Jamie Arthur

Jamie has advised on a wide range of professional negligence and indemnity disputes involving landlords, solicitors, brokers, reinsurers, and financial professionals.

Selected cases:

• Acting for solicitors in an alleged case of negligence involving the service provisions for an eviction under the Housing Act 1988.
• Advised on resisting the enforcement of a surety bond, considering contractual interpretation, variation and capacity.
• Acting for a social housing provider in a claim relating to nuisance, the Human Rights Act and duties on public law bodies.
• Acting for solicitors in a third-party defamation claim, including looking at serious harm and qualified privilege.
• Settled a defence in a negligence claim against insurance brokers concerning denial of coverage after a fire at a herb processing plant (as a pupil).
• Advised on professional negligence claim against a solicitor allegedly fraudulently obtaining a mortgage against client property. Involved offshore trust structures, allegations of fraud (as a pupil).
• Advised on reinsurer liability in an indemnity dispute. Concerned interpretation of foreign law in English Courts and the duties of reinsurers to settle claims under American state law (as a pupil).

Jamie has experience with construction disputes involving defects, delays, and adjudication procedures.

• Acting for an architect in a claim alleging failure to provide drawings under a JCT Minor Works contract, considering issues of res judicata, witness immunity, and breach of duty.
• Acting for the defending party in party wall dispute against a neighbour on alleged damage to a residential property as a result of work carried out.
• Advised on procedure in a defects case in landmark London development concerning weight given to expert evidence in with a defendant not in attendance (as a pupil)
• Advised on contractual delay in a Jersey-based construction dispute. Considered the provisions of a JCT Minor Works Contract 2024, causation, notification provisions and issues relating to an extension of time (as a pupil).

Jamie is a member of the Attorney General’s “Junior Junior” scheme and welcomes both government and private instructions in this area.

• Advised on the regulatory framework applicable to state-owned vessels.
• Advised on appeals against adverse Compliance Assessment Reports (as against both the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales) (as a pupil).
• Advised on justiciability of government ministerial decisions and fire liability (as a pupil).
• Drafted defence in environmental damage case involving failed concrete interceptor (as a pupil).
• Advised on a case alleging historic fraud and forgery claims against a government department considering allegations of forgery and the test for setting aside a judgment procured by fraud (as a pupil).
• Advised on a successful abuse of process application in manslaughter proceedings (as a pupil).

Jamie has experience across property damage and product liability, with a particular interest in coverage disputes, product safety regulation, and complex causation issues arising from fires, contamination and defective products.

• Acted on an interim application in an insurer’s claim against an insured arising from non-cooperation following an accident; successful, with a wasted costs order obtained.
• Advised on prospects of success and settled particulars of claim in a claim for property damage caused by a defective fridge (as a pupil).
• Advised on the interplay between private causes of action and product safety regulation in a fire claim relating to agricultural machinery (as a pupil).
• Advised on remediation and property damage from a fuel escape alleged to have caused by the installation of a drainage system (as a pupil).
• Advised on an insurance coverage dispute relating to damage resulting from an oil interceptor at vehicle disassembly plant. Considered issues relating to illegality of insurance contracts under the environmental permitting regime (as a pupil).

• Regularly instructed in small claim and fast-track claims, including employers’ liability, fraudulent and non-fraudulent road traffic accidents.
• Successfully acting for defendants in cases involving low-velocity impact cases, accident mechanism inconsistent with the injuries described and claimants with histories of previous claims.
• Successfully acting for a defendant school in a trial relating to an injury sustained in a PE lesson with issues arising as to causation, breach of duty and appropriate lesson planning.
• Acted for the defendant in an application based on procedural defaults arising from a damage portal claim in a fraudulent road traffic accident claim.
• Acted for the defendant in an abuse of process application related to defective protocol compliance following Cable v Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited [2020] EWCA Civ 1015.
• Successfully defended claims involving defective translation evidence and on that basis securing strike-out at trial on multiple occasions.
• Acting in an application concerning late service of a defence in a claim for injury to a footballer sustained on an allegedly poorly maintained pitch.
• Advised on liability in a personal injury claim involving a sports club, considering responsibility for volunteers, unincorporated associations, and the Occupiers’ Liability Act.
• Advised on liability for a motor-racing track with negligent design leading to the injury of a driver (as a pupil).