Margaret Ryan

I’m a Partner and clinical negligence Solicitor specialising in birth injury claims.

My particular area of expertise is in cases involving significant brain injuries in children due to birth injury, delayed treatment of meningitis, herpes simplex virus, and wrongful birth injury claims. I’m also passionate about working closely with clients to understand the circumstances surrounding their medical mistreatment and strives to provide them with answers and closure.

In addition to my casework, I’m passionate about training and mentoring new paralegals and trainee solicitors, helping them develop the knowledge and skills they need to advance their legal careers. I take great pride in seeing them flourish in post-qualification roles.

I’m passionate about working closely with clients to understand the circumstances surrounding their medical mistreatment and strives to provide them with answers and closure. I work closely with clients, press and other external organisations to raise awareness of issues impacting patient safety particularly in the field of maternity care.

I find it rewarding to see my clients receive compensation that can be used to fund essential care, therapies, and equipment that improves their quality of life. I also find fulfilment when my work leads to policy changes, such as the implementation of a “blue light” process for delivering emergency blood supplies at an independent treatment centre after a tragic case she handled.

Where possible I always try and communicate with my clients via telephone, as a telephone call is much more personable and I can then ensure that my clients fully understand the issues being discussed and the advice that I’m providing. I always ensure I give them the opportunity to ask as many questions as needed – no question is a silly question!

At key stages in my client’s case, I always try and meet with them in person at their own home, this puts them at ease and assists in explaining complex issues such as expert opinions and how cases are quantified.

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I successfully settled a complex case involving a delay in diagnosis of cervical cancer and secured a settlement that included the costs of using the services of a surrogate in the USA.

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I secured a 6 figure sum in a complex case which was denied by the Defendant. This related to a delay in diagnosis of DVT, which sadly resulted in the death of a loving husband and father.

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I successfully settled a case involving a delay in diagnosis of herpes simplex virus, which resulted in the child sustaining a significant brain injury. The case settled with a capitalised value in excess of £15 million.

All of my team are extremely empathetic towards our clients; they understand the profound impact that birth trauma can have on parents and the impact that raising a child with liabilities has on the whole family. We very much work as a team on our client’s files, each client has an assigned solicitor and assigned paralegal on their case, which provides a consistent point of contact throughout.

The culture is top for me – Fletchers’ genuinely care about their staff and clients. I’ve also built a great team around me, who are immensely supportive of each other and work well to progress cases and do the best for our clients. Flexible working is also of immense importance to me, with 2 young children and a dog – having the flexibility to fit my work in around my other life commitments creates a good work life balance.

The progressive nature of the firm is also what I enjoy about working here. We constantly strive to improve systems and processes and bring in new ways to support us in our roles – whenever there is an issue, the answer is always ‘let’s see what we can do to improve that’. Which is a breath of fresh air in the legal industry!

I enjoy walking my very energetic 2-year-old dog and watching my child build confidence and learn new skills in their out of school activities. I also enjoy a good weekend camping trip! I raise money for charitable causes and have organised and undertaken many sponsored events, including a sky dive, treks, cold water dips, bake sales, quiz nights and meet the animals event. I’ve also volunteered as a trustee of a charity for over 10 years and volunteered as a parent school governor for 3 years.