Margaret Duncan
Margaret.Duncan@kennedyslaw.com
+44 122 353 3076
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Profile
Margaret is a Senior Associate in our Cambridge office and joined Kennedys in 2001. Margaret specialises in clinical negligence and medical law.
She has extensive experience of clinical negligence litigation, especially involving injuries of maximum severity and cases of high value. Cases cover a wide range of clinical practice including obstetrics, birth injuries to mother and baby (including cerebral palsy), neonatology, paediatrics, accident and emergency, multiple/catastrophic injury, anaesthetics, neurosurgery, psychiatry and ‘wrongful birth’ claims.
Legal issues covered include contribution proceedings, all aspects of quantum and periodical payments. She has wide experience of alternative dispute resolution, interlocutory hearings and trials.
Margaret also provides general advice to NHS trusts, including clinical risk management, incident investigation and other non-contentious issues.
Margaret is a member of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL).
Qualifications
- Qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1992
Margaret Duncan is a steady hand on the tiller: she deals with a large range of clinical negligence claims with sensitivity and focus.
Market recognition
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Rising Star and recommended lawyer for 'Personal injury and clinical negligence: defendant (East Anglia)'The Legal 500 UK 2024
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Rising Star and recommended lawyer for 'Personal injury and clinical negligence: defendant (East Anglia)'"Margaret Duncan is a steady hand on the tiller: she deals with a large range of clinical negligence claims with sensitivity and focus. We worked together on a case where the child died between settlement of liability and assessment of quantum where her dealings with the opposing team was exemplary".The Legal 500 UK 2023
- Rising Star and recommended lawyer for 'Personal injury and clinical negligence: defendant (East Anglia)'
The Legal 500 UK 2022 - Rising Star and recommended lawyer for 'Clinical negligence: Defendant (East Anglia)'
The Legal 500 UK 2021 - Rising Star and Recommended Lawyer for 'Clinical negligence (East Anglia)'
The Legal 500 UK 2019/20
Awards
Work highlights
- Defended claim successfully at trial relating to claimant who sustained cerebral palsy due to allegedly negligent delay in delivery and complications from shoulder dystocia – Gossland v East of England Strategic Health Authority [2008].
- Defended claim successfully at trial where claimant suffered cerebral palsy and alleged this could have been avoided if an antenatal CTG trace had been interpreted correctly – McCoy v East Midlands Strategic Health Authority [2011].
- Contribution claim where patient suffered severe injuries in a road traffic accident, then sustained additional brain injuries due to alleged negligence by anaesthetist.
- Settled claim on periodical payment basis where hospital negligently delayed diagnosing a cerebral infection, leading to cerebral abscess and brain damage.
- Settled claim on periodical payment basis where claimant suffered brain injuries arising from intraventricular brain haemorrhage while receiving care in a neonatal unit.
Healthcare