Back to newsIrish Law Awards 2015
Posted in Awards on Sunday, March 15th, 2015
We are honoured and indeed humbled to be recognised by our colleagues for the work that we do. Each year that we have been nominated, we have come away with an award. Having been nominated for a number of categories we were successful in winning “Litigation Case of the Year” on the 30th April 2015 in Dublin.
Cantillons Solicitors, based in Cork City Centre, have won the Litigation Case of The Year at this year’s Irish Law Awards. The Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of law firms across the country.
The award was in recognition of the firm’s achievement in the recent case of Gill Russell -v- Health Service Executive.
On the 18th December 2014, Gill, an eight year old boy with cerebral palsy was awarded damages of €13.5 million, in addition to a previous interim settlement of €1.4 million. Gill suffered catastrophic injuries at the time of his birth due to negligence at the Erinville Hospital Cork. The Medical Negligence team at Cantillons Solicitors had initially brought the case before the High Court in October 2012, at which point liability was admitted and an interim settlement was paid.
In 2014, the Medical Negligence team at Cantillons Solicitors returned to the High Court seeking damages to care for this boy for the rest of his life. They put forward an argument that the real rate of return (the amount the damages is presumed to earn over a Plaintiff’s lifetime) should be reduced from 3%. This argument was successful and in this landmark judgement the real rate of return was reduced to 1% in cases such as this one. This decision had the effect of producing an award for damages of €13 million. Had the 3% rate been used it is estimated that the special damages awarded in the action would have amounted to some €9 million.
Since the Firm was founded, Cantillons Solicitors has been involved in precedent setting cases. The Firm’s Managing Partner, Ernest Cantillon has said “It is humbling to receive this honour and recognition from our colleagues within the profession. We would like to thank those involved for choosing our team for such a prestigious award.”
The Firm of 39 people fought off stiff competition from big law firms outside of Cork and Ernest has said “It is such an honour to be recognised by our peers and it will have pride of place in our office in Cork.”
See link below to article which featured in the Irish Examiner on the 4th May 2015,
Pictured above Miriam O’Callaghan, Cliona Kenny and Lyndy Cantillon
Pictured above Lyndy Cantillon and Cliona Kenny
Contact us at Cantillons Solicitors at +353 (0)21 -4275673 or info@cantillons.com if you would like more information.
