Emily Read

Emily has considerable experience in high value personal injury claims, and is happy to accept instructions in multi-track claims involving, but not limited to:

• Death and inquests
• Employer’s liability Public liability Occupiers Liability
• Construction sites
• Animals Act, particularly horses
• Highways, rights of way, common land and other public spaces Road traffic accidents
• Emergency Services
• Indemnity disputes
• Complex causation issues
• Pension disputes
• FND and other pain conditions
• Equality Act 2010 claims
• ECHR claims.

Emily has been instructed in hundreds, if not thousands of personal injury claims with nearly 2 decades of experience in the area, at all stages of claims and in claims of all sizes and complexity. Given the frequency with which Emily is instructed in personal injury claims, her knowledge of the Civil Procedure Rules as well as the law in this area is impeccable.

Emily regularly undertakes clinical and dental negligence work and has many years of experience in the field; she is happy to be instructed in a broad range of clinical and dental negligence cases.

Recent clinical cases have involved significant hypoxic brain injury following minor surgery, GP negligence leading to failure of only remaining kidney, obstetric negligence, surgical negligence in a variety of areas, orthopedic negligence claims, claims arising from a failure to diagnose Crohn’s disease leading to delivery of a very premature infant, death following failure to recognise sepsis in a young Mother, suicide of a young ASD patient who was detained for too long in an acute psychiatric ward, obstetric cases, vascular cases and many more.

Dental claims involving issues relating to decay, bone density and all on 4 implant failures have recently appeared on Emily’s caseload.

With years of experience in dealing with serious and long-lasting injury cases involving limb amputation, serious skeletal injuries, brain damage, stress, depression, PTSD, chronic gastrointestinal and/or urological injuries, including clients with dependency issues, suicidal ideation and serious disability, Emily is very well placed to deal with vulnerable parties both for Claimants and Defendants as well as the multidisciplinary and case management approach needed to quantify such claims.

Emily worked in the insurance industry for several years before becoming a barrister and is therefore commercially and legally astute in this area and is happy to be instructed, and regularly is, in cases involving insurance contracts, indemnity disputes, the MIB, insurance fraud, Third Party Rights Against Insurers, insurers statutory liability, the FSCS, causes of action by and against insurance companies and other contentious insurance matters.

Emily deals with costs in most of her cases, attending CCMC’s on a very frequent basis. She also appears as a costs specialist in the Senior Courts Costs Office acting in multi-day detailed assessments and is happy to be instructed in costs disputes of all sizes and in varying forums. Assessments in Emily’s portfolio range from tens of thousands of pounds in issue to figures well beyond a million.

Emily frequently acts in claims for and against public authorities and large public services providers and utility/street works cases and is well versed in the regulatory and statutory regimes that are particular to these parties. As such she is happy to accept instructions in cases involving public and statutory providers as well as schools.

Emily is frequently instructed to represent parties in cases involving fraud and dishonesty in the criminal, civil and tribunal context and has successfully obtained and deflected many findings of fraud and dishonesty in the County Court, High Court and Employment Tribunal. Her robust cross examination, where appropriate and previous experience in criminal courts is something Judges, clients and other parties often compliment her on.

Emily has attended inquests all over the Country involving clinical negligence including ECHR jury inquests, road traffic accidents and sporting accidents. Examples include sporting accidents involving horses, mountain biking, climbing and kayaking. Road traffic accidents involving emergency services and high-performance classic cars, the inquests linked to her clinical negligence practice and sampled above and many more.

This is an area that is part of her clinical negligence and personal injury practices where fatal incidents are involved, and she has represented families as well as insured interests and emergency services (fire and ambulance) and is very able to offer her professional advice and assistance in the Coroners’ Court.

Product liability is an issue that crops up in Emily’s personal injury, clinical negligence, insurance and general civil practice, particularly in property related matters (fire and flooding). Emily is regularly involved in product liability disputes involving anything from medical implants and kitchen appliances to sewerage tanks and is happy to act and advise in the same.

Health and Safety is an issue Emily advises on and deals with as part of her personal injury product liability work and she is happy to accept instructions in health and safety matters.

Emily has many years of experience in Employment Law, which she ceased in 2017 to focus on her core civil practice areas but as a result of this she has a good understanding of the provisions of the Equality Act 2010, having extensive practical experience of both the current and previous legislation in the area. Many of the employment cases involved disability and often some form of psychiatric harm as a result of discrimination or harassment, such as a Claimant becoming so anxious and depressed that he could no longer work having previously worked at the executive level in a huge multinational logistics firm. Discrimination law is something that Emily continues to be involved in in civil claims. Emily has successfully defended several civil claims of race and disability discrimination, particularly in the context of Covid and in relation to GP practices.

Emily worked for a property developer and in-house for a firm of solicitors dealing with property related claims, in particular professional indemnity claims against property professionals, including mortgage fraud and agency fraud. Emily continues to accept instructions in public liability, professional negligence, construction and property insurance cases including policy coverage, nuisance, negligence causing damage to property, statutory breach, regulatory breach, trespass and Rylands v Fletcher and has represented parties in the TCC on a number of occasions.

A majority of the cases undertaken over the past 4 years involve fire/explosive material, oil, asbestos contamination, sewerage related nuisance and flooding. Most recently Emily is involved in multi-party action following a significant fire in a new development that destroyed 21 homes.

Emily also advises on contractual and statutory disputes relating to construction works and for or against utilities providers.

Emily has extensive experience of acting in unusual cases involving a broad range of liability experts such as unusual sports, as well as for the fire and ambulance services in high value and multi-party claims.

Emily has undertaken a number of cases involving insolvency, bankruptcy law and restoring companies to the register and is happy to be instructed in cases involving these issues.

Emily’s experience in criminal work and being instructed by the CPS means that Emily can and does undertake work involving criminal aspects, recently in the context of inquests and civil claims following criminal proceedings.

Emily speaks fluent French and Italian and this has proven useful in a number of her cases.

Emily was once a keen equestrian, she now enjoys a range of countryside pursuits, skiing and spending time with her children and array of animals.

Brevet Français Option Bilingue

International Baccalaureate- Bilingual diploma (English and French) MA (Economics), Downing College, Cambridge

GDL, BPP London

BVC, Inns of Court School of Law

The Honourable Society of Middle Temple PIBA

AVMA

Registered legal aid provider

School Governor

Emily sits on a range of committees linked to her practice areas and was an editor of Facts & Figures until she relinquished this role in 2025