Antonia Ford

Antonia Ford draws from over 20 years of experience as a lawyer, both as a solicitor and as a barrister. In her successful career as a solicitor, she was Head of Fraud at Clyde & Co and a partner within the Claims Validation Team at DAC Beachcroft before transferring to the Bar.

Antonia has a varied practice covering all aspects of civil litigation, with particular expertise in personal injury, credit hire and fraud.

Antonia is the Head of the Personal Injury Practice Group within Chambers and has extensive experience of RTAs, highway claims, employer’s liability, occupier’s liability, travel claims and product liability. She regularly appears in the County Court and has acted in multi-track trials, fast track trials, small claims hearings, MOJ Stage 3 hearings and interlocutory applications.

She has extensive experience in dealing with claims where fraud concerns have been raised including low speed, induced and staged road traffic accidents and fraudulent employers/public liability claims. Antonia has been able to use her knowledge of civil fraud to act for both Claimants and Defendants in cases where fundamental dishonesty has been alleged/intimated. Her understanding of intelligence data and surveillance is invaluable in understanding fraud strategy and evidence. Antonia also has experience of civil sanctions such as contempt of court and tort of deceit following successful findings of fraud.

Her experience of road traffic accidents means that she has a wide knowledge of indemnity issues under the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the MIB agreements. She has also achieved success in credit hire claims for Claimants and Defendants utilising both standard and novel arguments.

Antonia has advised insurers, manufacturers and restaurants in respect to claims involving both foreign bodies in food and food poisoning. She has advised in respect to professional negligence claims which result in personal injury and/or property damage. She also has experience of claims involving the Package Travel, Package Holiday and Package Tours Regulations 1992 and the Montreal Convention.

Antonia has extensive experience in drafting pleadings including defences, particulars of claim, requests for further information under CPR Part 18, schedules of special damages and applications. She has advised in conference in respect to quantum, liability and the content of witness evidence to maximise a party’s chances of success.

She is a published author and her book ‘A Practical Guide to the Pre-Action RTA Claims Protocol for Personal Injury Lawyers; is available on both the publishers website and from Amazon.

She has used her knowledge of the pre-action protocols to pursue the strike out of subsequent claims for credit hire commenced after settlement of protocol claims and the debarment of medical evidence for failure to comply with the rules on disclosure.

Prior to joining the Bar, she contributed to a number of industry think tanks (including the Insurance Times Fraud Charter, the ABI, the Harmone Group and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). She was described as a ‘class act’ in the Legal 500 and has had articles published on the topic of insurance fraud.

Notable Cases:

At the Bar

• Shadbolt v Stefanatica (unreported) – successfully argued betterment in a claim for credit hire to replace an unroadworthy vehicle;
• Fadahunsi v Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (unreported) – successfully argued that, where two duties of care were in direct competition, an NHS Trust could be liable for an injury caused as a direct result of a decision to prioritise patient rights even where prioritising the employee could have resulted in a claim by the patient.

As a solicitor

• Smith & Heaps v Doncaster MBC – Successful defence of a motor fraud claim which formed the basis of the IFB’s first ‘Crash for Cash’ prosecution.
• Dawson v Hargreaves & another – The successful defence of an occupier’s liability claim involving arguments in respect to indemnity and collusion.