NEGLIGENCE AND NUISANCE

• Winning a multi-million-pound claim for a farming company against a Top 20 law firm and Queens Counsel for negligent legal advice provided by them in making an unnecessary concession during the course of previous High Court litigation.
• Successful claim against a farming client’s former solicitors for negligent tax advice concerning the restructuring of a farming enterprise.
• Acting against a rural surveyor for negligent valuation of a client’s farm for the purposes of an option agreement.
• Successful claim on behalf of an arable farming company based in Oxfordshire against a crop spraying business for damages to crops worth around £200,000 caused by spray drift. Settled at mediation.
• Successful claim against an Agronomist for losses of over £100,000 arising from negligent professional advice.
• Defended a claim against a rural surveyor who was alleged to have been negligent in the way he completed grant funding applications in respect of agricultural development leading to an alleged failure to obtain grant funding.
• Claim against a vet for negligent advice in treating a horse for colic resulting in the horse’s death and a consequential successful claim for damages.
• Defended a well-known stable against a claim for negligence in allowing a horse to escape onto a road.
• Successful claim against Network Rail for failing to properly fence the railway, allowing a herd of cattle to escape onto the track.
• Successful claim against Top 50 law firm for failing to advise about a private right of way as part of a large farm purchase.
• Acted for a Buckinghamshire dairy farmer in a claim against a well-known national Milk Producer relating to the negligent sampling and collection of milk which gave rise to false bactoscan readings and a lower milk price for our farming client. Achieved a settlement of around £20,000.
• Representing farmers nationwide in the large-scale and well-publicised High Court litigation arising from the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in 2007. This resulted in a high court claim against the Institute for Animal Health, Merial International Limited and The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for allegedly negligently releasing the Foot and Mouth Disease virus from a laboratory in Pirbright, Surrey.

Our expertise in this area encompasses:

• Agronomist advice
• Contributory negligenceu
• Driving negligence causing damages
• Escape of substances onto neighbouring land
• Flooding
• Foot and Mouth and other infectious diseases
• Machinery
• Negligent financial advice
• Negligent services
• Professional negligence
• Tree root and branch nuisance
• Veterinary negligence
• Vicarious liability