Gleeson AC.
Mullany & Handford’s Tort Liability for Psychiatric Damage (2nd ed, 2006) (by Dr Peter Handford). Foreword by The Right Hon. Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG.
Nicholas has published numerous articles, comments and notes in various international legal journals including the Law Quarterly Review, the Modern Law Review, the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Lloyds Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, the University of New South Wales Law Journal and the Melbourne University Law Review.
His scholarship has been referred to by numerous appellate courts including the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Ireland, the High Court of Australia, the New Zealand Court of Appeal, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia and the Courts of Appeal of New South Wales, Queensland, Ontario, British Columbia and, most recently, Singapore.
Inaugural Editor of the Tort Law Review
Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Professional Negligence
Member of the Editorial Board of the Lloyd's Law Reports: Medical
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