Coodes Solicitors won Clinical Negligence Team of the Year at the 2024 Personal Injury Awards. We spoke to them to find out how it feels to be an award winning team, the great work they do to make them winners, and to get their insights into the future of the personal injury industry.
Congratulations on winning Clinical Negligence Team of the Year! What does winning this award mean?
Winning the Clinical Negligence Team of the Year award is an extraordinary honour that reflects the dedication, expertise and compassion our team brings to every single case and client.
It is a fantastic achievement not just for the team but the whole firm. We know our team is small in comparison to some but more than packs a punch against the much larger national firms.
It underscores our unwavering commitment to justice, our specialist expertise and our dedication to our clients. After being shortlisted for the award the previous two years, this is a particularly proud moment for the team and everyone at Coodes.
Can you elaborate a bit more on the great work the team does?
The clinical negligence team at Coodes Solicitors, led by Rachel Pearce, has significant expertise in a range of clinical negligence claims, including birth injuries, catastrophic neurological injuries and amputations. We also manage mental health cases, which result in representation at inquests, including preventable suicide cases and Jury Inquests.
Everyone in the team fights for and achieves justice for their clients while helping to secure early rehabilitation and compensation to rebuild their lives. We maintain an excellent reputation for handling difficult and high value claims and are one of two firms in Cornwall with a Legal Aid contract for birth injury claims.
The team has achieved successful outcomes for several clients who were previously rejected by other firms. We have been recognised in the Chambers and Partners Guide 2025 which ranks the Clinical Negligence Team as Band 3 for the third year running, recognising the team’s expertise in a range of claims and their ability to “explain the process in a jargon-free way”, their empathy and hard work to “leave no stone unturned when investigating”.
The judges were very impressed with the growth trajectory. How have you been able to grow so quickly, so successfully?
Several strategies have been key to this growth including:
- People – the focus has been to attract exceptional legal talent with specialism in Clinical Negligence as well as developing the existing team through specific training and mentoring in order to organically grow talent from within.
- IT – using advance case management systems and specialist tech platforms has enabled the team to work efficiently, manage cases effectively and streamline the process as far as possible.
- Client care – the team deliver exceptional client care, build