Richard Tyson > Chambers of David Berkley KC > Bristol, England > Barrister Profile

Richard Tyson

Work Department

Public and Regulatory; Family; Clinical Negligence.

Position

Richard Tyson has regularly appeared in the leading directories in each of his principal areas of work; which are:

• All aspects of family work, including Inheritance Act, but in particular complex financial remedies work
• Professional discipline in healthcare Fitness to Practice Panels
• Personal Injury
• Professional Negligence with a clinical or matrimonial basis.

He is a past contributor to Sweet & Maxwell’s Encyclopedia of Financial Provision in Family Matters.

PUBLIC AND REGULATORY

Richard has extensive experience in healthcare regulatory work. He principally acts for the General Medical Council in its fitness to practice panels. He also defends in cases before the disciplinary panels of the General Dental Council, the Health Professions Council and the General Osteopathic Council. He has experience of Legal Assessing with the Nursing & Midwifery Council panels. In addition to his healthcare work Richard has acted for registered providers (such as care homes, care home managers and nurseries) in Care Standards Tribunal cases.

In his GMC work Richard has acted in a number of high profile cases, including the prosecution of medical experts engaged in child protection cases, such as Professor Southall (in one case over his involvement in the Sally Clark murder case after watching a television programme, and in another over his behaviour towards certain parents and his keeping of “secret” files on a number of his child patients), and Dr Paterson (whose “specialism” was in temporary brittle bone disease). He has prosecuted doctors of many disciplines with wide ranging allegations of misconduct – from a consultant psychiatrist’s treatment of transsexuals to a consultant gynaecologist’s treatment of, and fraudulent behaviour towards, her fertility patients.

Richard’s healthcare regulatory work is both advisory and in front of panels. This involves a thorough grasp of the law and practice in this developing area.

Notable cases

• Dr David Southall v The General Medical Council [2009] EWHC 1155 (Admin) in the Administrative Court
• Dr David Southall v The General Medical Council [2010] EWCA Civ 409 in the Court of Appeal

FAMILY

Richard Tyson has long been recommended for his family work in the leading directories.

Richard’s family work covers the full range of issues, with particular emphasis on complex financial remedy cases. With an understanding of accounts and a mastery of detail he represents clients where the source of wealth (sometimes hidden overseas) comes for self-made millionaires, household name PLC directors, premiership footballers or from farming individuals (a particular specialty). Richard enjoys working as a team with clients, as well as instructing solicitors and experts from a number of disciplines.

In addition Richard does a considerable amount of private family law, including relocation, and acts for local authorities in public law matters. He has recently successfully completed a 19 day High Court fact finding hearing.

Richard’s understanding of family matters is constantly being expanded when he sits as a Recorder with a private family law ticket. His long experience of family law is also increasingly being used in solicitor’s negligence actions in this field.

Notable recent family cases:

• B Children. 2015. Family Division
  Acting for a local authority in a 19 day fact finding into step father’s rape of step daughter and mother’s invented account of how his body fluids were found on the child’s underwear.
• W v K 2012 – 2014
  Long, intractable contact saga, where children defied orders and ran away.
• S v H 2012 – 2015
  Long, running contact and Schedule One Children Act case, where mother often in person and created obstacles in both sets of proceedings.

Notable reported family cases:

• M (children) [2010] EWCA Civ 69 [public family law]
• Sandford v Sandford [1986] 1 FLR 412 (Ct Appl) [ancillary relief]
• Seaton v Seaton [1986] 2 FLR 398 (Ct Appl) [ancillary relief]

Publications 
Past contributor to Sweet & Maxwell’s Encyclopaedia of Financial Provision in Family Matters.

CLINICAL NEGLIGENCE

Acting principally for Claimants, Richard Tyson’s clinical negligence practice has long complemented his principal practice in healthcare regulation.

His current cases:

One against London’s leading children’s hospital where a child developed a stroke, leading to significant disability, in the course of an operation to correct the shape of her head. Negligence is alleged against the consultant paediatric neurosurgeon who conducted the operation using a novel approach.

Another against a major London teaching hospital where, following a Serious Untoward Incident Investigation report, liability is not in issue, but the assessment of damages is a real challenge in light of the client’s other medical conditions and financial circumstances. The negligence is alleged against a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and his team.

In a third current case Richard is acting for a consultant radiologist who is accused by his Trust of over claiming for the interpretation of scans out of his contracted hours. Having in the recent past prosecuted a fraud case involving a consultant for the GMC at a Fitness to Practice Panel, Richard’s familiarity with NHS consultant’s Job Plans and the workings of the NHS Counter Fraud Service have proved of great value.

Richard is also acting for a Defendant NHS Walk In Centre where failure to diagnose a condition is alleged against a community practice nurse.

Richard’s expertise in handling cases, including brain damage cases, with a plethora of experts is a particular specialty – both within and without the Rehabilitation Code.

Career

Year of call 1975

Memberships

• Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL)
• Family Law Bar Association (FLBA)
• Personal Injury Bar Association (PIBA)
• Professional Negligence Bar Association (PNBA)
• Public Access Bar Association (PABA)
• Recorder in crime, civil and private family law
• Legal Assessor to the Nursing and Midwifery Council
• Head of Chambers of 3PB for 9 years until October 2013

Education

BA (Exon)