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Marcus Nickson CV

MARCUS NICKSON, LLB

Born: 7 May 1952

Educated: Oundle School

Manchester University

Admitted: November 1977

Civil Litigation Partner: K J Commons and Co.

Professional Memberships: Action Against Medical Accidents

- Referral Panel Member

Law Society

- PI Panel Member

Community Legal Service

- Clinical Negligence Franchise

Specialisms: Clinical Negligence

Catastrophic Personal Injury

Some recent cases:

Mc – v- North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust

Slipped upper femoral epiphysis following a fall in the school playground – failure to diagnose – failure to treat

Damages: £54,500

Year: 2010

FG – v- The Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board

Atlantoaxial fracture of cervical spine undetected; subsequent treatment and reduction to satisfactory anatomical position.

Damages: £50,000

Year: 2010

Humes Deceased –v – Dr Rusman and 2 others

Misdiagnosis of unstable angina as stable angina; premature death

Damages: £20,000

Year: 2010

Edwards Deceased – v- The Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board

Suicide in hospital; failure by assessing the clinical staff to pass on information to nursing staff; failure to note down relatives concerns about the Deceased’s state of mind in medical records and passing them on to medical staff; failure to remove telephone charger and razor blades was a breach of duty; six day Trial. Claimant succeeded and awaits settlement on Quantum.

Boston Deceased – v- Dr P V D E

Out of Hours GP called out to see patient with suspected imminent infarct heart attack; administration of Glyceryl trinitrate Spray (vasodilator) – Dr then left taking with him a defibrillator which he had in his bag; patient suffered heart attack and died.

Damages ex-parte: £180,000

Year: 2010

G – v – University Hospitals of North Staffordshire NHS Trust

Claimant (mid-twenties) severely injured in road traffic accident ; admitted to tertiary referral centre and given positive pressure ventilation and tracheotomy; tracheotomy tube blocked/incompetent; hypoxic cardiac arrest leading to anoxic brain injury; settled at 85% liability – Quantum at large.

Damages: £5.7 million

Year: 2010

Watson – v – North Cumbria Health Authority

I accepted instructions in this case as the third solicitor, claimant having been given negative advice by two others.

Damages: £550,000

Year: March 2009

H – v – Alan Dawson Designs

This is probably the most serious tripping case I have been involved in! Claimant suffered psychiatric reaction to facial scarring following a fall at work.

Damages: £600,000

Year: February 2009

D – v – Stockport Hospitals NHS Trust

Asked to act following negative advice being given a ‘household name’ firm of solicitors; Certificate of Public Funding reinstated following appeal; evidence obtained of athetoid cerebral palsy probably resulted from avoidable hypoxia in the second stage of labour, but considerable doubts remained as to the timing of the hypoxic event.

Damages: £1.1 million

Year: November 2008

Bowe – v – Townsend

Failure by GP to diagnose crescendo TIAs and treat; failure to anti-coagulate, resulting in an avoidable stroke leading to damages of £3 million in 2006.

Damages: £3 Million

Year: 2006

H – v – City Hospitals (Sunderland) NHS Trust

Cerebral Palsy caused by midwifery negligence and hypoxia.

Damages: £3.5 million

Year: 2005

P – v – North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Over prescription of methadone causing cardiac arrest and apnoeia; resulting in anoxic brain insult in hospital; permanent disability 33% contribution.

Damages: £1.4 million

Year: 2005

A – v – PR’s of Irving (Decd)

A catastrophic road accident in the early 1990s wiping out 2 members of a family and seriously injuring three children; case substantially delayed due to complex issues of development and employability in one of the claimants, for whom no prognosis could be given for 16 years.

Damages: £1.2 million

Year: 2006

C – v – North Cumbria Att NHS Trust

Cerebral Palsy caused by hypoxic birth. Liability conceded.

Anticipated damages: £3.5 million

C – v – Newcastle HA

Hypoxic brain injury at birth

Damages: £1.6 million

Year: 2001

H – v – West Cumbria HA

Hypoxic brain injury at birth.

Damages: £1.4 million

Year: 2002

N – v – West Cumbria HA

Mild hypoxic brain injury at birth.

Damages: £750,000

Year: 2002

Graham – v – Norweb PLC

Asked to review the Trade Union representatives advise to settle at £80,000; multifocal myoclonus following septicemia and toxic shock causing brain injury and kidney failure – case of extreme complexity.

Damages: £184,000

Since specialising in 1986, I have acted for over 1000 clients who have suffered medical accidents both in hospital and at the hands of their GPs.

I have been involved in 40 cases of Hypoxic Cerebral Palsy and my experience includes:

Head/Eye: loss of eye through failure by Accident and Emergency to x-ray and spot penetrating eye insult by metal particle.

Head/Eye: periorbital blow out fracture causing acute diplopia in a fireman.

Head/Eye: blindness caused by placing premature neonate in high oxygen environment : retinopathy of prematurity.

Nerve damage leading to incontinence and loss of feeling following lumbar disectomy.

General

Failure by consultant physician to spot Addisons disease leading to death. Post traumatic stress disorder in husband following discovery of wife’s corpse in hospital.

Damages: £106,000

Lower Body

Hip replacement: unequal length, tilting pelvis, arthritis in spine.

Damage to knee following repair of tibial fracture by overlong k-nail.

Failure to repair crush fracture of medical tibial plateau due to miscalculation or tourniquet time.

Inappropriately treated infection leading of failure of second prothesis in knee replacement surgery; arthrodesis of the knee, likely above the knee amputation.

Reproductive System

Wrongful birth following failure to apply Filshie clip properly (x5) – this area of the law is currently more or less in abeyance following the House of Lords decisions in MacFarlane – v – Tayside Health Authority.

Birth Awareness due to anaesthetic failure.

Loss of testicle following failure by GP to refer tortional insult to hospital – gangrene.

Failure to obtain haemostasis following hysterectomy; vesico vagianl fistulae following hysterectomy.

Negligently performed vaginal surgery causing proplase and peri-anal fistula.

Proctology

Puncture of sigmoid during sigmoidoscopy leading to peritonitis, colostomy and post operative infection.

Spine

Cauda equina syndrome causing double incontinence after spinal surgery (x3)

Failure by GP to diagnose spinal aneurysm leading to avoidable paraplegia.

Sense

Smell anosmia caused by blow from police truncheon.

Dental accidents

Head, death following failure to identify cerebral embolus and brain tumour.

Chest

Cerebral embolus caused by devastating brain damage due to failure by GP to refer to defect in the atrial septum to specialist.

Frontal lobe brain damage resulting in disexecutive syndrome, adult respiratory distress syndrome following fat embolus escaping from broken femur; failure by Accident and Emergency to x-ray and confirm break.

Pneumothorax heamopneumothorax following traumatic injusry to chest walls and lungs.

Upper limb

Failure to spot clinical non union of ulnar fracture in a 52 year old welder, leading to residual disability in left hand.

Damages: £206,000

Failure to treat rotational fracture in middle finger of non dominant left hand.

Based in Cumbria and being within five minutes of the motorway network, I accept instructions from any part of the UK.

My Partner and I believe that we can provide significant advantages to our clients in that your case will be handled by us personally and not delegated to more junior soliciotors. Moreover we work closely with the Country’s leading Counsel, both at QC and Senior Junior level, and have strong links with the most eminent medical experts in any given field.

We like to offer a personal service and visit clients in their homes, irrespective of location.

Please contact me on 01228 822666

01900 604698

01946 66699

or via e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

UUResponse1

For the attention of Mr D Hill
Messrs United Utilities PLC
Haweswater House
Lingley Mere Business Park
Great Sankey
Warrington
WA5 3LP

Dear Sir

Re: Cumbria Floods

Thank you for your letter of 18th December 2009; we understand the position and look forward to receiving the formal response as early as possible in the New Year.

We note your threat with regard to costs. Neither the writer nor his clients will be deterred by such tactics.

Yours faithfully
KJ COMMONS & CO

United Utilities Letter

The Company Secretary
Messrs United Utilities PLC
Haweswater House
Lingley Mere Business Park
Great Sankey
Warrington
WA5 3LP

Dear Sir

Please be advised that we are instructed by the above named, whose house was rendered uninhabitable by the catastrophic flooding which inundated Cockermouth on 19th November 2009.

Cockermouth is built at the confluence of two rivers, The Cocker, fed by Crummock Water and Buttermere, and the Derwent, fed by Derwent Water/Bassenthwaite and by the rivers Glenderamackin/Greta, which are in turn fed by a tributary, St John’s Beck, which is the outflow from Thirlmere Reservoir.

Moreover, the late autumn was characterised by an unusual (but not atypical) weather pattern whereby warm, moist air was being drawn up to the North West of England from The Azores; upon reaching the Cumbrian Coast and rising over the mountains the air cooled, and dropped moisture in the form of substantial precipitation. The weather pattern was well established and extremely heavy rain, indeed of the magnitude that fell on 19th November 2009, was therefore both entirely foreseeable and indeed forecast some days beforehand.

Despite this, as you have informed the Allerdale MP, Tony Cunningham the water level in the reservoir had been so high that it had been overflowing the spillway from 27th October 2009. Worse, on the day of the inundation of Keswick and West Cumbria, you have told him that the main abstraction from the reservoir into the aqueduct supplying Manchester was “closed off to protect drinking water and public health of a population of 500,000 people supplied by the reservoir”.

Mr Cunningham continues:

“At the time the abstraction was closed (United Utilities) estimate that 220 million litres of water per day, equating to no more than 5% of the total volume of water, was added to the water already going over the spillway. This was after the level in the reservoir had “already started to subside””.

Whilst this is not a formal Letter of Claim, it is notification that the management of the water resources at Thirlmere and elsewhere is under close examination, with a view to proceedings being commenced for compensation.

We invite you to make a pre-action disclosure as anticipated by Section 33 Supreme Court Act 1981 as follows:

1. Details of the First Inspection of the Reservoir pursuant to Section 26 (1) of the Reservoirs Act 1975 (“The Act”) and all subsequent inspections thereafter.

2. A copy of any engineer’s certificate and any recommendations made as to measures to be taken in the interests of safety under Section 26 (3) of The Act

3. A copy of any certificate given pursuant to Section 8, of The Act together with any recommendations made thereafter

4. A copy of the Flood Plan prepared pursuant to Section 12 A of the Act

5. All reports and recommendations made by the Supervising Engineer under Section 12 of The Act

6. The maintenance and repair records for the three years commencing 20th November 2006 for the abstraction pumps and aqueduct

7. Information as to the time the pumps were switched off on 19th November 2009 and the reason for the switch off

8. Water level records for the period 27th October 2009 to 20th November 2009 as required to be kept by Section 11 of the Act

9. Details of the means by which the Reservoir level was “dropped” on 19th November 2009” despite continued, very heavy rain and the closure of pumps

We invite this information voluntarily but notify you of our intention to apply under Section 33 (supra) if it is not supplied.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully
K J COMMONS & CO

Cumbria Flood Action Form

Cumbria Flood Action

New site under construction

As part of its continued involvement with the Cumbrian Flood Action Group, KJ Commons & Co. has arranged for a leading expert in flood management to visit Thirlmere Reservoir. Dr Paul Samuels of HR Wallingford Limited (www.hrwallingford.co.uk) is due to visit Thirlmere on 11th March 2011 as investigations continue into a possible link between the management of the reservoir and the devestating floods that hit West Cumbria in November 2009.

HR Wallingford Limited is at the forefront of flood and erosion risk and its management and Dr. Samuels will therefore provide a tremendous insight into the management of the reservoir in November 2009.

Also in attendance at the meeting will be Edward Bartley Jones QC and Simon Earlam of Exchange Chambers (www.exchangechambers.co.uk) who have also agreed to advise on this matter. Tom Craven and Marcus Nickson will attend the visit on behalf of KJ Commons & Co.

Following the meeting, Dr. Samuels will then produce a report on Thirlmere, the contents of which will provide the basis for this matter going forward.

On the link below you will find a simple registration form.

Please complete it. Your registration will be acknowledged.

You may find on this website, a letter written to United Utilities requesting certain documentation by clicking here.

A response has been recieved from United Utilities which can be viewed in full here by clicking here. We have also responded with another letter which you view by clicking here.

By registering with the Group, you are under no obligation and you will be kept informed of the response from United Utilities and of any developments in the case. Registration does not constitute any form of retainer with K. J. Commons & Co.

Having made our investigations and if we are of the opinion that there is a case to answer, we will contact you formally and invite you to participate. Whether you do, or not, is entirely a matter for you, and the purpose of this website is purely by way of assistance to those in the locality who have suffered as a result of the flooding

Please click here to proceed

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