Compass Chambers

Susan O'Brien QC

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Chairman of Faculty Services Ltd (2005 - 2007)
Temporary Sheriff (1995-1999)
Standing Junior to the Home Office and other Government Departments (1992-1998)
Part-time Chairman of Employment Tribunals (2000 - date)
Chair of the Caleb Ness Inquiry for Edinburgh Child Protection Committee (2003)
BA (Hons) (York) (1973)
BPhil (York) (1976)
Ll.B (Edin) (1978)

PRACTICE:

Before coming to the Bar, Susan was a solicitor for 6 years. She is experienced, both as Junior and Senior Counsel in a wide range of civil litigation. Her principal fields of practice include:-

• Personal Injury
• Medical Negligence
• Public law and Judicial Review
• Discrimination Law
• Disciplinary Procedure

Susan has a long-standing experience of every kind of personal injury work, including industrial disease. She has extensive experience of catastrophic injury cases and psychiatric injury claims in which she usually represents the Pursuer. She is currently preparing appeals to the House of Lords in three historic physical abuse cases, Bowden and Whitton v the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, and McEwan v De La Salle Brothers and others. These are test cases on time bar and the McEwan case also concerns the ambit of various duties of care.

She is regularly instructed by both pursuers and defenders in medical negligence cases, including high value and complex actions. These include cerebral palsy cases concerning babies born after negligent mismanagement of their mothers' labour.

In employment cases, Susan appears in the Inner House of the Court of Session and the House of Lords. In 2008 she is instructed for the TGWU and Unison in an appeal from the EAT to the Inner House concerning the "Highland Council" point in equal pay claims. As a part-time Chair of Employment Tribunals, Susan writes judgements on all kinds of employment law which means that she cannot appear in the Employment Tribunal or the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

When Susan was a Standing Junior for the Home Office for 5 years, she conducted countless judicial review hearings. She has continued to be instructed in judicial review/public law matters as Senior counsel.

She has also acted as a legal assessor for the General Teaching Council for Scotland for several years, regularly advising a disciplinary subcommittee about cases where teachers may be struck off the Register.

SELECTED CASES:

Personal Injury

• Cross v Highlands and Islands Enterprise 2001 SC 1060, 2001 IRLR 336, - stress at work
• Agnew v Scott Lithgow 2001 SC 516 and 2003 SC 448 - vibration white finger and time bar
• K v Gilmartin's Executrix 2004 SLT 1014 - historic sex abuse and prescription

Discrimination Law

• Helen Percy v Church of Scotland Board of National Mission 2006 SC(HL)1, 2006 IRLR 195 HL - sex discrimination claim for a Minister, church saying that there was no jurisdiction because of constitutional history
• Archibald v Fife Council 2004 IRLR 197 - disability discrimination

Public Law and Judicial Review

• Whaley v Watson 2000 SC 125 and 340 - first case on powers of Scottish Parliament generally, with fox hunting bill as the issue
• Rape Crisis Centre v Secretary of State 2001 SLT 389 - resisting Mike Tyson's entry to the UK to box
• T v T 2001 SC 337 test case on procedures for children giving evidence

Disciplinary Proceedings

• Tehrani v UKCC 2001 SC 581 and 2001 IRLR 208 - defending nursing body in test case on compliance of its procedures after the introduction of the Human Rights Act
• Sutherland-Fisher v Law Society of Scotland 2002 SC 562 - instructed by the Law Society in appeal from disciplinary proceedings

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

• Co-opted member of Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) Training Committee which meets in London and arranges the accreditation of personal injury specialist lawyers thoughout the UK.

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