Katherine Deal specialises in all aspects of high value personal injury claims often involving fatal accidents and catastrophic brain injuries of maximum severity. She has a particular expertise dealing with claims arising from overseas accidents or medical treatment, in particular concerning issues of jurisdiction and choice of law. She is widely considered a leading expert on the interpretation and application of Rome II, and acted for the claimant in the first ever decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union to consider the scope of Rome II, Homawoo v GMF Assurances (CJEU Case C412/10).
She has particular interest in the application by the English court of foreign principles of assessment and is very used to working with foreign law experts to achieve the best results. She has acted in some of the largest foreign injury and fatal accident claim ever brought in an English court. As part of her specialism in international claims, she has a growing interest in appeals to the Privy Council, with recent cases involving alleged police brutality in The Bahamas, clinical negligence in Trinidad, road accidents in Mauritius and stolen aircraft in The Bahamas.
She has considerable experience in jurisdictional disputes and has acted in numerous landmark judgments concerning the direct right to sue foreign domiciled defendants in England, including Jones v AGF [2010] IL Pr 4, Thwaites v Aviva Assurances [2010] Lloyd’s Rep IR 661, Panagaki v Minetta SA General Insurance [2015] EWHC 2700 (QB), and, with Howard Stevens QC, Keefe v Mapfre & Hoteles Pinero Canarias SL [2015] EWCA Civ 598, which was considered by the Supreme Court before reference to the CJEU. She has been instructed in numerous cases seeking to re-argue Keefe, including Lackey v Mallorca Mega Resorts SL [2019] EWHC 1028 (QB) and Cole v IVI Madrid SL [2019] 9 WLUK 373, which was referred to the CJEU in late 2019.
She has a particular interest and expertise in claims involving disputes of forum between England and other national courts, as in Le Guevel-Mouly v. AIG Europe Ltd [2016] EWHC 1794 (QB).
She also has extensive experience in package travel claims, acting for and against all of the major tour operators in claims ranging from mass outbreaks of gastric illness in hotels or on cruise ships to deaths overseas. She is currently acting for numerous victims of the Tunisia terrorist attack. She is also instructed on behalf of the claimant in the appeal to the Supreme Court and the CJEU in the case of X v Kuoni Travel Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 938 which will clarify the law as it relates to liability of tour operators for deliberate assaults overseas.
