Joel McMillan

Personal injury is Joel’s bread and butter. He has experience of claims across the full spectrum of personal injury litigation, including those involving accidents abroad and those arising out of discrimination at work. Increasingly, his cases are high value and complex.

He acts for Claimants and Defendants in roughly equal measure. He enjoys seeing litigation from both sides and he considers it an advantage to be able to understand the perspective of both parties when considering tactics and strategy.

He is instructed to deal with all stages of claims, including pleadings, CCMCs, Part 35 questions and conferences with experts, advising on liability and quantum, interlocutory hearings, JSMs, and trials.

Some examples of Joel’s recent work includes:

• Helping secure £1.1 million in personal injury damages for a claimant whose employer subjected her to sex discrimination. Her treatment caused significant psychiatric injury, which left her unable to resume a career in banking. The case gained widespread national media attention and made the front page of the Financial Times. Further information about the case can be found here
• Acting for one of the defendants in a complex, multi-party occupiers’ liability claim, and successfully arguing that the relevant defendant was not an occupier of the premises in question
• Securing a total settlement of c.£250,000 for multiple claimants at JSM in claims for disease caused by defective premises
• Various chronic pain cases for claimants and defendants
• Numerous findings of fundamental dishonesty against claimants who lied in relation to liability and/or quantum
• Acting for, and advising, a claimant who was seriously injured in an accident on a building site in a claim with multiple defendants who all initially denied liability. The claim settled on favourable terms

Joel has a particular interest in employment and discrimination, and it forms an increasingly significant part of his practice. He acts for both claimants and respondents, regularly appearing in trials, preliminary hearings, applications, appeals, and mediations. In addition, he routinely drafts pleadings and advises on all aspects of claims.

He has been instructed in cases involving unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, race discrimination, sex discrimination, harassment, victimisation, equal pay, whistleblowing, constructive dismissal, breach of contract, redundancy, and wrongful dismissal.

Joel has a particular interest in cases involving personal injury claims in the Employment Tribunal.

A few examples of Joel’s work include:

• Representing the respondent at a 10 day trial of claims for: indirect discrimination in relation to belief and age, harassment, whistleblowing, and automatic unfair dismissal. All claims were dismissed.
• Helping secure £1.1 million in personal injury damages in the Employment Tribunal for a claimant whose employer subjected her to sex discrimination. Her treatment caused significant psychiatric injury, which left her unable to resume a career in banking. The case gained widespread national media attention and made the front page of the Financial Times. Further information about the case can be found here
• Acting for a respondent in a multi-day trial and successfully defending a claim for constructive unfair dismissal
• Pleading, advising and representing a claimant at judicial mediation and securing a favourable settlement of £60,000
• A successful appeal in the EAT for a claimant against the dismissal of her victimisation claim
• Acting for a claimant in a multi-day trial involving claims for whistleblowing, unfair dismissal and breach of a contractual duty to provide shares

Joel has extensive experience of cases involving dishonesty / fraud. He has secured numerous findings of fundamental dishonesty against untruthful claimants, and he has obtained exemplary damages from them under the torts of deceit and conspiracy.

He has also successfully represented a significant number of claimants, against whom dishonesty has been alleged, and secured damages for them.

Joel’s experience in this area includes low velocity impacts, staged accidents, induced collisions, occupancy issues, fabricated/exaggerated injuries, and fabricated/exaggerated heads of loss. He has a detailed knowledge of the relevant statutory provisions, case law and Civil Procedure Rules.

Joel prides himself on the thorough preparation of a detailed and carefully planned cross-examination, which he sees as being of particular importance in these types of cases.

A few recent examples of Joel’s work include:

• Securing exemplary damages against three claimants for the torts of deceit and conspiracy following their fraudulent misrepresentation as to the identity of the driver of the car in which they were passengers
• Obtaining a finding of fundamental dishonesty and making out the tort of deceit in a case where the claimant had exaggerated the extent of the damage sustained to her vehicle in a road traffic accident
• Obtaining a finding of fundamental dishonesty against a claimant who had exaggerated her loss of earnings claim, and securing the dismissal of her entire claim pursuant to s.57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015
• Persuading a judge to make a finding of fundamental dishonesty against a claimant who had given an untruthful account of a road traffic accident

Given Joel’s previous employment leading cultural tours of Western Europe, Joel has a particular interest in cases involving accidents abroad or with a foreign element, and it is an area of practice that he is looking to expand.

He has considerable experience of dealing with claims brought in the English courts applying foreign law and claims brought under the Package Travel Regulations. He has also dealt with numerous cases concerning road traffic accidents in this country involving foreign registered vehicles.

Joel has a keen interest in clinical negligence and it is an area of his practice that he is actively seeking to expand.

Joel has considerable experience of road traffic cases involving uninsured and untraced drivers, and is fully conversant with all of the issues that arise. For example, he recently advised on the potential liability of the various insurers when an uninsured employee of a car wash crashed a customer’s car.

Joel also has experience of cases involving misrepresentation / non-disclosure within the context of insurance contracts. As an example, he appeared in a Multi-Track trial in a case involving a driver’s non-disclosure of her previous fixed-point penalties and her insurer’s attempt to void the insurance policy under the terms of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012.

Joel also has an interest in recovery claims arising from property damaged by fire, storm, flood etc.

Joel has extensive experience of credit hire, including several Multi-Track claims pleaded in excess of £100,000. He represents both claimants and defendants, and he is well versed in the full range of arguments surrounding enforceability, illegality, need, period, impecuniosity and rate.

He prides himself on keeping up to date with the latest case law in this ever-changing area of law.

Joel can point to numerous cases where he has acted for the defendant and had the claim for hire dismissed in its entirety or overwhelmingly reduced, and where he has acted for the claimant and secured recovery in full.

Joel has represented businesses and individuals on a wide range of commercial matters including contractual disputes, landlord & tenant, mortgage possession, orders for sale, bankruptcy, and consumer credit. He enjoys this area of law and intends to continue to develop his practice in it.

A few examples of Joel’s work include:

• Representing the claimant in a trial involving a contractual dispute over the manufacture and supply of a boat
• Advising a client on the possibility of establishing a beneficial interest in a property under a constructive trust
• Representing the defendant in a Multi-Track trial involving a contractual dispute over the supply of a large number of allegedly defective windows
• Obtaining an order for sale of a property jointly owned by two brothers