Citadel Law adds clinical negligence trio

Specialist PI consulting law firm Citadel Law has added three clinical negligence specialists to its expanding team.

Edel Rome, Scott Lister and Stephanie Forman will join managing director Lesley Graves in response to rising numbers of caseload reviews which have shown firms to be struggling with clinical negligence cases.

Rome has over 15 years’ experience of a wide range of clinical negligence cases and is a Deputy District Judge on the North West Circuit, and a senior lecturer at BPP. Lister was a nurse for several years before qualifying as a solicitor with Irwin Mitchell. He is also an AvMA Information Line volunteer. And Forman has almost 30 years’ experience of litigating clinical negligence claims in firms such as Pannone, Irwin Mitchell and Alexander Harris. She is a member of the AvMa and Law Society panels, and a regular media commentator.

Graves said that Citadel’s experience was that law firms had taken on more clinical negligence work in recent years as the personal injury market had changed.

“We’ve carried out numerous diagnostic reviews on clinical negligence caseloads and there is a real issue of low levels of expertise and poor risk management," she said.

"These are having a substantial impact in key areas like client care and billing, and pose a real threat of professional negligence claims.

“It can be all too tempting to look at clinical negligence cases and think they’ll be high profit, without realising how much work and expertise is needed. Many firms have found it a real challenge to monitor fee-earners because it takes time and money to establish negligence, and staff can hide for several years before the cracks in litigation management, cash flow and capital expenditure really start to show. By then there can be devastating financial consequences and client care is nowhere in sight."

Mark Dugdale