Mr Gurion Taussig > Deka Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Mr Gurion Taussig

gtaussig@dekachambers.com

Work Department

Personal Injury

Position

Gurion has a busy paperwork and court practice in the fields of personal injury and medical negligence. He also undertakes a range of general commercial and property litigation. He is known for providing clear, practical advice coupled with a sympathetic approach to clients. He has substantial experience in trial and procedural advocacy in tribunals ranging from the County Court to the High Court. In court, he has a reputation for making persuasive submissions as well as robust cross-examination of witnesses and experts. At the same time, he is a good negotiator and often undertakes mediations and joint settlement meetings. His personal injury practice is mainly claimant work. He also has developed a significant costs practice arising largely from personal injury and medical negligence work, involving both detailed assessments and discrete costs issues in the SCCO. In his employment work Gurion acts for both employees and employers ranging from local authorities to biotec companies. He has substantial experience of unfair dismissal and discrimination claims at the Tribunal as well as advising in conference and conducting negotiations. In addition, Gurion has always maintained a broad interest in commercial and property work and has particular interest in insolvency and landlord and tenant matters including anti-social behaviour trials.

Career

Gurion practices across a wide range of personal injury work. He has wide experience of employers’ liability, public and occupiers’ liability, fatal accidents, holiday and travel as well as road traffic claims. He also undertakes disease work including deafness, mesothelioma, HAVS and often involving limitation trials. He continues to expand his medical negligence practice including amputation, plastic and laser surgery, dental and mis-diagnosis claims. He also has experience of undertaking substantial CICAP cases. Gurion is frequently instructed in brain injury cases, increasingly of high value. He has related interest in psychiatric injuries and advises frequently on chronic pain conditions and stress at work claims. His defendant clients often instruct him in fraud-related road traffic work. He regularly advises on difficult issues of causation (in a recent example, whether an arachnoid cyst was caused by a fall at work) and is comfortable drafting substantial Schedules and Counter-Schedules. He is known by his clients both for his attention to detail and engagement with procedural and technical issues, but also his common-sense feel for the merits of a case or argument. Whether for claimants or defendants, he believes strongly in servicing his client’s case load across types of case and from lower to higher-value work.Gurion is the present Secretary of the APIL Procedure Special Interest Group. He lectures particularly on employer’s liability and quantum. He has contributed to Kemp & Kemp and is presently writing on employer’s liability for Journal Personal Injury Law. Recent cases: B v M (Uk) Ltd (JSM, October 2014). Achieved a £325,000 settlement for claimant who suffered an arachnoid cyst in his back following a workplace accident. The case involved complex arguments regarding medical causation. Settlement however acknowledged that the accident had likely caused the cyst or triggered an asymptomatic condition and the reality that the claimant, a 54-year old lorry driver, would be unlikely to regain employment in either his chosen or any other field of employment. G v CICAP, October 2014 (Cardiff Panel). Successfully achieved £375,000 award from CICAP for brain damaged victim of a violent assault in 2003. Counsel’s involvement spanned four years, having first drafted appeal against CICA decision in 2010, when the claim was rejected in its entirety. Awards for care and loss of earnings claims were made substantially in excess of six-figures, this notwithstanding the fact the appellant had been in full-time (albeit protected) employment as an industrial painter for the last four years. B v London General Transport Ltd, August 2014 (Central London County Court, HHJ May QC). Successfully represented claimant injured when bus ran over his foot whilst he was engaged in a brawl whilst leaving a bus. Three-day trial involving cross-examination of medical expert on issue of causation and consideration of the scope of the Public Service Vehicle (Conduct of Drivers, Inspectors, Conductors and Passengers) Regulations 1990. G v Daniels (JSM, June 2014). Achieved settlement of £180,000 for claimant sustaining multiple injuries in road traffic accident. Complex quantification of loss of earnings claim due to claimant being paid only in benefits-in-kind prior to the accident. P v East Kent Hospitals (Settlement, May 2014). Successfully represented claimant from commencement of claim (drafting Letter of Claim) in above-knee amputation case resulting from negligent surgery. Case included large claim for future care involving care and accommodation experts; settled days before trial in excess of £250,000. A v Leeds City Council, January 2014 (Leeds County Court, HHJ Saffman). Successful occupiers’ liability trial for ex-heroin addict who fell down communal stairs in council block and suffered serious ankle fracture. Claim proceeds now on quantum only, and is pleaded in excess of £500,000. M v Amey Plc, March 2014 (Southampton County Court, DJ Loughridge). Successful three-day trial on liability, limitation and quantum in HAVS case. M v MOD, (ongoing) advisory and interlocutory work in employer’s liability matter for ex-firearms officer deprived of high-flying military career by reason of accident. Claim pleaded slightly below £1M.

Education

Education:English Literature: Cambridge University BA (Hons), Leeds University MA, PhD, Postgraduate Diploma in Law (Distinction) and BVC (Very Competent): BPP Law School, London.