Chris Taft

PROFILE

Chris is an experienced, busy personal injury practitioner with a loyal solicitor client base, many of whom have been instructing him over very many years. He has more than 25 years’ experience in personal injury litigation, acting for both Claimants and Defendants. He is an experienced trial advocate. He takes a practical approach, and he is known for his ability to develop a rapport with lay clients.

AREAS OF PRACTICE

SERIOUS INJURIES

Chris has a large multi-track practice, regularly acting for both claimants and defendants in higher value claims arising out of road traffic accidents, accidents and work and public liability. He has particular experience of acting for officers injured in the course of their duty.

He regularly appears in trials and acts at JSM’s in cases of higher value.

Recent examples of his work include:

• Settlement at JSM, unled, of a spinal injury claim against the MOD for provisional damages in excess of £3m.
• Successful liability defence at trial in relation to serious injuries caused by an allegedly dangerous dog in a public place.
• Successful liability defence at trial of a claim involving loss of the part of the claimant’s hand in a piece of industrial machinery.
• Successful representation at trial of a claimant police officer injured during self-defence training, despite the force calling numerous police witnesses of fact in opposition to the claimant’s version of events.
• Successful prosecution of a claim for serious injuries caused by an assault by a child service user on a care worker.
• Representation of a care worker who lost part of a finger when bitten by a severely autistic adult in her care. (Liability denied, case settled on the eve of trial.)
• Successful settlement at JSM of the claim of a care worker who suffered serious psychiatric injury as the result of a knife attack by a service user.
• Settlement at JSM on behalf of a senior police officer injured in a road traffic accident. Liability dispute involving engineering evidence. Officer remained in role but settlement achieved in the sum of £275,000 on the basis of loss of promotion prospects.

INSURANCE FRAUD

Chris regularly represents insurers in cases in which the claimant’s honesty is placed in issue, both in the road traffic field and in more serious cases of exaggeration of injury and loss involving surveillance evidence.

NOTABLE CASES

Engel v. The Joint Committee for PATROL [2013] ICR 1086

Laing v. Manchester City Council [2006] IRLR 748