Frances McCarthy
Mediator since 2006
Specialist areas: personal injury, clinical negligence, multi party.
“has extensive experience and great client-handling skills” Legal 500
Professional
•
•
Frances is a qualified CEDR mediator and jointly with Tim Wallis mediated
various costs issues at the request of the Civil Justice Council including the levels
of success fees to be claimed in personal injury cases. At the time of these
mediations Frances was a member of the Civil Justice Council and she was swift
to gain the confidence of the UK claims managers representing insurers.
Although she is now a neutral by training and experience, insurers find her
claimant background most useful when bringing claimants into the mediation
process.
Personal injury and clinical negligence expertise. Frances worked with Sir
Henry Brooke and others to establish the specialist personal injury mediation
provider Trust Mediation Ltd in 2007. Trust Mediation settles about 85% to 90%
of claims on the day of the mediation or shortly afterwards. Many of these
settlements are delivered by Trust Mediation’s unusual 4 hour model and some
from telephone mediations.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Multi Party and legal costs mediations.
o With Tim Wallis Frances has mediated many personal injury industry
legal costs mediations concerning, for example, predictable costs in RTA
claims and success fees. These high value mediations were usually hosted
by the Civil Justice Council and the Ministry of Justice. The Master of the
Rolls was a participant on occasions. This experience has proved
invaluable when mediating multi party civil litigation claims.
o Frances has had experience of mediating specific costs disputes, both for
individual matters and for a group action. In mediations, Trust Mediation
encourages the parties to attend the mediation with costs information to
hand, with a view to agreeing costs as well as damages on the day.
Recognised mediation expert. Frances has lectured on mediation matters and
has helped to devise and lead mediation Master Classes, including one on joint
behalf of the Association of Personal Injury lawyers and the Forum of Insurance
Lawyers. She has published articles on mediation.
Leadership roles. Frances is managing partner of Pattinson & Brewer where
she also heads up the personal injury department. She qualified as a solicitor in
1981 and as a civil litigation solicitor for 35 years she has specialised in personal
injury, clinical negligence, industrial disease and professional negligence acting
for claimants and trade Unions. As a mediator she has mediated many disputes
involving personal injury, clinical negligence and multi-party matters including
one relating to costs in a class action. In addition, with Tim Wallis she has
mediated industry issues primarily under the auspices of the Civil Justice
Council.
She was elected President of the Personal Injury Lawyers in 2000 and served for
2 years, leading a group of 5,500 lawyers in difficult and challenging times
In her roles as managing partner of her practice, president of the Association of
Personal Injury Lawyers and member of the Civil Justice Committee, Frances has
demonstrated that she has earned the trust and confidence of her peers to lead
them in difficult and challenging times. Her selection to be a mediator of the
complex industry issues with Tim Wallis shows that all parties have confidence
in her neutrality and ability as a mediator
Peer recognition. Frances is listed in the Chambers and Legal 500 directories.
Her work in ADR has been recognised by the following award:
o
Mediation Achiever of the Year: Personal Injury Awards 2015
Mediation experience – personal injury / clinical negligence
Recent mediations include:
•
RTA, cyclist injured by car. Allegations of contributory negligence not accepted
by Claimant. Claimant self-employed, substantial future losses claimed. Liability,
causation and quantum. Resolved in 4 hour mediation
•
•
RTA matter where one party now in care, defence of automatism. Difficult family
issues
Complicated asbestos-related case; multi-Defendants. Resolved over 2 meetings
to enable further information to be obtained
Feedback:
• “Frances was clear about her role and objective in her approach. Her manner in
dealing with the parties was entirely consistent with her role as a mediator, and
was wholly conducive to facilitating settlement discussions.” Donna Rawding BLM
• “The mediator was particularly effective in handling quite tricky issues arising out
of my solicitor’s unusual approach to the adversarial process.” Matthews Phillips,
Counsel
• “Very nice professional manner – would recommend her to others” Gerrard Martin
QC
• “A mediator in this difficult case certainly made a difference. This case is unlikely to
have settled without a mediator at the meeting. The mediator helped take out the
emptions and focus on the objectives;” Defendant Insurer
• “We found the mediation to be extremely successful and would recommend the
service in the future. The process was straightforward and clearly aided
settlement;” John Appleyard, Hill Dickinson
• “The mediation process has been very effective in resolving apparently
insurmountable issues between the parties. The mediator conducted the mediation
very effectively and we would recommend her to colleagues;” Joanna Folan;
Beachcrofts
Multi Party – industry legal costs mediations
See above under “Multi Party Mediations”.
Finally
Mediation is extremely effective in breaking deadlocks in seemingly impossible
disputes, providing parties with a way of resolving matters where agreement had
seemed hopeless. Empathy and knowledge are key to this in my experience
There is tremendous satisfaction to be gained in facilitating such outcomes with the
benefit of substantial preparation, hard work and good humour.
Contact:
[email protected]
0207 353 3237
www.TrustMediation.org.uk