Sarah Pritchard QC

Profile

Queen’s Counsel specialising in clinical negligence litigation. Her practice covers a wide range of medical malpractice but she has particular expertise in birth damage claims, cauda equina cases and surgical negligence. She also has a substantial personal injury practice dealing with high value and complex cases and actions involving contribution proceedings between insurance companies and healthcare providers.

Year of Call: 1993

Areas of Expertise

Clinical Negligence & Healthcare

Sarah is a clinical negligence specialist. Her practice covers all areas of medical and dental negligence with particular emphasis on surgical negligence, birth injury cases and complex quantum claims. She is a highly experienced trial advocate and works closely with her solicitors at all stages of the litigation. She is well used to managing teams of medical / quantum experts both at conference and in preparation for trial. She is also a skilled negotiator and has conducted many round table meetings to successful conclusions.

Significant Reported Cases

Woodward v Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust [2012] EWHC 2167 (QB) (01 August 2012)

Download Clinical Negligence & Healthcare Profile

Inquests

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Serious Injury

Sarah is predominantly involved in high value claims involving catastrophic injury, (brain and spinal injury, quadriplegia, paraplegia) and significant psychiatric injury. Her expertise in clinical negligence work makes her ideally suited for cases of the utmost severity which have complex medical causation and quantum issues.

Significant Reported Cases

Johnson v Warburtons LTD [2014] EWCA Civ 258 (12 March 2014)

Download Serious Injury Profile

Memberships

Personal Injuries Bar Association
Committee member of the Northern Circuit Medical Law Association
Northern and North Eastern Circuit

Qualifications

University: Manchester

Degree: LLB (Hons) Lydia Kemp Scholarship and RG Lawton Prize

Year of Call:1993 (Gray's Inn) Junior scholarship

Joined Chambers:1994

Head of Kings Chambers Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury team

Recommendations

Chambers UK 2022

"A very experienced and driven barrister who handles complex medical negligence cases with ease, swiftly and persuasively cutting through the evidence to the key issues. She is meticulous in her preparation and offers pragmatic and realistic advice. While enormously personable in her approach and manner with clients and opponents, she is formidable in settlement negotiations, ensuring that the best possible outcome is achieved."

Legal 500 2022

"Thorough and knowledgeable. Gets to grips with extremely complex liability issues with ease. A fearless advocate, wonderful with clients. Down to earth and approachable."

"Sarah is a fearless advocate who gets to grips with extremely complex liability issues with ease. Her advice is very clear. Wonderful with clients."

Chambers UK 2021

"A pragmatic and resourceful barrister, who is straightforward and clear in her advice." "She is excellent in court and meticulous with her preparations."

"She is fantastic with clients and is very reassuring, but still razor-sharp, precise and persuasive." "Great in negotiations."

Legal 500 2021

"Sarah is brilliant with clients and puts them at ease with her charm but she is also always on top of all the facts and evidence with flawless attention to detail."

"Pragmatic, good rapport with clients, technical knowledge is excellent. Ability to negotiate excellent settlements in complex cases."

Legal 500 2020

"Fantastic with clients and excellent in conference."

Chambers UK 2020

"Sarah is unshakable in her quest to get the best outcome for her clients and is a fearless advocate who provides sound and balanced advice." "She is excellent, personable, and aware of sensitivities in clinical negligence cases. She provides solid advice and performs exceptionally well at JSM, mediation and trial."

Chambers UK 2019

"Exceptional. She provides clear, sensible advice and is excellent with the client." "She gets to know a file instantly and gets to the key issues straight away. In conferences, she has been very supportive and encouraging of experts and then very robust at settlement."

"She would be my first port of call. She is excellent in court and very robust in round-table meetings." "I was extremely impressed with Sarah’s attention to detail and her ability to break down extremely complex causation arguments." "Thorough gets on well with clients and is a formidable advocate."

Legal 500 2019

"Incisive, tenacious and forthright."

Chambers UK 2018

"Is incredibly impressive whilst maintaining that friendly accessible quality." "She was excellent on her feet and very persuasive with the witnesses." "She's thorough, gets on well with clients and is a formidable advocate."

"She was well prepared and got to the heart of the issue." "She's really good, has a really good grasp of the issue and is very easy to deal with."

Legal 500 2018

"She has a staunch approach to cases and a great client manner."

Chambers UK 2017

"She is robust in negotiations with the opposite side." "She is feisty, thorough and on top of the evidence, so she knows all the caveats we could use to put pressure on the other side."

Legal 500 2017

"A personable practitioner with excellent advocacy skills."

Chambers UK 2016

"She's very savvy about how the opponent will behave. She's very forthright and sensible."

"She's really thorough and good with clients."

“Incredibly adept at dealing with difficult experts and conditions. She can cut through to the key issues and gets straight to the point. Extremely good on the medical aspects, and is formidable in court, where her attention to detail is very impressive.”

Legal 500 2015

"Gets to the crux of the case quickly."