John Caddies

Practice Areas

I am the head of the PI, Travel & Regulatory team. I am a travel, marine, offshore and disease specialist with expertise in fatalities, catastrophic injury claims, class actions, legionella and stress claims. The vast majority of these accidents occur overseas and so the relevant maritime conventions as well as correct law and jurisdiction have to be considered.

I have expertise in criminal investigations following accidents and regularly liaise with the Marine Accident Investigation Bureau, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Health & Safety Executive and the Police, as well as dealing with the subsequent civil claim. I have successfully defended a cargo ship owner from an MCA prosecution arising out of the death of a member of the crew.

I regularly attend on board vessels to carry out immediate post-accident investigations, liaising with the relevant authorities and foreign lawyers. I was responsible for handling all the UK passenger personal injury and travel claims arising out of the Costa Concordia disaster, the Viking Sky engine failure, and the Spirit of Discovery pod failure.

I am the leading defendant lawyer for marine asbestos claims being responsible for a successful date of knowledge defence for ship-owners in the case of Smith –v- P&O Shipping Limited (1998) 2 Lloyds Rep 81.

Career

I joined Hill Dickinson in 1988 as a trainee solicitor. Remained with Hill Taylor Dickinson when the firms split in 1989, became a partner and then rejoined Hill Dickinson when the forms remerged in 2006. I became the head of the PI, Travel & Regulatory team in 2017.

Personal

I am married with 2 grown up children. Apart from my family my interests are sport generally. I play tennis, ski and enjoy fitness activities.

Clients

The team’s clients are in our various sectors are: -

Marine

Most vessels in the marine sector are insured with Protection and Indemnity insurers (P&I Clubs), which are the marine equivalent of land based insurers such as Zurich, RSA etc. We act for all these P&I Clubs that have UK jurisdiction claims. The only P&I Club that only instructs only one law firm to carry out all its UK personal injury work is Shipowners P&I Club, and we are the sole law firm carrying out their work.

We have the largest team of specialist personal injury lawyers dealing with crew and passenger accidents, sexual assault, class actions and fatalities throughout the marine sector from oil majors to container ships and from bulk carriers to cruise ships, yachts, and fishing vessels.

The team is the only specialist marine personal injury and regulatory team out of English based law firms; hence the team has an unrivalled reputation and are highly regarded by clients as being the leaders in this sector. The team is sought out by clients to regularly advise on marine-related personal injury claims as well as providing proactive and preventative advice and training on health and safety issues.

The team attends client’s vessels immediately after a serious accident and advises in relation to the police, MCA, HSE, MAIB and flag state investigations and prosecutions as well as dealing with the contractual and tortious claims brought by the injured person or the deceased’s family. We recently obtained a not guilty verdict at an MCA prosecution.

We have represented cruise companies in the recent Viking Sky and Spirit of Discovery mass casualty cases, the latter of which has also involved dealing with the MCA and MAIB.

Ports

We act on behalf of ABP the largest port owning company in the country and their insurers, Zurich and QBE, and so have unrivalled expertise in dealing with these types of claims. We also work for Hutchison Ports. Work includes handling miscellaneous enquiries under our retainer, EL and PL portal claims and high value EL and PL injury and fatality claims as well as a major rail derailment.

Disease

We are instructed on most industrial disease claims brought in the marine and port industry. We are specialists in handling their asbestos, deafness, stress and VWF claims as well as disease claims arising out of exposure in factories and workshops. Main clients include BP, Shell, Maersk, ABP, Hapag Lloyd, Chevron, R & Q Group, Enstar and most P&I Clubs.

Travel

We consider our travel and leisure division to be an industry leader in the comprehensive nature of the sectors covered coupled with our equally comprehensive capacity to service every aspect of any travel business’s requirements within those sectors from commercial, regulatory, crisis management, to personal injury, both UK and international, to having first hand input on government legislation and EU Directives.

We are specialists in relation to holiday GI, norovirus and legionella claims, minor and serious injury, sexual assault, loss of holiday enjoyment and fatal claims for overseas hotels and cruise lines as well as advising on GDPR and the Package Travel Regulations. We are the only firm that has successfully defended a class action claim for norovirus on behalf of a cruise line. We have expertise in cross-border disputes.

Offshore

Handling accidents on board offshore installations with specific expertise in relation to claims brought by divers. Main clients include Seajacks UK, Subsea 7, Valaris Plc, Seacor Marine, The Standard P&I Club and Gard AS P&I Club.

Factories/Workplaces

Handling EL/PL accident claims in factories and workplaces throughout England and Wales. Main clients are Generali and NMU

Overseas

Advising on jurisdiction, choice of law in relating to overseas personal injury, fatality and crew arbitration claims as well as instructing and overseeing lawyers in many jurisdictions all over the world handling the claims in their jurisdiction. Main clients include RSA Group, Louis Hotels and MSC.

Work Highlights

Assisting Maria Pittordis with all the personal injury and fatal claims arising out of the Bowbelle/Marchioness collision in 1989.

Representing P&O in the only successful maritime asbestos date of knowledge defence in the case of Smith –v- P&O Shipping Limited (1998) 2 Lloyds Rep 81.

Handling all the UK personal injury claims arising out of the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012

Handling all the UK personal injury claims and travel claims arising out of the Viking Sky engine failure in 2019

Handling all the personal injury, fatal and travel claims arising out of the Spirit of Discovery pod failure in 2023 as well as the MAIB and MCA investigations.

Successfully defending a RoRo Ferry operator in relation to a criminal prosecution brought by the MCA arising out of the death of a member of the crew during cargo operations.

Education