Christopher Stephenson succeeds in High Court claim for PTSD for ambulance technician

News

01/02/2017

Dianne Kennedy was exposed to carbon monoxide whilst sitting in a London Ambulance Service vehicle as a solo responder. She was rushed to hospital and told she had carbon monoxide poisoning. Mrs Kennedy developed a severe psychological reaction to the exposure, which resulted in her giving up her employment. Her case was that she had developed PTSD and was continuing to suffer severe symptoms which were preventing her from working. The Defendant argued that her illness was unrelated to the accident, and was caused by social factors unrelated to the exposure. After a 4 day trial, HHJ Hughes, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, concluded that the Defendant’s neuropsychologist had misrepresented Mrs Kennedy’s medical records and preferred the Claimant’s expert on all the material issues. He awarded the Claimant £280,000.

Click here for media coverage.

Featured Counsel

Latest News & Events

The Dekagram: 12th May 2025

This week Thomas Yarrow revisits the vexed question of the use of artificial intelligence in legal research – and our intrepid reporter finds that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact the experience led him to such depths of despair that he…

The Dekagram: 6th May 2025

This week Ben Rodgers relays two tales from the coalface, both relating to applications to resile from admissions. Readers will be interested to know that in both cases the court applied the balance of prejudice test with the result that the defendants’ applications were refused….

The Dekagram: 28th April 2025

This week Conor Kennedy considers a novel point of construction in relation to challenging service of claim forms; the headline is that defendants must take steps to mount a jurisdictional challenge within the tight deadlines provided for in the CPR, but Conor asks whether this…

Subscribe to our mailing list

Deka Chambers: 5 Norwich Street, London EC4A 1DR

© Deka Chambers 2025

Search

Portfolio Builder

Select the expertise that you would like to download or add to the portfolio

Download    Add to portfolio   
Portfolio
Title Type CV Email

Remove All

Download


Click here to share this shortlist.
(It will expire after 30 days.)