Kathryn Hart

Kathryn has a caring and sympathetic approach, her aim being to help her clients understand the legal process and to make pursuing a claim as easy as possible. She understands the worries that people have about making a claim and about approaching a solicitor. She takes the time to listen to her clients’ concerns and to answer them in as straightforward a way as possible. She will always get the best possible settlement for each of her clients.

Kathryn has substantial experience in making personal injury claims and has a particular knowledge of head injury claims involving adults and children and of injuries caused by motorbike accidents. Kathryn also has considerable knowledge of asbestos related industrial disease cases.

In a large number of her claims, Kathryn has been able to arrange for private rehabilitation and has secured interim payments for many of her clients.

• Accidents at work
• Brain injury
• Rehabilitation
• Serious injury
• Transport & road traffic accidents

A claim by a widow for her deceased husband’s exposure to asbestos dust
The claim was against the deceased’s former employer. The deceased suffered from asbestosis and from lung cancer as a consequence of the exposure to asbestos dust over a period of two years in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The first defendant was an insolvent company and the insurance that was traced for the first defendant covered the lung cancer element but not the asbestosis element. The second defendant remained solvent.

Limitation was an issue as the defendants alleged the deceased should have been aware of the asbestosis 20 years’ earlier and causation was disputed.

The deceased had been a smoker and asbestos related disability was 20% and non asbestos related disability was 50%. The co-morbidities also reduced the Claimant’s life expectancy.

The parent company denied that it owed a duty of care or that a breach by the first defendant could render it liable. Both defendants contributed to the settlement of £80,000.

Claim for injuries sustained on school bus
At the age of 16, whilst a passenger on a school bus, the claimant suffered a serious orthopaedic and neurological injury from which he made a reasonable recovery. The claimant maintained that he had on-going neuropsychological sequelae.

The crux of the case was to what extent the claimant’s current presentation would cause him any significant future loss of earnings. Particular focus fell on the loss of academic qualifications and consequent career options for the claimant as he was injured in the year of his GCSEs and his subsequent academic achievements do not match up with his pre-accident predicted academic “trajectory”. The evidence on this issue was contentious.

A particular point in issue was provisional damages; the claimant had a clear future risk of epilepsy and the defendant had set its face against a provisional award meaning that a joint settlement meeting was unsuccessful.

Settlement was achieved on Part 36 offers of £250,000.00 including a provisional damages award.