William Chapman > Chambers of Rachel Langdale KC > London, England > Barrister Profile

William Chapman

020 7242 3555 wchapman@7br.co.uk View profile

Position

William is a civil law practitioner. His principal areas of practice are personal injury and clinical negligence. He also accepts instructions in employment and commercial disputes.

He is regularly instructed in claims valued £1m to £10m including those who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. He has detailed knowledge of life expectancy and the calculation of appropriate multipliers. He is credited with the Additional Life Tables in Ogden 8. He is the author of online software for the precise calculation of any multiplier including joint multipliers. He acted for Matthew Wiessler in the ‘Princess Diana’ case. He is often instructed in clinical negligence claims for detailed consideration of the statistical basis supporting reduced life expectancy and chances of survival from delayed diagnoses.

He read economics at Cambridge and worked as an economics consultant in the UK and USA before coming to the Bar.

He has particular expertise in civil actions against the police and social services and the law of the liability of public authorities. He is, and has been, junior counsel in a number of cutting edge cases on the scope of public authority liability for determination in the Court of Appeal. He is regularly instructed in claims arising out of historic child abuse including complex cases where such children have suffered additional traumatic brain injury. He was counsel for core participant victims of historic child abuse in six of the investigations conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. His speeches were widely reported in the mainstream media. He is regularly instructed as the family’s representative in Inquests.

He acts for respondents and claimants in the Employment Tribunal, particularly where there is overlap with claims for personal injury.

Career

Called 2003; Grays Inn. Key cases include: Sadler v Filipiak (Court of Appeal 10 October, 2011); Dunn v Durham County Council (Appeal, Manchester County Court, 23 March, 2012); R v Reynolds [2007] EWCA Crim 538; Mansfield v NYK (Willesden County Court, 27 April, 2006).