“I was a latecomer to the law. I trained and qualified as a nurse in Dublin before heading to London in 1987, and funded my legal studies by working in hospitals across London before qualifying in 1998.
One of the most challenging cases I’ve dealt with since then went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a surrogacy case brought by a woman diagnosed with cervical cancer aged 29. Her cancer was missed at several opportunities, and as a result of chemo-radiotherapy, she became infertile.
For three years, tests and biopsy results were wrongly reported, despite her doing everything she could do to point out that something wasn’t right. The hospital admitted that, so compensation was given for the injuries that the delays caused.
She’d always dreamed of having four children, so the news about her infertility was devastating. Before her treatment, she had some of her eggs harvested.
Throughout the legal action, she stayed focused on having a family, and wanted to do that through surrogacy in California. In the US, she could be named as the baby’s legal parent pre-birth – something you can’t do in the UK.
So she claimed the costs of IVF and surrogacy as part of her compensation, to help her reach her goal of having a family. The High Court originally ruled against this, so I took the case to the Court of Appeal, and won – but there was then an appeal on that decision. By the time of the final Judgment in April 2020, it had been nearly seven years since my client’s diagnosis.
In April, the Supreme Court agreed that she was entitled to recover the costs for IVF and surrogacy. The issue of surrogacy costs had been taken to the Supreme Court only once before, in 2001.
At that time, the Court decided against the claimant, and Lady Justice Hale - as she then was - gave the leading Judgment. In 2020, my case was Lady’s Hale’s final case before retirement and the ruling set a precedent for others in a similar situation.
Over the years, I came to think of my client, who was granted anonymity, as almost a younger sister. We remain in touch now and I hope one day post-COVID, to see her achieve her goal of having a family.”
Anne is a Senior Associate in our London medical negligence team. She helps people regain financial security and get answers after suffering severe injuries due to negligence by doctors, surgeons, nurses and other health professionals.
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