Jonathan is the head of our specialist advocacy service, 8 DAC Beachcroft Buildings (8DB).

Jonathan specialises in personal injury, inquests and costs litigation. Having undertaken pupillage at Chambers in Manchester he practised as a self-employed barrister until joining an international law firm in May 2013 as an employed barrister to create and head up an in-house advocacy team. He successfully built and grew a national team of barristers, advocates and clerks in the first model of its size and scale in England & Wales.

Jonathan specialises in complex personal injury, costs disputes with complex technique points or high value Bills and Inquests. He has over 13 years’ experience advising clients across a range of sectors including Insurance, Healthcare Regulatory, Commercial and Costs Litigation.

Jonathan has vast experience in dealing with civil litigation claims and has a particular specialism in complex personal injury claims, costs litigation and HSE and Healthcare inquests. During his time at the external bar and as an employed barrister within international law firms, he has built up a high value, multi-track practice.

He has experience in high value, complex personal injury disputes, with particular experience in Pain Management and Occupational Disease claims. Jonathan conducts costs litigation for receiving and paying parties on complex technical arguments and multi million pound assessments for both insurer and private clients. His inquest experience extends to multiple interested person, complex and multi week long inquests in the Healthcare, Regulatory and HSE Investigation areas.

His appellate experience relates to being led on complex costs litigation appeals and running appeals alone up to the High Court.

Relevant experience / notable cases includes advising:

• High Court Appeal; Akers & 39 ors v Kirlkland [2019] EWHC 2176 (QB). Acted as a costs specialist junior in a successful appeal on judicial recusal and judicial bias. Judgment is a key summing up and clarification on a key principle of law.
• Widely publicised Appeal; Flanagan v Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance PLC (16th May 2019). Successful challenge on the formation of a Part 36 Offer and subsequent costs consequences, acting for RSA.
• The multimillion pound High Court Detailed Assessment in January 2019 that flowed from LJ Coulson's judgment in MacInnes v Gross [2018] EWHC 127 (QB). Master Brown dealt with one of the first judgments on CPR 3.18 "good reason to depart from budgeted costs".
• Various v S (2017) - Represented two defendant companies defending a multimillion pound claim brought by over 25 passengers involved in a coach crash. In the early days of costs budgeting Jonathan represented the parties at a full day CCMC dealing with four budgets each claiming millions in legal costs. The case involved disputes in relation to liability, causation, contributory negligence, quantum and particularly complex Part 20 claims.
• At an Article 2 Jury Inquest Jonathan represented security staff who allowed the deceased, who suffered from mental illness and lacked capacity, to leave hospital and subsequently commit suicide. Multiple complex issues on right to detain, mental capacity testing and contractual duties applied. Avoided negative comments about the client within the Area Coroner’s Narrative Conclusion was highly critical of others, which was also accompanied by PFD reports for two of the other IPs.
• Represented youth residential care provider of the deceased who committed suicide following years of sexual abuse whilst a resident at the client’s setting. The employee was convicted of rape and sexual assault weeks before the suicide took place. Through careful marshalling of the evidence over the month long inquest Jonathan was able to avoid any negative criticism of the client within the Area Coroner’s Narrative Conclusion.

Jonathan was recognised as ‘Top of Year [2007]’ by the University of Lincoln and was awarded the Langley’s Best Law Student Award [2007].

In addition, Jonathan has the following professional memberships:

• The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple
• Personal Injury Bar Association
• Member of the Northern Circuit

Jonathan is regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and holds a current practising certificate. If you are not satisfied with the service provided, please contact BSB.