David Sharpe KC and Christopher Fleming BL will discuss the Supreme Court's decision McCulloch v Forth Valley Health Board and its practical implications for clinical negligence litigation. The talk will cover the impact of the judgment on Montgomery, the two-stage approach to informed consent, the role of expert evidence, the limits of patient choice, and what McCulloch means for practitioners in Northern Ireland.
Speaker Bio(s):
David Sharpe KC (Call: 1999; Silk: 2020) is King’s Counsel at the Bar of Northern Ireland, Senior Counsel in Ireland, and a practising barrister in London and Dublin. Before coming to the Bar, he qualified and practised as a doctor, reaching consultant level in emergency medicine. He holds fellowships of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons. His medical background provides a distinctive foundation for his practice in complex healthcare, injury, regulatory and expert evidence disputes.
David acts in major clinical negligence and medical law cases, including birth injury, delayed diagnosis of cancer and sepsis, brain and spinal cord injury, and complex causation and quantum disputes.
Christopher Fleming BL (Call: 2017) is a barrister at 12 King’s Bench Walk specialising in personal injury and clinical negligence. He practises in both Northern Ireland and England & Wales, with expertise in complex clinical negligence, personal injury and cross-border claims.
Christopher has experience dealing with claims involving negligent surgery (including TVT-O surgery), birth injuries, optometric negligence, plastic surgery, delayed diagnosis, care home claims and ambulance services litigation. He is also an editor of the 12KBW Clinical Negligence Blog.
