Mark Harvey is the partner in charge of the Specialist Claims Group within the Individual Services division 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 arising out of travel, sport and leisure generally. He has been involved in claims in Britain, Europe, Australia and the United States arising out of medicines and medical devices including breast and hip implants, optical lenses, dental fixatives, hearing devices, contrast media, and transport. More recently he has helped victims of data breaches and breaches of confidentiality to recover compensation.

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 failing gastric bands, vaginal and hernia mesh as well as cataract 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

Mark was one of the lead lawyers securing compensation for victims of the Gerona air crash and Southall and Paddington rail disasters as well as being instructed in the MH17 air crash litigation helping secure compensation for a British family.

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 Norwegian 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. He is representing professional and retired professional players in connection with concussion and other chronic sports related injuries.

Data breach and privacy claims

Mark leads a team which has recovered compensation for many victims of breaches of privacy and confidentiality as well as breaches of the Data Protection law. They have helped clients force record holders to find lost records as well as correcting correct inaccurate ones. They have secured significant levels of compensation for peoples whose school medical records have been lost; employment records accessed inappropriately as well as helping families whose involvement in adoption proceedings has been disclosed to the birth parents. This has included arranging urgent removal of the family to safe accommodation in damages to enable them to permanently move house and take other suitable risk reduction measures.

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 the immediate past UK Senior Governor of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) 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 including a session on Sports Law in the MSc on Sports and Exercise Medicine at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He broadcasts regularly on television and radio, including being the Travel Law expert for the BBC Consumer programme, X Ray.

He has been described as a “Leader in Personal injury and Product Liability” in Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 for 1999-2022 as well as being entered into the Hall of Fame in the Legal 500.

Expertise

• Disaster claims
• Accidents abroad
• Product liability
• Group action claims
• Advice on the law of England and Wales in overseas courts
• Data breaches

Memberships

• Previous President of Cardiff & District Law Society (2008-2009)
• Previous member of Civil Justice Council
• APIL (Senior Fellow)
• PEOPIL
• American Association for Justice
• Travel and Tourism Lawyers Association
• Editorial board of Journal of Personal Injury Law
• Editorial Board of Kemp and Kemp-Quantum of Law

Career History

• Trained: Owen White, London and Lawford & Co
• Qualified: 1990
• Partner at Hugh James: 2001
• Head of the Claimant Division (now Individual Services): 2010 – 2017

Languages

• French