“The service I received I feel was outstanding. I am more than pleased with the outcome.”

 

Our Record

We treat all our clients the same. We also aim to conclude our clients’ claims as quickly as possible. The following are examples of the child abuse compensation claims that we have successfully concluded.

“Friendly, efficient, professional.”

Latest cases that we have handled

Miss A

Miss A approached us at the beginning of August 2009. As a child, she had been seriously sexually abused by a neighbour over a period of years. When she was in her thirties, she reported the abuse to the police as a result of which the man was convicted and sentenced to prison. We advised Miss A that she had a potential compensation claim against her abuser (the Defendant).

As Miss A was working full time, she was not entitled to public funding.  So we signed a conditional fee agreement with her and obtained legal expenses insurance with Accident Line. We also ascertained that the Defendant owned one substantial asset, a house in London. We proceeded to write a Letter of Claim to the Defendant and we obtained a psychiatric report, which confirmed the serious impact of the abuse on our client’s life.

When the Defendant failed to give us a satisfactory reply, we issued proceedings in October 2009. This was followed shortly afterwards by a freezing injunction that prevented the Defendant was dissipating his assets.

We entered default judgment against the Defendant in December 2009 and obtained a trial date set for the 14th April 2010 when our client’s damages would be assessed by the court. On the day of the hearing, we reached a settlement with the Defendant, whereby our client obtained just under £120,000 in damages together with her costs to be assessed. 

Miss D

In June 2009, we accepted instructions from Miss D, a young woman in her twenties who had been seriously sexually assaulted as a child. Her abuser co-owned the house where she and her mother lived and he had been convicted and imprisoned for his crimes. On his release, he took out an action against Miss D’s mother to recover his share of the property.

Within two weeks of first speaking to Miss D, we obtained emergency legal aid for her to be represented in an action against her abuser.   We also wrote a Letter of Claim to her abuser’s solicitors, asking them for an undertaking that he would not seek to dissipate his assets. When no satisfactory undertaking was received, we issued proceedings in August 2009 against the abuser, following by an application for a freezing injunction. By that time, we had also obtained a psychiatric report on our client and other evidence in support of her case.

Our freezing injunction application was heard on the 21st September 2009. By that point, it had become apparent that there was very limited equity left in the property, and the costs of the solicitors threatened to subsume all that was left. We were able to obtain an agreement from the Defendant to pay £32,500 to our client in damages and costs, which sum was charged on the property. 

The property was eventually sold in January 2010 and our client’s share of the monies passed over to her immediately.  See the article by Malcolm Johnson on freezing injunctions in child abuse compensation claims.

Other cases handled by Malcolm Johnson & Co. Solicitors

Miss C

The client approached us in February 2008. She sought compensation for sexual abuse that she sustained as a child between 1995 and 1996 at the hands of the Defendant, a neighbour who had been convicted and was in prison. We proceeded to obtained public funding for her case from the Legal Services Commission. We established that her abuser owned a house, and so we sent out a letter of claim in March 2007. When we received no reply we issued proceedings in the High Court in August 2007 and obtained judgement in default. At the same time, we obtaining a freezing injunction for our client, which effectively stopped the Defendant from trying to sell his house and dissipate his assets.

We then proceeded to trial. The Defendant appointed solicitors to act for him and just a few days before trial, we settled our client’s case for £30,000, which sum was paid by cheque shortly thereafter. However our costs remained unpaid and the Defendant had no available monies to pay these.

We therefore obtained an order from the court that some of our costs be paid, and then secured a charge over the Defendant’s property. The Legal Services Commission then allowed us to release most of our client’s damages to her, so she did not have to wait for the property to be sold.

“Excellent I would recommend anyone, and have”… “Very good. I am glad I went to this solicitor”

Ms. H

We were instructed by Ms. H on the 21st September 2005. As a child, during the late seventies and eighties, she was abused by a close family member. Her family had often come to the attention of social services but despite a number of warning signals, nothing effective was done to protect her and the abuse continued.

An emergency application for public funding was submitted the day after we saw our client, and this was granted on 10th October 2005. We wrote a Letter of Claim to the Defendant local authority, but due to limitation concerns protective proceedings were issued on 23rd September 2005 and the time for serving those proceedings was later extended. In April 2006, we obtained the claimant’s medical, educational and social services records. We also instructed a consultant psychiatrist to assess the level of damage done to her, and a social care expert to comment on the standard of care shown by the Defendant local authority’s social workers.

In early 2006, an offer of compensation (£5,000) was made by the Defendant’s solicitors but this was not accepted. In May 2006, substantive proceedings were formally served on the Defendant local authority and an extension of time for the service of the defence was granted up to the 22nd September 2006.

In August 2006, our client decided to accept compensation of £20,000 with no deduction for our costs. We then arranged for that compensation to be placed within a special needs trust so as to protect her receipt of benefits.

St Leonard’s Cottage Homes Group Litigation

Our firm co-ordinated the group litigation against the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which concluded in 2003. This litigation involved 62 claimants, who brought proceedings against Tower Hamlets for the abuse that they suffered mainly at St Leonard’s Cottage Homes in Hornchurch Essex and one other home in Basildon between 1961 and 1964. The civil actions followed on from the convictions of two abusers at the Old Bailey as a result of “Operation Mapperton” the Metropolitan Police investigation into Tower Hamlets’ homes.

Proceedings were issued on the 31st October 2001 and trial was set for November 2003. By June 2003, a number of offers were made by the Defendant’s solicitors and all the cases were settled by September 2003. Most of the Claimants’ cases were financed by the Legal Services Commission, but there was no deduction out of any of the Claimants’ damages in respect of our firm’s costs for co-ordinating the group action.

The group action resulted in a recovery of just under £1.5 million for various Claimants.

Find out more about our services as child abuse solicitors and personal injury solicitors.