Dearbhla is a Solicitor specialising in Plaintiff Clinical Negligence as part of our Healthcare Team which has this year been awarded the prestige of being ranked Northern Ireland’s Number 1 Plaintiff Clinical Negligence firm by Chambers.
Dearbhla has gained valuable experience representing patients in a diverse range of complex Clinical Negligence claims including, but not limited to, both infant and maternity birth trauma, surgical, post-operative complications, misdiagnoses, General Practice and Orthopaedic claims among others. Dearbhla is a dedicated advocate for patients who have sustained injury as a result of medical care and has devoted her professional practice to this area of law in the years since her qualification.
Coroner’s Inquests and a Public Inquiry also feature regularly in her day-to-day practice.
Dearbhla graduated as a Solicitor with Distinction, obtaining her Postgraduate Diploma from the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, Queen’s University Belfast. During her training to become a Solicitor, she was hand-picked by a number of legal practitioners to participate in the Advocacy Final. In addition, she was awarded the Harry Coll Prize by the Institute of Professional Legal Studies which is presented to the trainee who attains the highest standard in the Tribunals (Employment Law) element of the Public Law and Tribunals module.
Dearbhla studied Law at Queen’s University Belfast and obtained her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) there. She focused her final year Dissertation on analysing claims by secondary victims for psychiatric injury and addressing whether the tests adopted by our Courts over the past number of decades to determine these types of claims are too restrictive. The highest performing module during her Bachelors was British and Irish Human Rights.