Clinical negligence solicitors in Portsmouth

Tracy has over 20 years’ experience and specialises in clinical negligence and personal injury claims.

Tracy’s clinical negligence experience includes handling complex, high value claims against Hospital Trusts, General Practitioners and other organisations, where claimants have suffered severe physical and psychological trauma as a result of either mismanaged labour resulting in Cerebral Palsy, misdiagnosis/mismanaged care and claims involving fatalities.

Tracy has also dealt with many claims for road traffic accidents, accidents at work, slipping/tripping incidents and industrial disease cases.

Tracy supports claimants to achieve early treatment and rehabilitation resulting in maximum compensation awards providing for the cost of care, treatment and equipment needed to enable them to move forward with their lives.

Examples of how Tracy has helped clients include:

• She acted for a young lady who suffered Cerebral Palsy as a result of mis-managed labour. The claim settled in excess of £2 million four weeks before trial together with an additional amount by way of periodical payments for the remainder of her life.
• She acted for the family of a gentleman whom the NHS failed to recall for follow up Gastroscopy following a diagnosis of Barrett’s Oesophagus, sadly with a fatal outcome. The claim settled in excess of £300,000 without having to go to Court.
• She acted for a man who suffered Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome as a result of working with air tools for many years. The employers strenuously fought the case which settled only days before trial. The client received a significant sum in damages.
• She acted for a lady who was involved in a road traffic accident who suffered a head injury with associated tinnitus and loss of hearing. Tracy was able to secure appropriate treatment to allow the client to move on whilst at the same time obtaining a respectable settlement for the Claimant.
• She handled a case for the family of an elderly gentleman who had been sectioned to hospital under the Mental Health Act. Regrettably the hospital failed in their duty of care to adequately risk assess and the Claimant suffered a fall, causing an injury to his head whilst in their care. Unfortunately the Claimant later died from the head related injuries and the matter was ultimately settled in the Claimant’s favour.
• She acted for a lady who fell on a green near to her property. The Claimant stepped onto a barked area to take a seat but the level of bark had dropped causing the Claimant to fall and break her hip. Liability was strenuously denied by the Defendants. The claim was complicated by the fact that the Claimant passed away before the claim could be settled and the matter then had to be dealt with on behalf of her estate. Proceedings were issued, following which the Defendants made an offer to settle.
• She acted for a man who sustained an injury at work during the course of his employment, whereby his arm had become caught in the hydraulic arms of a skip lorry. The Claimant’s muscle had been squashed to the bone and he suffered permanent nerve damage to the radial nerve together with associated muscle wastage.

Ongoing matters in early stages of investigation:

• Mismanagement of Multiple Myeloma resulting in return of cancer in the neck and destruction of vertebrae.
• Failure on the part of the GP to recognise a patient presenting with a heart attack. The Claimant suffered damage to the vessels and underwent stent treatment. Further surgery is likely to be required.
• Failure on the part of the GP/NHS to diagnose a tumour and incorrectly treated as a DVT.
• Failure on the part of the NHS to adequately treat and follow up a patient with pancreatitis as result of which the Claimant suffered from avoidable conditions such as Portal Thrombosis, Portal Hypertension, Splenic Thrombosis, an enlarged spleen, including damage to both the gall bladder and pancreas.

What Tracy’s clients say

“Tracy represented a personal case of mine in 2010, I have nothing but praise for the work that Tracy on behalf of Verisona carried out for me over a 3 year period. Tracey always notified me immediately of problems, changes of circumstances and fresh updates etc without fail. Her personality, quality of work and expertise were outstanding on all fronts. The procedure over the 3 years was a nightmare working toward the outcome but these events and procedures were exactly that, “legal procedure” however Tracy made it all so much more bearable and hassle free. Thank you Tracy and Nigel also.”

“As grieving parents it was so important that we have the support and legal representation that is going to get justice for our Son. We have been overwhelmed by the professionalism and kindness that you have shown us. We are so grateful for everything you have done.”

Nigel leads the Civil Litigation and Personal Injury Team.  He has over 30 years’ experience within his field, having originally worked in the West End of London and later returning to his ‘roots’ in Hampshire.  He deals with civil litigation, personal injury and medical negligence claims.

In the course of his career he has dealt with complex cases and secured substantial settlements for severely disabled people.  He recently finalised a settlement of £2.6 million for a claimant who sustained serious spinal injuries from a fall in the work place.

Lisa has specialised in childhood abuse and social care negligence for the last 8 years and has extensive experience in relation to civil abuse litigation, CICA claim maximisation and Redress Scheme claims. She offers a sympathetic and professional approach to her clients’ problems and advises on funding options (including insurance and Conditional Fee Agreements.)

Since 2018 she has travelled around the country to see clients who were failed by Lambeth Council during their childhood in order to collate evidence for submission to the Lambeth Children’s Home Compensation Scheme. Lisa’s style of working is tailored to providing emotional support whilst applying the specialist legal expertise required to ensure her client’s have the best evidence for making a successful claim.

Lisa is able to access key psychiatric and social care experts to obtain evidence and therapy recommendations for clients. She can direct clients to treatment providers if required. Often such treatment costs can be claimed as part of the compensation process. This is a priority to ensure her clients have the best opportunity to make positive steps into the future. Lisa excels in applying questions to psychiatric experts to clarify and ensure they have a deeper understanding of the case issues where required. She is also experienced in negotiation to maximise outcome according to specific scheme terms.

For the last year and half, Lisa has been leading the firm’s participation in the National Abuse Inquiry specifically relating to the IICSA Lambeth investigation acting on behalf of 6 core participants. Such work involved the preparation of core participant applications, section 40 funding applications, detailed consideration of social care record evidence, witness statements preparation, attending preliminary hearings for consideration on the extent of other key party involvement, detailed work on documentary disclosure evidence from the council, police and other core participants to identify deep seated failings within the past care and policing systems, cross referencing, and work with counsel on composing Rule 10 questioning of corporate and police witnesses giving evidence at the IICSA Lambeth hearing. Lisa also accompanied a key core participant giving evidence to the IICSA hearing providing support and understanding to ensure her client’s evidence was sensitively taken into account when the panel make recommendations to protect children in the future. Questions were raised on the effectiveness of the current Serious Case Review system and how this has been operating within police and council’s across the country, something which has also been identified whilst working on specific civil cases. The hope is that improvements in the child protection mechanisms can ensure the safety of children in future.

Lisa also specialises in CICA claims, an area of work which has increased significantly following the lifting of the pre 1979 same home abuse rule which facilitated many victims being able to finally achieve justice relating to serious childhood abuse.

Lisa also has extensive particular experience in running civil claims relating to foster carer abuse, abuse in private/public/approved school institutions, church abuse, and abuse linked to gymnastics.

Her extensive knowledge of the Civil Procedure Rules, skills in evidence gathering and analysis of liability and causation, and experience in risk assessment and settlement negotiation make her a valuable asset to clients and colleagues alike.

Lisa has more than 20 years’ experience of dealing with Personal Injury matters ranging from road traffic accidents to workplace injury and liability.

Lisa is fluent in German and Persian. She also has experience in Civil Litigation regarding Debt Recovery, Breach of Contract, and Insolvency Law

Client testimonials

“Lovely, friendly, great people. Very understanding too and very good at what they do. Very happy with the result, many thanks again Lisa and everyone involved in my case.”
Anonymous

“I would like to express my profound heartfelt gratitude to Lisa Gafarov for all her hard work and understanding when representing me. She fought passionately for my case for two years.

Within this time, never once did I feel it was about the money for her. She was very considerate and dealt with many personal matters in a caring and professional way. It was a very sensitive case but she put in a lot of hard work and went the extra mile each time. Her wide range of expertise was indispensable during this difficult time. Because of this I trusted all her advice and as a result, this took a lot of pressure off of me.

She managed to reach a very amicable conclusion between the defendants and myself. You don’t know how much your passion impacts the lives of others. For this I am forever grateful. I would recommend your firm a hundred times over.”
Anonymous, April 2019

David Hawkins joined Verisona Law from Slater & Gordon, as a Litigation Executive in the Historic Abuse Team in August 2016.

David has almost 20 years’ experience working in Personal Injury law. After working in the insurance sector for many years, firstly in general insurance, then moving to dealing with Personal Injury claims for the insurers, he decided to join the legal profession to uphold and pursue the rights of people who have been injured through no fault of their own.

After 13 years working for firms in West Sussex, acting for Claimants in a wide range of claims, from Road Traffic Accidents, Work Accidents to Clinical Negligence Claims, he has dealt with many complex, high value cases involving severe physical and psychological injuries. David has earned a reputation as a robust litigator, securing the best results for clients, whilst being approachable, explaining often complicated issues in plain English.

‘Verisona Law has a well-respected reputation and achieved a great deal of success in this developing area of law and I wanted to bring my expertise and experience to an impressively dynamic team,’ he says.

David is married with two young children..