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Richard Hartley KC

Year called: 1985

Year of Silk: 2008

Email Richard Hartley KC

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Area of Expertise

Civil Law

Appointments

Richard sits as a Recorder in Criminal Cases in the Crown Court and in Civil Cases in the County Court.

He is a member of the Northern Circuit Working Party on Joint Settlement Meetings.

Richard Hartley took silk in 2008

Professional Memberships

  • The Personal Injuries Bar association;
  • The Northern Circuit Medical Law Association

Awards

Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2018 (Personal Injury – Barrister of the Year – UK)

 

Approach

An important part of our ethos as a set of chambers is that our barristers can be telephoned on an informal basis to mull over a problem or to chat about an issue without always the need for formal instructions. An ongoing relationship between Solicitor and Counsel is highly valued by this set and all its members.

Recommendations

bers and Partners – UK Bar 2023

Richard Hartley KC is a highly regarded personal injury silk. His practice focuses significantly on catastrophic injury cases, including sports injuries, as well as chronic pain conditions. He represents both claimants and defendants.”Richard has a pragmatic approach.”

Chambers and Partners – UK Bar 2022

Richard Hartley QC is highly regarded personal injury silk. His practice focuses significantly on catastrophic injury cases, including sports injuries, as well as chronic pain conditions. He represents both claimants and defendants.
Strengths: “A very good advocate and a very good negotiator.” “He has an absolutely fantastic manner with clients and experts.” “An insightful and forensic barrister.”

Chambers and Partners – UK Bar 2021

Highly regarded personal injury silk. His practice focuses significantly on catastrophic injury cases, including sports injuries, as well as chronic pain conditions. He represents both claimants and defendants.
Strengths: “He is very bright, extremely good with clients and always well prepared.” “Richard is really pragmatic and very approachable.”

Chambers and Partners – UK Bar 2020

Highly regarded personal injury silk. His practice focuses significantly on catastrophic injury cases, including sports injuries, as well as chronic pain conditions. He represents both claimants and defendants.
Strengths: “He’s knowledgeable, extremely approachable and takes a very practical approach to his cases.” “He’s extremely professional, hard-working and dedicated. He has a real empathy with his clients and is very diligent with paperwork.”

Chambers and Partners – UK Bar 2018

“Highly regarded personal injury silk who is also head of chambers. His practice focuses significantly on catastrophic injury cases, including sports injuries, as well as chronic pain conditions. He represents both claimants and defendants.
“His ability to cut through the most complex issues and advise clients in extremely difficult times, with charm and humour, is wonderful.” “Considering his level of expertise and position in chambers, he is very approachable, easy to work with and has an exceptionally down-to-earth manner with clients. He is a pleasure to work with.””

Chambers and Partners – UK Bar 2017

“Highly regarded personal injury silk who is also head of chambers. His practice focuses significantly on catastrophic injury cases, including sports injuries, as well as chronic pain conditions. He represents both claimants and defendants and receives wide acclaim for his advocacy and ability to build rapport with clients.”

Strengths include “His extensive knowledge of the law and of the tactics involved with litigating catastrophic injury claims mean he is someone I would always want on my side. He has the ability to make even the most complex legal issues seem straightforward.” “He has excellent expertise and brilliant ideas. He is also very good at dealing with difficult family dynamics and complicated situations.”

The Legal 500 – 2021

‘Very down to earth with clients and makes them feel at ease. Very passionate about ensuring he helps to get the best possible settlement.’

The Legal 500 – 2019

‘Very strong on his feet; his disarming style gets results.’

The Legal 500 – 2017

States: “A wonderful negotiator and clients naturally warm to him”

The Legal 500 – 2016

States: “A conscientious and hard working advocate”

Chambers and Partners – UK Bar – 2014

“Richard Hartley QC of Cobden House Chambers Heads the set’s personal injury group, and acts for both claimants and defendants on complex cases. Expertise: “He’s personable; extremely good with clients and experts, and has a very good presence in court.” “He gives very straightforward advice and is good at getting to the crux of the issue with experts on complex cases.”

The Legal 500 directory

States: – Cobden House Chambers’ friendly and approachable Richard Hartley QC and Marc Willems regularly handle multimillion-pound litigation.

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Practice Overview

He is a Civil Practitioner with a busy paper and Court practice.
He specialises in personal injury and clinical negligence work of the higher value and more complex kind as well as dealing with Sports Injuries, Regulatory Law and Insurer Recovery cases. He is instructed by both Claimants and Defendants.
 
Richard is regarded as one of the busiest and most well-respected P.I. Silks in Manchester and his effectiveness continues to attract praise. He took silk in 2008 and has continued to develop a strong practice. He has received praise in the major legal directories.
The majority of his work concerns major injuries sustained in road traffic accidents, accidents at work, occupiers liability claims, clinical negligence, product defects and fatal accidents. The injuries differ greatly, but recently he has worked increasingly on claims involving major brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, major orthopaedic injuries and sports injuries involving claims for the lost chance of sporting earnings – including several high profile players and clubs from a variety of sports.

As well as pure compensation claims, he deals with some of the ancillary work such as health and safety prosecutions and appeals, regulatory law, coroner’s inquests and Article 2 Inquiries. He is frequently instructed in cases involving very large claims, sometimes with a Junior and sometimes alone.

He is considered to be approachable as well as hard working.  Solicitors have frequently fed back to the clerking team that he has put clients at ease and combined a professional attitude with a friendly approach.

He has appeared in reported cases involving acceleration of injuries, jurisdictional disputes and liability and quantum decisions. He has appeared as Lead Counsel for the Claimant in most of the recent high value sports injury cases and has appeared for premiership and international players and appeared in what is currently the highest ever value sports injury claim and is currently instructed in several other similar cases for Claimants and Defendants. He has also appeared in cases involving professional Rugby League and Rugby Union players, golfers and other sportsmen.

Notable/Recent Cases

  • Acted for the applicant in judicially reviewing the decision of a coroner where, at an inquest, the employer was found to have exposed the deceased to chemicals which caused his death. Led by leading counsel. 
  • Advised an interested person in relation to its response and position to an application for judicial review arising from a death in a care home.
  • Acted for a hospital in relation to the death of a newborn baby in its maternity ward.
  • Acted for the insurers of a driver in relation to a road traffic collision. The case was a rare instance where the coroner had to consider a conclusion of unlawful killing, because of the standard of driving of one of the vehicles.
  • Acted for the healthcare provider in relation to the death of an inmate in prison. The prisoner had committed suicide, and issues included addressing the mental health risk assessments and treatment provided to the prisoner. 
  • Acted for the employee of a specialist children’s cot supply company in an inquest arising from the death of a disabled toddler. Issues around gross negligence manslaughter and tampering with evidence were addressed at the inquest. 
  • Acted for the owner of a farm at an inquest arising from a death on the farmyard.
  • Acted for the owners of a care home in relation to the death of a resident following a fall at the care home. Issues in relation to neglect, risk assessments and adequate care aids being in place were addressed. 
  • In module one, acted as part of the team advising one of the Core Participants at the Covid Inquiry.
  • Was part of the team assisting on a discovery and disclosure exercise in a billion pound High Court action concerning a foreign tax law claim.