Estelle Machell

Full Profile

Estelle comes from a background of Claimant clinical negligence and personal injury with 17 years in the defendant sphere. 

Estelle is a Partner based in our Manchester office.  She has been a named individual for a number of insurers on their select panels to handle claims of the utmost severity and, together with a team of dedicated assistants, handles claims ranging in value from £100,000 to over £10m. 

Estelle has extensive experience dealing with injury claims at all levels, to include brain injuries, severe spinal injuries, amputations and complex fatal claims in addition to chronic pain and subtle brain injury claims.  She has a particular interest in claims of complex causation and the forensic analysis of the same.

Estelle is keen to adopt a collaborative approach working in the best interests of all to achieve a timely conclusion, encouraging early engagement in rehabilitation and claim resolution.  She is however recognised to be equally robust in her defence of claims where warranted and has been described in Legal 500 as "a tenacious and highly intelligent solicitor who has a fantastic tactical awareness and is the go-to partner if the matter is likely to go to trial."

Experience

• Trial win: RTA.  Liability admitted.  Medical causation in dispute.  C sustained a soft tissue injury to cervical spine and alleged ongoing residual problems.  It was a point in dispute for the majority of the case as to whether C had sustained a T4 fracture and whether it was accident related, and whether ongoing symptoms were accident related or relating to underlying constitutional degenerative changes.  D made a Part 36 Offer of £100,000 gross against a Schedule of Loss in excess of £500,000.  C failed to beat offer at Trial, being awarded £65,000.  A substantial costs saving following.
• Discontinuance: claim involved a fatal scuba diving accident.  D maintained a full defence throughout on the basis of no breach of duty and if there was a breach of duty it was not causative of the accident.  Substantial evidence was obtained eventually resulting in a discontinuance of the claim shortly before trial.  While D bore their own costs, a substantial saving on C's costs was made.
• Awaiting approval: settlement of a complex fatal claim with significant and sensitive public policy considerations for the Insurer, where social media had been deployed to both intimidate the Insured and damage the business of the Insurer. 
• Currently working on a number of projects with insurer client to raise elevation of practice area and seek to identify a niche claims area that can generate work into the team (as opposed to outside the practice) by developing a strategy for claims handling specific to those claims and tracking results to establish benefits.
• Expertise in amputation claims with particular experience in claims involving significant crush injuries with potential to lead to amputation.