About Riffat Yaqub
With over 20 years of working in the Personal Injury field handling complex cases involving serious injuries arising from medical accidents, road traffic accidents, work place accidents, accidents in public places and sexual abuse claims Riffat has developed a reputation for consistently achieving strong results for claimants who have suffered life changing injuries from brain injuries to spinal injuries.
Her priority is to ensure her clients receive rehabilitation at the earliest opportunity to maximise their chances of achieving the best outcome. Riffat works closely with my clients, their families and all other organisations involved in the client’s care to ensure that they can flourish and return so far as possible to their pre-accident life. Riffat is extremely passionate about the work she does and she is very client focused.
Riffat is assisting on a £200m claim against a global pharmaceutical company(GlaxoSmithKline) for serious neurological injury (narcolepsy and cataplexy) suffered by claimants who were vaccinated with the pandemic swine flu vaccine.
As an accredited member of the Law Society Personal Injury Panel and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers Riffat is recognised as a specialist in Personal Injury law. Riffat was finalist Claimant Lawyer of the year in 2022.
Riffat is recommended in Legal 500, 2023 and Chambers UK, 2023.
"Clear and concise in all communication and thorough in her advice and support, Riffat Yaqub is astonishingly detail-oriented, sensitive and intuitive to my concerns." "She is extremely efficient and investigates claims comprehensively." - Chambers UK, 2023
"Riffat Yaqub is a first-class litigator; she is highly organised and skilled at running litigation, including the most complicated, high-profile and high-value claims. Clients rightly have great confidence in her." - Legal 500, 2023
Notable Cases
- SG v SC – Riffat acted for Mr G who suffered catastrophic life changing injuries when he was knocked down in a road traffic accident. Mr G has been left with a spinal cord injury whereby he is an incomplete C5 sensory C6 motor tetraplegia. Riffat assembled a specialist team of experts and therapists to provide rehabilitation to maximise Mr G’s recovery and ensured that Mr G received all the support and assistance he required to make the transition from hospital to community care with a 24-hour care package in a specialist-adapted property as painless as possible. Mr G received a lump sum award of £2,850,000 (two million eight hundred and fifty thousand) and periodic payments of £125,000 every year for the remainder of his life. Riffat secured an agreement that he would also continue to receive PCT funding of his care package separate to that paid by Mrs C’s insurers. Mr G’s award of compensation was valued at the equivalent of £7.5 million if capitalised.
- X v Frimley Park Hospitals NHS Trust – Riffat acted for X, a 12-year-old boy who was injured due to mismanagement at birth. In the minutes immediately prior to his birth, his mother’s labour was complicated by shoulder dystocia. His case was that urgent assistance ought to have been summoned by the midwives within 2 minutes of delivery of the head. If X had been delivered earlier, he would have been in a better condition and would have avoided suffering from moderately severe dyskinetic cerebral palsy. His life expectancy was reduced as a result. X’s claim was compromised with X receiving 80% of the full value of his claim. X was awarded a lump sum of £1,910,000 (one million, nine hundred and ten thousand pounds) and staged periodic payments of £33,200 increasing to £104,000 per annum. His award was valued at the equivalent of £3.4 million if capitalised.
- Z v Others – Riffat acted for Mr Z who suffered multiple injuries during the course of his employment when a skip, which was being lowered towards a mixer, dropped without warning crushing Mr Z causing him to suffer severe injuries. Claims were pursued against Mr Z’s employers and the owners of the crane as well as the owners of the site where the accident occurred. Liability was fought between the three defendants and Riffat successfully recovered damages of £850,000 for Mr Z.
- D v Ford Motor Company – Riffat acted for Mr D who was injured during the course of his employment as a Crane driver with Ford Motor Company. He was awarded the sum of £315,000 for injuries suffered to the fingers of his non-dominant hand.
- A v C NHS Trust – Mismanagement during A’s birth led to her suffering a hypoxic ischaemic event with the result that she now suffers from athetoid cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia. A was awarded a lump sum payment of £1,950,000 (one million nine hundred and fifty thousand pounds) with further annual payments (periodic payments) for the remainder of her life. She was 8 when her case was approved by the Court.
- A v Homerton University NHS Foundation Trust – A was born with dystonic cerebral palsy following a delay in his delivery. He was given a life expectancy of 25 years and was awarded £2,200,000 (two million two hundred thousand pounds) which was approved by the Court.
- S v G – S was a pedestrian who was knocked down by a speeding motor car. He suffered severe head injuries and was awarded £1,800,000 (one million eight hundred thousand pounds).
- P v S – Mr P was a motorcyclist who was knocked down by a speeding motor car. The defendant argued that the brakes of P’s motor cycle caused or contributed to his accident. After a five day trial in the High Court Mr P was awarded £1,100,000 (one million one hundred thousand pounds).
- N v R – Mr N was a participant in an organised Go- Karting event. Whilst driving round the track he hit an unguarded metal post and suffered fractures to his tibia and ankle. N was awarded £252,000.
- B v S – Mr B fell 15ft whilst climbing up an unstable scaffold tower. He suffered fractures to both ankles. Following a two day trial the Judge awarded Mr B £140,266.
- H v CG – Mr H was employed as a chef for CG. Whilst pulling a trolley loaded with tuna boxes the wheel of the trolley became caught in a crack in the ground resulting in the trolley tilting over. Mr H suffered nasty injuries and recovered £90,000
Professional Comments
Dr Jackson, Clinical Neuropsychologist
“Without reservation You -Riffat have been outstanding in such unusual and challenging circumstances, with unselfishness, resilience and humanitarianism. It has been a pleasure to work with you, being creative in providing an effective rehabilitation programme partly remotely in the Ukraine. After the onset of war, you were unnerving in finding the best way to arrange the evacuation of your severely brain injured client and his family to the UK. In my 30 years of medico-legal work I have rarely seen a solicitor with such concern for their clients and the capacity to work so insightfully with the Neuro-rehabilitation services.”
Dr Mark Holloway, Senior Brain Injury Case Manager “Throughout the whole process Riffat has sought to understand the complexities faced, she has been a committed advocate for her client and his family, and, whilst rightly holding us all to account, has recognised just how difficult this has been. She has liaised collegiately and robustly with her defendant counterpart and has ensured we have a shared vision of what we aim to achieve”.
William Latimer-Sayer QC, Cloisters
“Riffat cleverly negotiated with the Defendant’s representatives to make further payments under the Rehab Code, which therefore are not subject to the contributory negligence discount.
Her dedication and commitment to the client has been truly inspirational, and we are now working to secure the necessary expert evidence to quantify and resolve the claim.”
Beth Bartlett, Clinical Manager, Harrison Associates
“I worked with Riffat on the case of a young woman who sustained life changing injury to her upper limb. Whilst her tenacity and resilience helped maximise her rehabilitation and recovery potential, having an equally tenacious and resilient solicitor fighting her corner was just as important: Riffat really supported both her client and me as the case manager enabling the young lady to access rehabilitation tailored to her needs, as expediently as possible. Riffat has a terrific manner, is very innovative, calm, emphatic, caring and an extremely bright capable lawyer who is very client focussed. Working so collaboratively with Riffat made the whole rehabilitation process so much easier, not to mention such a pleasure!”
Graham Lynch, Defendant Solicitor
Riffat adopted a pragmatic and collaborative approach throughout the process including early notification of the claim, dialogue in relation to liability resolution, rehabilitation, quantum evidence and overall settlement. Throughout I found Riffat to be a, pragmatic, skilled negotiator. She was a formidable opponent, very determined, who clearly cared for her client. Riffat was very approachable, highly experienced litigator”.
Client Comments
“Hello, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Riffat Yaqub. She has become a friend of our family during the times she has worked with us. Volodymyr, my husband and father of my children, suffered a severe head injury while he was working in England. As a result of this injury, he became disabled and our family lost our breadwinner.
Thanks to Riffat’s professionalism, together with her team, she has organised various treatment programs for my husband in all possible ways. His health has improved following the medical care he is receiving and we hope that it will improve in the future. Our family can’t afford to pay for Volodymyr’s treatment, so if it wasn’t Riffat.s perseverance for me, I just do not know in what condition my husband would remain.
Special thanks also for the organisation of psychological and financial support for our family, because it is extremely difficult for us now. Volodymyr is not able to take care of our family due to his injury. he still needs to be taken care of, and I also earn much less due to th global problem with COVID-19. Our family is extremely grateful to Riffat and her team. Great respect for ge extraordinary hard work they do for our family.”
Memberships & Appointments
- Law Society Personal Injury Accreditation Scheme
- Accredited Senior Litigator of Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL)
Career & Personal Interests
Career
- Hodge Jones and Allen – partner, 2016
- Edwards Duthie – partner, 2004 – 2016
- Edwards Duthie – solicitor, 1997 – 2004
- Qualified as a solicitor in 1996
Education
- Diploma of Medicine (Royal Society of Medicine) – 2001
- College of Law, Lancaster Gate – Solicitors Finals, 1991 – 1992
- Law LLB (Hons) 2.1, South Bank University, 1989 – 1991
Personal Interests
Riffat enjoys musicals, running and attending the gym.