Catherine Kearney > Weightmans LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Catherine Kearney

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 Catherine joined the Large Loss team in London in March 2019. She was admitted as a solicitor in Northern Ireland in 1999, Ireland in 2002 and England and Wales in 2005 and has practised in all three jurisdictions.
 Catherine is named as a key lawyer in the 2021 edition of the Legal 500 UK, for defendant personal injury work in London.
 She has over 20 years’ experience in personal injury litigation and over 15 years’ experience in defending motor, public and employers’ liability claims for insurer clients and self-insured organisations. She specialises in defending large loss claims involving brain, spinal, amputation, complex and fatal injuries.
 Catherine has advised clients in relation to:
 
  catastrophic spinal injuries sustained by a motorcyclist who collided with a car at speed, securing a substantial reduction for contributory negligence following a High Court trial of liability where the defendant’s CCTV and accident-reconstruction evidence was preferred to that of the claimant (Hernandez v Acar & EUI Ltd [2019] EWHC 72);
  jurisdiction to determine a claim for personal injuries brought by a UK-domiciled claimant injured in a French adventure park who had sued the park’s French-domiciled insurers (Thwaites v Aviva Assurances [2010] Lloyd’s Rep. IR 667);
  the successful defence of a police misfeasance and assault claim following a seven-day jury trial and the successful section 33 Limitation Act application for strikeout of a related claim due to prejudice to the defendant;
  settlement of the claim of an equity partner in a national law firm who was cognitively impaired following a road traffic collision, involving the need to forecast likely loss of drawings;
  settlement of a claim involving brain injury in a young man where surveillance footage indicated that he was more independent than had been claimed;
  settlement on a PPO basis of the claim of a young man spinally injured in a road traffic accident;
  settlement on a PPO basis of the claim of a young man severely brain injured in a road traffic accident;
  a claim arising from the death of the claimant’s partner, proving that she had been untruthful as to the length of their cohabitation and thus her status as a dependant, resulting in the claim being discontinued and substantial costs recovered;
  the successful defence, after a five-day trial, of a lorry driver prosecuted for driving without due care and attention following the death of a cyclist, followed by settlement of the resulting civil claim on favourable terms
  numerous cases involving pain disorders.