Practice Areas
Amanda is the managing partner in the firm’s Belfast office.
Amanda specialises in insurance matters, casualty and professional negligence (coverage and defence). In casualty, she defends catastrophic and large loss matters in employers’, public and road traffic liability claims for insurers and self-insured companies. She also defends disease claims and deals with regulatory health and safety prosecutions in marine, transport, retail and healthcare. Amanda works for marine insurers and P&I Clubs and Associations and conducts vessel arrests under Admiralty law.
She is a leading defence litigation practitioner, and is respected locally as an expert in professional negligence, medical negligence and advisory matters including inquests, inquiries and disciplinary matters.
Amanda also handles first and third party claims arising from incidents causing major losses, including; fire, explosion, flood, collapse, impact, machinery breakdown, environmental contamination, subsidence and riots. She acts for architects, engineers and surveyors, in construction related disputes. She recently dealt with a recovery action arising out of defective onshore and marine works at Victoria Terminal 4 in Belfast Harbour, securing a multi-million pound settlement after mediation in London.
She deals with commercial litigation such as freezing orders, search orders, third party disclosure and contract disputes, including procurement challenges of tender awards and alternative dispute resolution. She also leads in Belfast in defending product liability actions.
Amanda works on a number of complex and high value claims, including leading the ASR litigation in Northern Ireland and leading in the high profile “Hyponatraemia Inquiry” arising out of the deaths of children due to fluid overload; managing a high profile claim on behalf of a firm of architects arising out of the design of the MAC Theatre, one of Northern Ireland’s most prestigious arts venues.
She is a former Regional Representative for FOIL, sat on the Contentious Business Committee of Law Society for a number of years and is a Council Member of the Freight Council in Northern Ireland. Amanda recently met with the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland to discuss the potential changes to funding arrangements for civil litigation in Northern Ireland.
Amanda is an author of Kennedys’ Claims Handling Law and Practice Guide, the fourth edition of which was published in February 2021.
Amanda also contributed to the fourth edition of Kennedys’ Global Legal Handbook, one of our most popular guides, which outlines the main legal and procedural issues that case handlers may encounter when dealing with claims across 53 jurisdictions globally.
She also contributed to the Claims inflation and personal injury claims: a global review report, published in June 2023.
