Jamie Fireman

Employment Law

Jamie accepts instructions in all areas of employment law. He has experience in hearings covering a complete range of employment matters, including but not limited to:

Unfair dismissal
Wrongful dismissal
Discrimination
Whistleblowing
Redundancy
Unlawful deductions from wages
Working Time Regulations
Class action litigation
Complex remedy issues
Costs awards

Jamie acts for both claimants and respondents and undertakes work for a variety of clients, ranging from individuals with limited knowledge of the legal system to large corporate bodies. His employer clients have included supermarkets, charities, those in the transport sector, and multinational corporations.

Recent cases:

Zsofia Tanko-Sarkany v Flight Club Darts Limited: Jamie acted for the Respondent, successfully defending the Claimant’s claims of pregnancy/maternity discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal.
Cooper v Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd: Jamie acted for the Respondent, successfully defending the Claimant’s unfair dismissal claim arising from his long term sickness absence and 19 of 21 allegations of disability discrimination.
Khamis v Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd: Jamie acted for the Respondent and successfully struck out the Claimant’s claim on the basis of it having no reasonable prospect of success.
Oakes v Streamline Press Limited: Jamie acted for an employee who resigned in relation to inadequate break times being afforded to her during her employment at a busy factory. Her claim for constructive unfair dismissal and breach of the Working Time Regulations was upheld.
Ian Morgan v Exact Mortgage Experts Limited: Jamie acted for the Respondent in an open Preliminary Hearing which considered the Claimant’s application to amend his claim and whether it was just and equitable to extend time to allow his complaints to be heard. The Claimant’s amendment application was refused and his claim was struck out on the basis it was presented outside the time limit and it was not just and equitable for time to be extended.

Inquests & Inquiries

Jamie has experience acting as sole counsel in various inquests, as well as acting as junior Counsel to the Inquest/Inquiry in major investigations.

Since mid 2022 Jamie has been instructed as counsel to the the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry, assisting the Inquiry Chair Baroness Heather Hallett. He has been heavily involved in all stages of the investigation of Module 3 “impact on healthcare systems across the United Kingdom”. This has included providing the chair with advice, drafting requests for evidence, report writing and the questioning of nine witnesses on a range of issues the public hearings.

Between 2019 and 2021 Jamie worked as Junior Counsel to the ‘Sandilands Inquests’ – the inquests arising out of the seven deaths caused by the Croydon tram disaster in November 2016. In this capacity, Jamie was closely involved with the preparation for ten-week inquests between May and July 2021, assisting the Senior Coroner for South London as part of her team.

Notable Cases

Junior Counsel to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry – Module 3: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare systems across the United Kingdom.
Junior Counsel to the “Sandilands” Inquests.
Advising the family of MH ahead of the Inquest following her death which occurred while she was a patient of an NHS Trust’s “hospital at home team”, which failed to respond to her calls for assistance on the evening of her death.
Acting on behalf of the family of SM, who died following a period of care in a rehab centre, in an upcoming inquest.
Inquest into the death of SC - acted on behalf of a family in an inquest into a student death at university. The coroner was highly critical of the care provided to the student by the university’s wellbeing centre.
Inquest into the death of JN - acted on behalf of a family in an inquest into the death of a young man which occurred shortly after an interaction with the police.

Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence

Jamie regularly acts in and advises on a range of personal injury and clinical negligence cases, including those arising out of deaths. Recent cases include high value settlement of claims relating to serious motorcycle accidents, failures of medical professionals to properly assess patients with deteriorating mental health and delayed diagnoses of cancer.