60 seconds with… Jeremy Horton

In our latest ‘60 seconds with…’ interview, we speak to Jeremy Horton, Partner in our Personal Injury and Industrial Disease team. 

How long have you worked at Brachers?

Too long! 28 years. I came to Brachers in 1992 as a brand newly qualified solicitor, joining one of the defendant insurance teams at the time. There’s been plenty of twists and turns since then, but I’m still here.

What made you get into law?

Partly my dad who thought I’d be suited to it. Partly my strong sense of justice.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Two things: it’s a marathon not a sprint; and you know that feeling that you’re worried either you’ve got too much work or you’re about to run out of it? Get used to it and just be grateful for those rare times when you’re in that happy medium place!

What’s been the top highlight of your career so far?

My longest running case that took 10 years to resolve and 11 years before all the costs were sorted. This was a claim for the former manager of a London council parks department. He suffered work stress-related depression caused by excessive workload and poor treatment by his employers, which resulted in the ending of his 30+ year career and marriage.

The case was lost at trial; technically won but effectively lost, as the judge found his marriage breakdown and therefore his depression would have happened in a year anyway. As a result the client only got very limited damages, well below the defendant’s earlier offer.

We were refused paper permission to appeal (by the most claimant friendly appeal judge!) but got oral permission from another judge. We mostly won on appeal, but with a retrial directed. We tried to appeal to the Supreme Court on points lost, but were refused permission. We went to retrial before the same judge, who now awarded him £280,000, eight times the original judgment (after allowing interest and premium for beating our offer from years earlier). Brachers recovered £600,000 net costs, resulting in my only year so far where I billed over £1/2 million.

Sum up working at Brachers in three words

Tradition, innovation, vicissitudes (look it up!)

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