Judith Burns

Judith Burns practices exclusively in serious and catastrophic injury and clinical negligence claims. She is equally at ease representing both Claimants and Defendants and believes that maintaining a balance of instructions from both improves outcomes for all of her clients.

She is recognised for her ability to quickly develop a rapport with both professional and lay clients by delivering advice, which is straightforward, realistic and robust.

Her current case load for Claimants includes high value clinical negligence, brain injury, amputation, fatal accident and serious psychiatric injury claims. She has particular knowledge and expertise of high value claims involving pain syndromes. Over the last year alone she has acted alone and concluded many claims pleaded at over £1 million and is currently instructed as Junior Counsel in several lower limb amputation cases.

She is known for her ability to translate complex medical and legal issues into readily comprehensible practical advice and is trusted by clients who regard her as empathetic and personable.

For Defendants Judith acts for health care trusts in clinical negligence claims where she has experience in a broad range of claims including misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis and surgical negligence. She continues to receive instructions from high profile retail, logistics, construction companies in employer’s and public liability claims. She is also panel counsel instructed regularly by insurers in cases involving suspected fraud.  She has recently been instructed in several contempt of court applications in the High Court arising from fraudulent personal injury claims.

Judith regularly delivers training to clients and recent seminars including Chronic Pain Claims, Work Related Upper Limb Disorder Claims and Fundamental Dishonesty.

Recent example cases of note (2019-2025)

TJ v BG and others – High Court. Junior Counsel instructed by Claimant. Lower limb amputation claim. Complex procedural difficulties relating to service pre-issue with further issues arising from uninsured status of D1, attempts by Insurer to avoid indemnifying driver and involvement of MIB.

RW v LR – High Court. Junior Counsel instructed by the Claimant. Lower limb amputation claim.

LW v DL – High Court – Instructed by Claimant. Brain injury and serious orthopaedic injuries following an RTA

RG v JG – County Court – Instructed by Claimant – Serious brain injury and post traumatic epilepsy following a fall through a roof.

BE v A hospital – High Court. Instructed by Defendant. Clinical negligence claim arising from failure to diagnose a slipped upper femoral epiphysis in the Claimant who was then aged 13. Claim for significant future loss of earnings, treatment and care arising from restricted mobility. Settled at JSM in June 2025.

NC v M and Others  - County Court. Instructed by Claimant. Serious leg, head and psychological injuries following an explosion on a building site. Claims brought against 3 Defendants including the Claimants employer, the principal contractor and the producer of a product implicated in the explosion. Matters were significantly complicated by the Claimants immigration status as he did not have leave to remain in the UK at the time of the accident and issues of illegality and fundamental dishonesty were raised by the Defendants. Pleaded at over £600,000 and involved detailed consideration of the possibilities for the Claimant’s future loss of earnings claim having regard to his immigration status. Settled at mediation in January 2025 for a significant sum notwithstanding the Defendant’s attempts to escape liability.

Iceland Foods v Birch [2023] EWHC 3390 KB Instructed by Iceland. Advised upon and drafted all necessary documents for Iceland to bring contempt proceedings against the Defendant who had previously attempted to bring a fraudulent personal injury claim against Iceland claiming she had slipped and fallen in one of their stores. CCTV footage demonstrated the claim to be a fraud. Represented Iceland through to final hearing where the Defendant was given a suspended sentence. This case received widespread national publicity in the press and is referred to in the White Book as an example of the procedure to follow where there are no existing court proceedings, see Notes to CPR 32.14 (32.14.1)

K v RM – Instructed by the Claimant. The Claimant suffered serious and significant psychological injury following a road rage incident. The claim was unusual in that that the Claimant was physically relatively unscathed and was able to return to work in a high paid job soon after the accident. His substantial claim was based upon his difficulties in carrying out overtime which the psychological evidence attributed to his psychological injury. Settled January 2025.

JM v B – Instructed by Defendant, 2-week quantum only trial. Claim pleaded in excess of £2 million. Issues of Fundamental Dishonesty. Evidence from Orthopaedic, Psychiatric, Pain, Care and Accommodation experts. Defendant granted permission to appeal to High Court on 6 grounds. Settled at JSM prior to appeal.

DF v GK – Acted for C, claim pleaded in excess of £1million. Conflicting evidence from pain and psychiatric experts regarding causation. Issues of credibility arising from surveillance. Settled at JSM.

MJ v CHS – Acted for C who was a nurse involved in a career ending accident at work. Claim pleaded in excess of £600k including significant pension loss.