Profile

Susan O'Brien QC

Year of Call: 1987 | Year of Silk: 1998

Susan O'Brien QC

GENERAL INFORMATION

Part time Employment Judge (2000 to date)
Chairman of Faculty Services Ltd (2005 - 2007)
Temporary Sheriff (1995-1999)
Standing Junior to the Home Office and other Government Departments (1992-1998)
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
  • Employment and Discrimination Law
  • Disciplinary Proceedings for professional bodies.
  • Public law and Judicial Review

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 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 only in the Inner House of the Court of Session and the House of Lords. As a part-time Employment Judge, she cannot appear in the ET or EAT, but writes judgements on all kinds of employment law.

When Susan was a Standing Junior for the Home Office for 5 years, she conducted countless judicial review hearings, mostly concerning immigration and asylum. 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.

The Minister for Public Health (Scotland) appointed Susan to be Convenor for appeals concerning the Dentists Vocational Training Board for 2 years (Sep 08)

Many of the cases listed here involve Human Rights Act arguments: Susan has had an interest in the ECHR since acting as junior to the Lord Advocate in preparing the submissions and appearing in Strasbourg in Pullar v UK: 1996 22 EHRR 391.

SELECTED CASES

Personal Injury

  • Cross v Highlands and Islands Enterprise 2001 SC 1060, 2001 IRLR 336, - early five week proof concerning 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, ECHR compliance
  • B v Murray 2008 SLT 561- historic physical abuse and interpretation of s 19A time-bar/limitation provisions (House of Lords)

Discrimination/Employment 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, ECHR compliance and implementation of Directives.
  • Archibald v Fife Council 2004 IRLR 197 - early test case on interpretation of disability discrimination legislation (IH)
  • Cannop v Highland Council 2008 IRLR 634, 2008 SLT 625
    Dispute Resolution Regulations in equal pay/equal value claims (IH), instructed by Unite, GMB and other trades unions.

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 (5 judges) on procedures for children giving evidence
  • Potter v Scottish Ministers 2007 SLT 1019 prisoner with human rights violation claim (IH)
  • Caleb Ness Inquiry: Chair of a panel of three who investigated death of baby of drug addict; wrote report published in October 2003 which resulted in resignation of Director of Social Work and reorganisation in many Scottish social work departments

Disciplinary Proceedings

  • Tehrani v UKCentral Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visitors
    2001 SC 581 and 2001 IRLR 208 (OH) - defending nursing body in test case on compliance of its statutory disciplinary procedures soon after the introduction of the Human Rights Act
  • Sutherland-Fisher v Law Society of Scotland 2003 SC 562 (IH)- instructed by the Law Society in HRA appeal from solicitor's disciplinary proceedings

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • Co-opted member of Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) Training Committee, meeting in London, since 2007.

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