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deborah blythe
Partner
+44 (0)20 8394 6576
Deborah.Blythe@russell-cooke.co.uk
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Deborah is a Partner and Head of the Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury Team. She has been a recognised "Leader" in the field of clinical negligence for several years. Over the years she has built up extensive experience in handling claims of all sizes, covering a wide range of injurious conditions including vascular complications, tumours, bowel injuries, bladder injuries and back injuries.
Deborah specialises in complex and high value claims and has particular expertise and interest in cases relating to birth related brain injury in babies, the treatment and diagnosis of many types of cancer particularly breast cancer, and dental claims.
Many of her cases have been reported both in the legal and public press.
Examples of notable cases in which she has advised include:
- Acting on behalf of a lady who suffered an above the knee amputation as a result of negligence on the part of the operating surgeon.
- Obtaining damages of £4.4million for a little boy who was irreversibly brain damaged when he was deprived of oxygen just before his delivery at Mayday Hospital, Croydon in June 1999.
- Deborah also acts for Claimants who have suffered occupational disease as a result of exposure to asbestos.
Chambers (2008) describes her as a "fantastic adviser" with the "right mix of compassion and empathy".
Deborah is well regarded for her work on serious clinical negligence claims, earning praise for her "calm, supportive nature throughout some highly emotive cases" and her "astute and sensible approach to claims" (Chambers 2011). She is recommended in 'Legal Experts 2012' and Legal 500 (2012) who describe her as 'clever,conscientious'.
Chambers 2013 comment that Deborah is regarded as an "excellent lawyer with a good approach to cases. She is praised by practitioners in this area as an individual who is realistic and easy to get on with, and who achieves resolution quickly."
She has acted in a number of cases which have established some important legal principles including Wilson -v- Best Travel (AER) which established the principles of duty of care owed by Tour Operators, and a number of cases involving issues in relation to Limitation - one of which was successfully taken to the Court of Appeal.
Deborah is an Association of Personal Injury Lawyer (APIL) member, a member of Action Against Medical Accidents (AVMA) and is on the Law Society Personal Injury Panel and the Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel. She is committed to the public funding system and was responsible for ensuring that her Firm was one of the first to obtain a Legal Aid franchise in clinical negligence and personal injury. She has been responsible for obtaining the new legal services civil contract in clinical negligence.
Deborah studied law at University, qualified in 1984 and was a Partner at an established specialist practice in South London from 1987 to 1991 and joined Evill & Coleman in 1991, becoming a Partner in 1992. She joined Russell-Cooke when the firms merged in 2005.