Samantha Critchley specialises in medical negligence claims and is on the specialist
Action Against Medical Accidents
(AvMA) panel. Particular interests include: fetal medicine (wrongful birth); obstetrics (Erb’s palsy, traumatic deliveries,
pre-eclampsia, stillbirth and brain injuries); paediatrics; neurology (acquired brain injury and
tumours), gynaecology (cervical,
ovarian and breast cancers); ophthalmology, general
surgery and orthopaedics. Samantha
also assists with representation at inquests where a death has
arisen from suspected medical negligence.
Samantha also undertakes some personal injury and
product liability work. She is a member of the Association of Personal Injury
Lawyers (APIL) and has attained the accredited level of Senior
Litigator for this organisation.
Samantha is involved in many pro bono
projects and won the Legal
Advice Clinic's Supervisor of the Year Award 2009. This
was in recognition of the "outstanding support" provided to the
students at the Queen Mary
undergraduate-led centre. Samantha has been providing support
at the legal clinic since it was set up in 2006 to provide
assistance to the local east London community.
Samantha has spoken at the 2nd Joint
Conference of The Expert Witness Institute and the Institute of
Psychiatry. She regularly lectures on the issue of MRSA and
Hospital Acquired Infection. Samantha has spoken at several
midwifery study days on legal aspects of caring for women with
pre-eclampsia. She has been interviewed for both television
and radio regarding topical clinical negligence issues. She is an
active fundraiser for charity including, most recently,
AvMA (Action against Medical
Accidents), and the
Child Brain Injury Trust (CBIT).
Chambers 2010 have noted Samathana
as 'Up and Coming'. New to the rankings, Samantha Critchley is
“practical, dedicated and hard-working." She recently achieved
a number of impressive settlements in Erb's palsy
cases."
The Legal 500 (2009) quotes that
"Samantha Critchley ... is consistently praised as ‘one to
watch’; she ‘has all the makings of a star performer, she is
clever, brave and knows each of her cases inside out’
.."
Samantha has settled many high profile cases. Examples of her
work include:
- £1.35 million damages in a wrongful birth case concerning the
failure by hospital staff to detect serious birth
abnormalities
- winning several awards for children who sustained serious
brachial plexus injuries (Erb’s Palsy) at birth; ranging from
£320,000 - £405,750
- £135,000 for a young mother who sustained a 3rd degree
obstetric tear during the delivery of her baby, which left her
incontinent
- £60,000 for psychiatric injuries suffered by a young mother
following the death of her first child after failure to
diagnose breech presentation
- £30,000 for parents whose baby was stillborn due to untreated
pre-eclampsia causing placental abruption
- £140,000 for man who underwent negligently performed hernia
operation which caused fertility problems requiring IVF
- £65,000 for a mother following the delivery of her baby
relating to the delay in diagnosis of volvolus resulting in
infertility and PTSD
- £50,000 for a woman who suffered a delay in diagnosis of
ovarian cancer
- £78,000 damages, an admission of liability and apology for a
woman who suffered a delay in diagnosis of breast cancer
- £150,000 for woman who suffered diabetic ketoacidosis when a
central line was misplaced. Injuries included brain damage, a
chest injury and clawing of fingers on her dominant hand
- settling a personal injury claim for £250,000 where a Warrant
Officer in the Territorial Army suffered severe head injuries and
knee injuries following collision with a stationary lorry.