Helen Dolan is Joint Head of the Manchester Office and Head of the Clinical Negligence team. Helen specialises in high value complex secondary brain injury, spinal cord injury (including cauda equina syndrome), birth injury, cerebral palsy and wrongful birth cases, and also has extensive experience of orthopaedic and surgical cases.

Recent reported cases of Helen’s include; the cerebral palsy case of AB (by her Litigation Friend CD) v North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (2016), spinal injury case of DD v East Cheshire NHS Trust (2017) and the brain injury case of RM (by Litigation Friend, JC) v East Cheshire NHS Trust.

Helen also acted for a recent appealed spinal injury case of AB v Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2019] EWHC 1889 (QB). The first instance hearing was held in June 2018, following which the Regional Costs Judge gave an extempore Judgment that the decision of the Claimant to switch from Legal Aid to a CFA in February 2013 was a reasonable one. The Defendant appealed, and that appeal was heard in July of last year, where the decision of the lower court was upheld. During this appeal, Helen was described by the Regional Costs Judge as “one of the most experienced clinical negligence practitioners in the North West of England, if not the whole country.”

Career and education history

• University College of Wales in 1988 with a BA (Hons) in French and Italian
• Manchester Metropolitan University CPE and LPC – 1996
• Potter Rees Dolan – 1999 becoming partner in 2004 and Director in 2014
• Joint Head of Manchester Hugh James: 2023

Memberships

• AvMA
• APIL

Languages

• French
• Italian