Year of call 1999
Joanne is a very experienced advocate who has developed considerable expertise in employment law, personal injury law, clinical negligence and the law relating to inquests. For many years, she has been highly commended for her advocacy skills in all the leading directories. In the most recent edition of Legal 500 Joanne is categorised as a Tier 1 Counsel for employment. She is widely acknowledged as a very skilful and determined cross examiner and she has a complete understanding of all aspects of contested trial work.
Joanne has a very substantial employment law practice. She is primarily, but not exclusively, instructed on behalf of Respondents. In personal injury claims, Joanne has a thriving practice on behalf of Claimants in all areas of employer liability and road traffic accidents. In clinical negligence, Joanne is regularly instructed on behalf of Claimants in which difficult liability and causation issues invariably arise. In recent years Joanne has been engaged in many Inquests some of which have attracted considerable media attention.
Joanne acts in a wide variety of employment disputes for a number of public bodies. These include a number of UK government departments, a number of local health boards and a number of local authorities. On behalf of these public bodies, she has been engaged in defending all kinds of employment related claims but particularly claims for unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal, unlawful deduction of wages, disputes surrounding the transfer of undertakings and discrimination of all kinds. Joanne is fully adept at handling the full range of issues that arise in such cases.
Joanne is particularly well regarded in discrimination cases. She has been regularly instructed to defend such claims on behalf of HMRC, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence, Cardiff & Vale Local Health Board, Cwm Taf Local Health Board, Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board, Hywel Dda Local Health Board, Betsi Cadwaladr university Health Board and Public Health Wales. Recently, she successfully acted for a local health board in a race discrimination claim brought by a nurse who had been accused of sexually assaulting a patient on one of its wards; she also acted for a health board in a hotly contested unfair dismissal/constructive dismissal and disability discrimination claim involving a locum GP who claimed to have a medical exemption from wearing PPE during the covid pandemic. In a complex Tupe claim, she acted for the Department of Education which involved interesting points of law regarding the status of company directors in the context of organised groupings of employees.
Joanne’s work on behalf of local authorities has included advising upon a wide range of issues such as the legal status of the employment relationship between the local authority and the governing body of schools, disciplinary processes and the correct procedures to follow in cases in which protective disclosures have or may have been made in the particular context of child safeguarding. More recently, she was instructed to conduct a full investigation into a serious grievance raised by an employee of Natural Resources Wales regarding the application of its policies at the conclusion of a fixed term appointment.
In addition to her Tribunal work, Joanne also has experience of acting as the legal chair in doctors’ disciplinary panels under Upholding Professional Standards in Wales. In this capacity, she has acted as chair in serious appeals brought by consultant doctors who have faced final written warnings and dismissals. In April 2023, Joanne was also appointed to act as a legally qualified chair in police misconduct hearings by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Wales.
Since the inception of the Employment Tribunal Litigant in Person Support Scheme (ELIPS) Joanne has supported it whole heartedly by offering her services free of charge at the Cardiff Employment Tribunal whenever other professional commitments allow. Under the scheme complicated cases brought by unrepresented employees are listed for various kinds of hearings and the barrister or solicitor on call is expected to offer sensible and practical advice and represent the employee at a hearing. Joanne finds this pro bono work very fulfilling and gives her insight into the difficulties faced by employees who may have been treated unfairly.
Joanne has a substantial personal injury practice acting for both Claimants and Defendants in employers’ liability, public liability, occupiers liability, product liability and road traffic cases. She has experience in disease cases, including HAVS, deafness and stress claims.
Joanne has acted for Local Health Boards across Wales, many of the major insurance companies, a number of government departments and she has also been instructed on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. Over the last few years in particular Joanne has been instructed with much greater frequency on behalf of Claimants through their unions and under conditional fee arrangements in a variety of claims. She has considerable experience in advisory work, settling pleadings, including schedules of special damages and counter schedules and her advocacy experience extends to a high level, including the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Recently Joanne was instructed and led in a very serious brain injury case which attracted an award in excess of 1.2 million.
Joanne has handled a large number of employers liability claims examples of which include a Claimant who was electrocuted at work as a result of which she suffered very significant neuro-psychiatric injuries, a fatal accident claim following the electrocution of an electrician during the course of his employment with his local authority and a claim by an anaesthetist in which she alleges that she has suffered a brain injury as a consequence of an unsafe system of work being in existence during the course of eye surgery at a hospital in London.
Joanne acts, principally, for Claimants in a variety of different types of clinical negligence claims. Invariably, she advises on the prospects of establishing liability and causation and, by way of example, she has been involved in cases relating to negligent misdiagnosis relating to cancer and heart disease. She has been instructed to act on behalf of a doctor whose cancer was missed on two separate scans; on behalf of a retired consultant maxilla-facial surgeon who had been suffering from coronary heart disease for many years but received medical treatment which was wholly inappropriate for the condition from which he suffered; on behalf of a patient whose serious back condition was misdiagnosed with catastrophic consequences and on behalf of a patient who was misdiagnosed in respect of a shoulder injury with the result that necessary surgery wasn’t carried out leaving him with permanent life changing injuries.
Joanne is frequently instructed to attend inquests in which there are prospects of claims for clinical negligence arising. She seeks to provide a service whereby she is involved in such cases from the beginning of the investigation to final disposal of the claim. Recently, Joanne acted for the family of a deceased man in his early 40s who had died in hospital as a consequence of developing sepsis following bowel surgery. Joanne represented the family at the Inquest. Thereafter, she provided advice on liability (including limitation issues), causation and quantum, settled the pleadings and conducted negotiations at a joint settlement meeting resulting in a settlement of the claim well into six figures.
In recent years Joanne has made frequent appearances at Inquests on behalf of a number of different organisations and clients. She has acted on behalf of the Ministry of Justice in respect of deaths in prisons in Cardiff, Swansea, Exeter and in Kent. She is fully conversant with all the necessary requirement for the conduct of inquests which need to comply with Article 2 of the ECHR. She has acted for a doctor who was potentially at fault in respect of the death of a baby during the course of delivery at hospital. Joanne has also been instructed on behalf of insurers in respect of deaths which have occurred in the workplace and in road traffic accidents.
Joanne regularly acts for the families of deceased persons. In 2016 she acted for the daughters of an elderly lady who had died in a care home. The daughters were convinced that their mother had been treated negligently by some of the staff at the care home relating to the way in which she was fed. The pathologist who gave evidence to the inquest initially reported that the cause of death was aspiration pneumonia but during the course of his evidence without any prior warning, he changed his opinion and asserted a wholly different cause of death. As a consequence the coroner concluded that death was attributable to natural causes. Following the inquest, the daughters obtained independent pathological evidence which demonstrated, very convincingly, that the cause of death had been aspiration pneumonia. Based upon this evidence, primarily, Joanne sought a fiat of the Attorney General to challenge the conclusion of the inquest and, his fiat having been granted, proceedings in the Divisional Court were instituted which led to the quashing of the conclusion and a new inquest being ordered. At the fresh inquest, the coroner concluded that the medical cause of death was aspiration pneumonia attributable to neglect whilst resident at the nursing home.
Most recently, Joanne has acted for the widow of a young man who died in hospital as a consequence of clinical negligence and the dependents of a young man who was electrocuted during the course of his employment as an electrician. Following the inquests, Joanne was instructed and successful in both civil claims.
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