Barrister Profile
STEPHEN HAM
Year of Call: 1999
Main Areas of Practice
Commercial Law
Mediation or Alternative Dispute Resolution
Personal Injury
Professional Negligence
Biography
Stephen’s main areas of practice are Professional Negligence, Medical Negligence and Personal Injury litigation specialising in industrial disease and catastrophic injury cases.
His practice is split approximately 70% defence insurance and 30% Plaintiff’s litigation and he primarily practices in the High Court.
In Stephen’s professional negligence practice he mainly appears in the Commercial Court on behalf of insurers in high value claims representing Accountants, Architects, Valuers, Financial Advisors etc.
In his personal injury practice he acts in a wide variety of EL, PL and RTA cases and is currently engaged on behalf of Defendants in a significant number of industrial disease cases in respect of Noise Induced Hearing Loss and Pleural Plaques/Asbestosis/Mesothelioma.
In Stephen’s medical negligence practice he appears on behalf of the various Health Trusts across Northern Ireland and continues to also appear in a variety of Plaintiff’s cases.
He was appointed to the Attorney Generals Government Civil Panel (C Panel) in April 2004 - 2013.
He was appointed to the Directorate of Legal Services Panel for General and Medical Negligence in December 2009.
Stephen regularly acts on behalf of a wide variety of defence Insurance Companies and Legal Expenses companies.
He is a committee member of the Northern Irish Personal Injury Bar Association.
Stephen is a fully qualified and accredited mediator.
Stephen was a former captain of the Bar Rugby team and a member of the Bar Golf Society and his outside interests include a wide range of sporting activity, food, travel and of course his family.
Qualifications
1995 - 1998; LL.B 2:1 Queen’s University, Belfast
1998 - 1999; Institute of Professional Legal Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast
1999; Called to the Bar of Northern Ireland
2010; Admitted to Middle Temple and called to the Bar of England and Wales
Experience
Notable cases include Clarke, Colin v McCullough, Lyndsay [2013] NICA 50 (credit hire), and
BOI v Patterson Miller [2014] (Weatherup J) (valuer’s negligence)