Jimmy Barber

Jimmy is a specialist practitioner in the fields of clinical negligence, personal injury and industrial disease. He joined St John’s Chambers in September 2015 having previously practised in London.

In clinical negligence, Jimmy has experience of cases involving a wide array of areas of medicine and dentistry and acts for healthcare providers, clinicians and claimants. He regularly advises on and settles pleadings in cases involving delays in diagnosis, injuries caused by or in the course of surgery and failure to obtain proper consent.

In his personal injury practice, Jimmy is often instructed on behalf of local authorities and public bodies in defending highways and occupiers’ liability claims. He regularly defends personal injury claims involving allegations of fraud, exaggeration and fundamental dishonesty. He has significant experience in industrial disease claims and employers’ liability claims, in particular in claims involving noise-induced hearing loss and non-freezing cold injuries brought by military personnel. He was led by Andrew McLaughlin in successfully opposing the appeal in Stewart v Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 2091, having defended the NHS Trust as sole counsel at first instance.

Jimmy is adept at dealing with cases involving complex and technical issues. He has a particular interest in civil procedure, on various aspects of which he has given talks and seminars.

Prior to specializing in clinical negligence and personal injury, Jimmy developed his advocacy skills and legal knowledge practising in a range of common law and commercial work. He prosecuted and defended in the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts and regularly appeared before the Employment Tribunal. He has spent periods working in-house at HMRC, the Government Legal Department and the Ministry of Health. For two terms he was the judicial assistant to Lord Thomas (who was at the time President of the Queen’s Bench Division), working at the Civil Appeals Office at the Royal Courts of Justice.