Head of Specialist Claims, Hugh James, Cardiff and London
Mark Harvey is partner in charge of the specialist claims group at Hugh James in Cardiff and London, where he heads up that office.
He has obtained compensation for many individual victims of common but defective consumer products as well as those of accidents overseas and arising out of travel, sport and leisure generally.
Harmful Product claims
He was the Lead Solicitor in the PIP Breast Implant group action in the High Court in London which resulted in thousands of women being compensated as well as securing significant compensation for many victims of the so-called metal on metal hip prostheses. He and his team of specialist lawyers are investigating claims arising out of NexGen knees, vaginal mesh as well as intraocular lenses fitted by Optical Express and Optegra and textured breast implants. Mark obtained compensation for patients with St Jude (now Abbott) pacemakers as well as negotiating a settlement protocol for several hundred patients with defective cataract lenses.
Overseas claims
Notable successes have included obtaining substantial damages from companies in three different countries for foreign workers killed and injured in an explosion at sea as well as the family of a foreign national killed in an air display accident. As well as very substantial damages for British and foreign nationals in employer and product liability litigation including a helicopter air accident, an African safari accident as well as a French diver from an incident off the African coast.
Sports and leisure claims
Mark successfully represented the first rugby player to win compensation following an incident during a rugby international and has represented other victims of sporting injuries both professional and amateur, including recovering very substantial compensation for a first class rugby player blinded during a game.
Data and privacy
Mark has developed a practice enforcing remedies for victims of data and privacy breaches. In this capacity he and his team have helped families who have been identified in contentious adoption cases where they have been put at risk by the disclosure to the birth parents as well as recovering lost data as well correcting medical and other important sensitive records.
Experience and qualifications
He is one of only 13 (and the only one in Wales) Senior Fellows of APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers) for whom he was appointed an accredited Accidents and Illnesses Abroad Specialist Assessor. He is immediate past senior UK Governor of the American Association for Justice and past-chair of the International Practice Section. He is Wales’ first and only member of the Pan-European Organisation of Personal Injury Law (PEOPIL) where he is the chair of the Pharmaceutical, Product Liability and Mass Tort Exchange Group for European lawyers and serves as a member of the European Commission’s Product Liability Directive working group.
A published author for Jordans of the first and second editions of the APIL Guide to Conditional Fees, and co-editor of the APIL Guide to Costs and Funding he also contributes the chapters on Product Liability and Group Actions to their Personal Injury looseleaf. He is a member of the editorial boards of Thomson Sweet and Maxwell’s the Journal of Personal Injury Law and Kemp and Kemp on Quantum. He has lectured extensively around Britain, mainland Europe and the US on personal injury matters. He broadcasts regularly on television and radio.
He has been described as a "Leader in Personal injury and Product Liability" in Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 for 1999-2023 as well as being entered into the Hall of Fame in the Legal 500.