Practice Areas

Insolvency

Nicola is regularly instructed by companies, company officers, liquidators and creditors to appear in a range of proceedings in the Companies Court, including winding up petitions, validation orders, private examinations and arrest warrants. She has advised in relation to misfeasance, fraud, creditors’ rights, asset-tracing and recovery disputes. Nicola regularly advises on high-value corporate insolvencies in The Bahamas, including cross-jurisdictional questions on the duties and professional negligence of company auditors and advisors.

Commercial and Chancery

Nicola acts and appears for both claimants and defendants in contractual and property disputes, including a high-value hotel development in the Privy Council in an adverse possession claim. She is instructed on both contentious and non-contentious matters relating to the purchase and sale of commercial property and breach of trust claims involving pension trust companies.

Employment

Nicola is instructed on behalf of claimants and respondents in all stages and types of claims, from one-day unfair dismissal cases to lengthy discrimination claims. She has particular experience of stress at work cases, drawing on her personal injury experience and appears regularly in the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

Personal Injury

Nicola advises on liability and quantum cases in fast-track and multi-track claims. She has experience with drafting all statements of case and complex schedules of loss. Experience in negotiating settlement terms in workplace accident and fatal accident act claims and Part 36 offers.

Nicola has particular experience in the following areas of Personal Injury:

• Workplace injury, co-employee violent assault and stress at work
• Fatal accident act claims
• Part 36 offers
• Road traffic accidents
• Slip and trip cases
• Occupier’s liability cases
• Health and Safety and other regulations
• Drafting infant settlement advices from low-level quantum to complex multi-track and Fatal Accident Act cases

Examples of cases which Nicola has worked on include:

• Acting for a wife and child in a multi-track Fatal Accidents Act claim with complex settlement negotiations with co-claimants and defendants. A sizeable settlement was obtained in this case which involved cross-jurisdictional and immigration issues and complicated quantum calculations.
• Acting for the claimant in a ‘multiple breakdown’ stress at work claim with complex causation and quantum issues. Settlement obtained through Part 36 offer.
• Instructed in a multiple-accident multi-track claim with a complex schedule of loss addressing care and permanent disability.
• Advising in the claim of a Scottish national in a road traffic accident in The Bahamas, in Bahamian proceedings.

Notable cases

• Arriva London Limited v K Eleftheriou UKEAT/0272/12/LA: After successfully representing the claimant and securing his reinstatement at the employment tribunal in his claim for unfair dismissal, successfully resisted an appeal of the reinstatement order and cross-appealed a Polkey deduction, achieving a higher monetary award.
• Re: Hartmayes (in liquidation), Companies Court, Chancery Division High Court: Represented liquidator in proceedings against company director, including private examination and arrest warrant.
• Kenneth Higgs v Leshelmaryas [2009] UKPC 47: Appeared for defendants in chancery Privy Council appeal, successfully arguing against adverse possession claim over commercial land situated in The Bahamas.
• Zohra Bi and Others v Elena Claughton and Direct Line Insurance, High Court QBD: Acted for claimant wife and child in multi-track Fatal Accidents Act claim with complex settlement negotiations involving both co-claimants (parents and siblings) and defendants. Cross-jurisdictional/immigration issues and complex quantum calculations. Obtained sizeable settlement.
• Dalriada Trustees Limited v South Horizon Trading Limited and Others, High Court, Chancery Division. Acted for defendant pension companies in claim for breach of trust.
• Suisse Security Bank & Trust Ltd (In Liquidation): Bahamas Supreme Court and Bahamas Court of Appeal. Advising in several litigations arising out of the liquidation of a company incorporated in The Bahamas, with assets in multiple jurisdictions.

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