Call: 2007
Ben Rodgers is a personal injury and clinical negligence specialist. He can help with tricky issues in insurance, workplace safety law, civil procedure and costs, actuarial methods of calculating future losses, claims for future loss of earnings and care, and fatal accident claims. He is instructed in High Court cases involving life-changing injuries including injuries to the brain, serious orthopaedic injuries and chronic pain disorders. He also has expertise in maritime accidents, injuries sustained abroad, criminal injuries compensation and inquests. He edits the road traffic accidents chapter in APIL Personal Injury and contributes chapters to Work Accidents at Sea by Grahame Aldous KC and Linda Nelson and The APIL Guide to RTA Liability.
Ben can give particular assistance with complex EL and PL cases, often involving construction sites and industrial accidents. Many of these cases involve workers who cannot give instructions in English.
Ben routinely deals with difficult road traffic liability situations, often involving reconstruction evidence. He is well-versed in Road Traffic Act liability and motor insurance.
Industrial disease claims: Ben has recently dealt with respiratory disease claims for mould, isocyanates, coffee and flour. He has handled cases of platinum salts sensitisation, hepatitis, legionnaires and malaria.
When not dealing with the above, Ben’s practice consists of advising and drafting schedules of loss in claims worth up to £3m, usually as sole counsel. These are mostly orthopaedic and brain injury claims, and he is familiar with claims having a pain / fibromyalgia / FND aspect.
settled claim for hip injury for £1m at JSM
drafted £2.8m schedule of loss in brain injury claim arising from RTC
£900,000 EL brain injury claim
successful appeal against disapplication of QOCS
successful claim by cabin crew member for injury caused by contracting malaria down-route
Ben frequently pleads and appears in cases within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court, instructed both by shipowners and injured crewmen, officers, stevedores, passengers and others. Recent cases include:
Limitation claim arising out of catastrophic injuries to family members on canal boat
Defending claim against shore-based recruiter by cable-layer plough driver claiming to be employee
Claim by powerboat driver injured off Mumbai during a race
Claim by visitor to ship injured due to lack of familiarity with ship procedures
Serious back injury sustained by marine salvage worker in South African coastal waters
Various claims by stevedores against the Ports of Felixstowe and Southampton, and against Maersk
Claim against Royal Navy arising out of offshore helicopter exercise
Claim by seaman injured aboard Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship in Caribbean
Claim against operator of the Woolwich Ferry
Claim arising out of negligence of Southampton mooring launch driver
Various pieces of litigation involving accidents on cruise liners
Ben has a busy practice advising on cross-border personal injury litigation, and lectures on jurisdiction, choice of law and limitation. Recent cross-border cases include:
Claim by cabin crew against airline employer following contracting malaria down route
Pre-Brexit Odenbreit claims relating to RTCs in France and Spain
Various package travel claims including Jamaica, UAE etc
Claim by English employee arising out of accident in Northern Ireland
Claims by BP employees arising out of attack on Algerian gas facility
Claim in England under Portuguese law against uninsured English owner of Algarve villa
Brain injury sustained by English professional footballer in car being driven in South Africa by English driver
Ben also accepts instructions in clinical negligence cases, the following being a sample of his recent cases:
Diathermy probe negligently causing burn to ureter during private gynaecological surgery
Failure to diagnose slipped upper femoral epiphysis leading to hip replacement at age 17
ZXC v. Essex [2022] 6 WLUK 42: maternal death in labour due to failure to infuse blood clotting products
Premature discharge of dialysis patient with dangerous hypertension and cerebral aneurysm
Assault on HCA by unmanageable patient
Causation of stroke following 4-year delay in referring to tertiary centre
Ben regularly acts for bereaved families at inquests into workplace, hospital and road traffic deaths, and is familiar with the extreme pressures which these hearings place on relatives of the deceased. The stress is particularly acute in the case of hospital inquests, where the family usually requires insulation from the trust’s understandably anxious employees. Ben has seen inquests from the other side too, representing local authorities, major public companies and witnesses before the coroner.
Recent inquests include:
2-week inquest, cleaner killed in travellator at Waterloo
2-day inquest, collision between cyclist and refuse lorry
5-day inquest, patient died during caesarean section
5-day inquest, patient died following dialysis
5-day inquest, pedestrian died in unguarded excavation
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB)
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and holds a current practising certificate.
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Regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB)
Regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and holds a current practising certificate.
View my privacy policy.
Deka Chambers: 5 Norwich Street, London EC4A 1DR