Juliet Stevens

Clinical Negligence

‘Juliet is excellent at navigating complex medical and legal issues. She is insightful and thorough and provides clear, no-nonsense advice to her clients.’ Leading Junior, Clinical Negligence, Legal 500 2023.

Juliet has a broad clinical negligence practice. She is instructed by claimants, insurers and medical defence organisations. She regularly appears in the High Court as sole counsel, and accepts instructions on a CFA basis. Many of her instructions engage evolving areas of the law, including material contribution, secondary victim claims and matters pertaining to consent.

Prior her career at the Bar, Juliet was a medical doctor, specialising in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Her dual expertise gives her unique insight into the cases she advises upon and litigates. Further, having conducted medical research both in the UK and abroad, she is adept at critical analysis of scientific and epidemiological studies.

Juliet has a particular interest in women’s health and birth injury cases. Recent instructions have concerned:

• Birth injury – cerebral palsy causing significant impairment, Erb’s Palsy
• Pregnancy loss – miscarriage after cervical surgery, stillbirth as a result of maternal health complications, stillbirth due to mismanagement of labour.
• Maternal consent – failure to obtain adequate consent for instrumental delivery or Caesarean section.
• Maternal obstetric injury – third and fourth degree tears, obstetric fistulae, uterine tears, Asherman’s Sydrome.
• Postpartum/postnatal illness – postpartum hemorrhage, postnatal Streptococcal infections, postnatal depression.
• Reproductive medicine – promotion of unproven ‘fertility treatments’, delay in referral for IVF.
• Gynecological cases – cervical stenosis after cancer treatment, bowel injury after laparoscopic fertility surgery, delayed diagnosis of ovarian cancer, BRCA gene carriers.
• Disorders of sexual development incl. Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.

Juliet is also accepts cases across the medical spectrum. Recent instructions have concerned:

Neurological Cases

• Delayed A&E investigation of evolving cauda equina syndrome
• Peripheral nerve dysfunction after spinal discectomy surgery
• Interventional radiology complications after subarachnoid haemorrhage
• Re-bleed after subdural haemorrhage after administration of anticoagulation drug
• Somatoform disorders including functional epilepsy

Cancer Cases

• Incorrect diagnosis of cancer on the basis of an inadequate tissue sample
• Delayed diagnosis of prostate cancer after missed PSA follow up in primary care
• ‘Genetic’ cancers incl. BRCA.

Colorectal Cases

• Failure to diagnose chronic intestinal ischaemia
• Complications after ileoanal pouch formation surgery

Infection, Immunology and Transplant Cases

• Inadequate antibiotic prophylaxis during bone marrow transplantation
• Delayed diagnosis of biliary atresia in a neonate precipitating the need for early liver transplantation
• Administration of a vaccine in primary care leading to anaphylaxis
• Prosthesis infections after orthopaedic surgery

Ophthalmological Cases

• Delayed diagnosis of retinal detachment leading to loss of sight in one eye
• Accelerated glaucoma

Genetic Disorders

• Failure to treat Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
• Failure to detect BRCA carrier status
• Failure to act upon investigations indicating hereditary cardiomyopathy

Juliet also acts on behalf of allied health professionals. By way of example, she has acted on behalf of a physiotherapist alleged to have induced a stroke, for a hypnotherapist in relation to a claim arising from treatment for tinnitus and for a psychotherapist whose conduct was impugned during family law proceedings.

Juliet remains registered as a doctor with the General Medical Council, and is an executive member of the Professional Negligence Bar Association. In her spare time, she is an Associate Trainer for Birthrights, a charity dedicated to protecting human rights during pregnancy and childbirth.

Selected Cases

Awards

• Queen Mother’s Scholarship, Middle Temple, 2015
• Prize winner, Marion Simmons QC Essay Competition, Association of Regulatory & Disciplinary Lawyers, 2015
• Astbury Scholarship, Middle Temple, 2014
• Highest ranked novice debating pair (team and individual speaker scores) at the Inner Temple IV Moot, 2014
• Excellence in Leadership Award, London Medical Deanery, 2011
• Proxime accessit, Final Medical Examinations, University of Oxford, 2010
• Undergraduate Academic Scholarship, Hertford College, University of Oxford, 2005-07

News

• 25 for 25: The Pro Bono Challenge
• Juliet Stevens represents family at a three-day inquest: Regulation 28 Reports made and doctor referred to GMC

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Articles

• The cost of commercial surrogacy abroad is a recoverable head of loss: Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14
• Appealing findings made by the TCC: guidance from the Court of Appeal

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Qualifications

• BPTC, City University (2016)
• GDL (Distinction), City University (2015)
• Part 1 Membership Examination, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2011)
• Medicine BM BCh (Distinction), University of Oxford (2010)
• Medical Sciences MA (First Class), University of Oxford (2007)

Memberships

• PNBA
• PIBA
• LCLCBA