Fiona Wise

PROFILE

Fiona joined Chambers in 2011. Having completed pupillage under the supervision of Jaime Hamilton KC and mentorship of now DJ Matthew Haisley, she developed a mixed practice which is now focused upon Personal Injury, Inquests and Regulatory work.

Personal Injury

• Fiona has a busy multi-track personal injury practice, acting for both claimants and defendants. 
• She regularly defends road traffic claims on the grounds of fundamental dishonesty.
• She is repeatedly instructed in cases involving credit hire.
• She prepares written advices on quantum and liability, covering areas including employers’ liability, public liability and road traffic accident claims.
• Fiona is always available to advise in conference including testing witnesses in cases concerning witness credibility and suspected fraud cases.

Inquest and Regulatory

• Fiona has a wide-ranging inquest practice, and is experienced in cases involving the engagement of Article 2 and the requirement for a jury. Fiona is able to draw on her significant experience of appearing before juries in the Crown Court when representing the interests of lay clients at inquests.
• She represents a range of Interested Persons, including family members, doctors, medical staffing agencies, Local Authorities and Insurance Companies.
• She has particular expertise in medical treatment cases, and recently secured a finding of neglect from HM Senior Coroner in a case involving conflicting expert evidence on the issue of causation.
• Fiona’s inquest practice dovetails with her work in personal injury, and she receives regular instructions from insurers involved in traffic accidents and police pursuit cases.
• Fiona is on the panel of counsel instructed to represent the General Medical Council in regulatory proceedings against doctors before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

Criminal

• Fiona has prosecuted and defended in all areas of crime including cases involving multi-million pound frauds, serious sexual offences, supply of Class A drugs, firearms offences, serious assaults and robbery.
• Fiona has considerable experience of advising prosecuting authorities, local councils and public bodies on disclosure of documents and public interest immunity issues in complex, multi-defendant cases, including as Independent Counsel assessing the application of legal professional privilege.
• She was junior counsel in the successful prosecution of a multi-complainant rape and sexual abuse case involving assessment of the medical and social services’ records of 11 complainants, dating back to the 1970s.
• Fiona has advised on and conducted applications, variations and breach proceedings in respect of gang injunctions, housing injunctions, anti-social behaviour orders, football banning orders and domestic violence prevention orders. She also has experience of proceedings brought under the Licensing Act 2003.

Prior to being called to the bar, she read History at Trinity College Dublin and thereafter worked as a political researcher to the European Parliament in both Brussels and Strasbourg.

Fiona's hobbies include horse riding, open water swimming and trail running, the latter having seen her recently complete her first ultra-marathon. Although no longer of an age where playing rugby remains an option she is a keen supporter of Northampton Saints RFC!

Prescribed Information

Miss Fiona Wise is a practising barrister, who is regulated by the Bar Standards Board. Details of information held by the BSB about Miss Wise can be found here.

Miss Wise’s clerks will happily provide no obligation quotations for all legal services that she provides. Their contact details can be found here. It is most common for Miss Wise to undertake court work for a brief fee plus refresher days.  For advisory work, drafting and conferences it is most common for this to be charged at an hourly rate although fixed fees are available. Miss Wise will consider Conditional Fee Agreements and Damages Based Agreements in cases with favourable prospects of success. Miss Wise will typically return paperwork within 14 days, however professional commitments, complexity and volume of documentation can affect these approximate timescales.