Lawyer in the News

Who?: Ian Barker, 40-year-old in-house solicitor at the Medical Defence Union (MDU).

Why is he in the news? Represented John Roberts, a surgeon cleared last week of killing a patient after taking out the wrong kidney in an operation.

Mr Roberts, a consultant urologist at Prince Philip Hospital in Carmarthenshire, was accused jointly with fellow surgeon Mahesh Goel of failing to check 70-year old Graham Reeves' medical notes and misreading an X-ray, which led to the removal of a healthy kidney.

Both men were cleared after a pathologist said he 'could not be sure' that the error led to the death.

Background: LLB at Leicestershire University 1980-83, followed by Law Society finals at Guildford College of Law in 1984.

He qualified with healthcare specialists Hempsons in 1987, and was made partner there in 1992.

He moved in-house at the MDU in 2000.

Route to the case: 'I was instructed by Mr Roberts at Hempsons, and took the case with me when I moved to the MDU.'

Thoughts on the case: 'Our case was based on two arguments: firstly, the extent of the error made by the doctors, and secondly whether the cause of death was purely due to the removal of the kidney.

The case dealt with complex medical causation issues, which was interesting, and was made more so by the fact that as far as I know there have been no other similar cases of medical manslaughter.'

Dealing with the media: 'The MDU has provided us with training on how to deal with the media, which is useful as many of our cases are high profile.

There was considerable media attention on this case from the start, and given my duty of confidentiality to my client, giving substantial comment to the press was often difficult.

However, although there was some misreporting, in general the press behaved with suitable restraint.'

Victoria MacCallum