Client services

Abuse and social care

Hill Dickinson is one of the UK’s foremost advisors in this complex and continually developing area of law.

We are instructed by a significant number of clients in the defence of cases of alleged physical, sexual and emotional abuse. They include insurers, brokers and private clients, including many local authorities and children's charities.

As well as a substantial number of individual claims, we conduct the defence of a number of significant multiparty actions of considerable value and complexity. They include the North West Child Abuse Cases, the Bryn Alyn litigation and Various Claimants -v- The Catholic Child Welfare Society & 27 others. This latter claim is understood to be the largest multi-party abuse action in the country.

Recently, the application of limitation to claims involving historical abuse has been the focus of much litigation. We have taken a robust approach in seeking to have such claims declared to be statute-barred. For example, we represented the defendants in the leading authority in this area, Young -v- Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) (1) The Home Office (2) [2008] UKHL 6

Following our recent success in Young, we are seeing a number of significant discontinuances. There has also been a change of approach by the Legal Service Commission to the funding of historical abuse claims.

We also acted for the successful insurers in KR & Others -v- Royal and Sun Alliance plc (Court of Appeal), an important policy interpretation case. This focused on the application of the deliberate act exception, found within many standard liability policies, in the context of historical abuse claims.

As these cases illustrate, we consistently achieve significant results on behalf of all our clients.

Recent testimonials

"They know the business, chew the details and deliver.”
National children’s charity

“Hill Dickinson has dealt with our claims for many years. We have found them to be very thorough and efficient. The staff team are always professional and approachable. We would recommend the firm to anybody who requires assistance.”
Major regional supplier of care services

“Hill Dickinson clearly look after the best interests of their clients and show a professional approach to litigation. It is very helpful to the Special Cases Unit of the Legal Services Commission to know that, when we provide funding to claimants bringing expensive and difficult cases against public bodies, often involving issues of public importance, we can have a productive discussion with the defendant’s representatives who are conscious of the need to protect the public purse.”
Specialist Cases Unit, LSC