The recent reported case of Mark Pollock captured the media’s attention as well as that of the legal industry. Ben Rogers and Matthew Stockwell, who represented Mark, explain the key issues in the case in an article in APIL’s PI Focus publication.
In July 2010, Mark Pollock fell from a second story window whilst staying at his friends’ house. The blind athlete and motivational speaker suffered a head injury and a catastrophic spinal cord injury, rendering him paraplegic as a result of the fall.
The claimant argued that the open window in the room that he was staying in gave rise to a risk of serious injury to him, and also that the second defendant had addressed this risk in her mind prior to the fall. The case was further complicated because the claimant did not recall the accident and nobody witnessed it.
The judge reviewed evidence from both lay witness and experts, as well as biomechanical evidence when hearing the case, and the type of evidence used lead to some interesting points to be considered in future cases.
Mark had a long list of achievements prior to his fall. After losing his sight at age 22, he became the first blind man to race to the South Pole. As a rower, he won two medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Rowing Championships. Unbreakable, a film about his rehabilitation journey, was released in 2014.
To read the full article, please click here – PI Focus – An Unusual Case , or visit APIL’s website (subscription required).
Ben Rogers is a Partner in the Personal Injury department. He specialises in catastrophic personal injury work, with particular expertise in spinal cord, brain, complex orthopaedic and amputee injuries. Chambers 2015 states that he “really pushes the boat out for clients.” and he is described in Chambers 2014 as “absolutely fantastic – one of the most committed lawyers I’ve worked with.”
Ben has conducted some high profile cases including: acting on behalf of the claimant in the ground breaking personal injury case of Astrit Tafa v Matsim Properties & Ors; acting on behalf of a serviceman in the high profile case of Robert Uren v (1) Corporate Leisure (UK) Limited (2) Ministry of Defence; and acting on behalf of a serviceman in the case of Dale Messenger v Ministry of Defence who suffered serious spinal injuries during a live ammunition training exercise in the Falkland Islands.
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Media contact: Lydia Buckingham, Senior Marketing Executive, +44 (0) 20 7822 8134, lbuckingham@stewartslaw.com
