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Summary Of Practice

Mary Ruck was called to the Bar in 1993 (Gray's Inn). She has had a long-held interest in medical law, specialises in clinical negligence and has a particular interest in human rights issues in healthcare cases having being involved in the JD case (see notable recent cases) from the first instance to the House of Lords and in the ECHR, Strausbourg.

She has experience of severe brain injury cases (both acquired and birth injury), severe psychiatric injury, claims involving lack of consent, gynaecological injury, spinal and other orthopaedic injury.

She also undertakes cases other than clinical negligence involving injury, such as Fatals cases, personal injury and industrial disease.

She appears regularly in professional regulatory work in front of the General Medical Council.

She acts for both Claimant and Defendant and accepts instructions from publicly funded clients and under conditional fee arrangements.

Notable cases include claims arising out of mis-diagnosed psychiatric injury, claims of the utmost severity and birth injury.

Before coming to the Bar, Mary Ruck worked for the Paralegal Department of Davies Arnold Cooper solicitors where she was responsible for discovery in majory pharmaceutical product liability litigation, including the Opren and Benzodiazepine litigation.

She was taken on as a tenant after her pupilage at 10 King's Bench Walk, London (Chambers of Ronald Thwaites, QC) where she practised before moving to Manchester in 1999.

She retains a Door Tenancy in London.

In 1998 Mary Ruck devised a legislative framework for the regulation of the asbestos industry in South Africa while on secondment to the Legal Resources Centre in Cape Town. The framework was adopted by resolution at South Africa's first ever National Summit on Asbestos in Novermber 1998.

Mary Ruck lectures regularly to solicitors and the medical profession on all aspects of Civil Procedure and Human RIghts as it applies to clinical negligence.

She edits the Fatal Accidents section of Butterworths Personal Injury Litigation Service.

Scholarships and Awards

Pegasus Scholarship to South Africa, Inner Temple (1998)

John G C Scholarship, Gray's Inn (1993)

Karmel Scholarship, Gray's Inn (1993)

Professional Memberships

Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
Action for Vicitims of Medical Accidents
Professional Negligence Bar Association
Personal Injury Bar Association
Northern Circuit Medical Law Association (Committee Member)

Appointments:

Legal Advisor to the Government of the Republic of South Africa with respect to the National Summit on Asbestos, 1998;

Editor of the Fatal Accidents section of Butterworths Personal Injury Litigation.

Selected Cases

JD v East Berks Community Health NHS Trust and Ors (HL) (Times, April 22 2005): whether duty of care owed to parents.

CD v Sefton Health Authority (October 2005 PICL): birth injury.

Ziemniak v EPTM Deep Sea Ltd (CA): right of civil action.

Education

MA Kings College, London

Other Information

Ranked as leading Junior in the field of clinical negligence in the Chambers and Partners Directory 2007.