Practice Profile
Rawdon Crozier practises in the areas of civil litigation with a strong emphasis on property (including landlord and tenant), professional negligence and contract law. He has a particular affinity for document trails and cases involving cross-overs into other areas of law. While the proportion of private work has grown over time, Rawdon retains a strong commitment to publicly-funded work.
Real Property
Acts in a wide variety of property-related cases and represents clients in the Courts, in Land Registry adjudications and also on mediations. His familiarity with other specialist areas of law, such as professional negligence, trusts of land and ancillary relief, is of particular use in a field in which overlaps with those disciplines are common.
Specific areas of expertise
- Sale of land
- Boundaries, easements and rights of way
- Claims for Possession
- Restrictive Covenants
- Adverse Possession
- Torts affecting land
- Proprietary estoppel
Landlord and Tenant
Appears for and advises both landlords and tenants in cases involving residential, business and agricultural/farm business tenancies.
Specific areas of expertise
- Construction of Leases
- Claims for breach of covenant and derogation from grant
- Claims for Possession
- Catering concessions - Lease/Licence
- Estoppels giving rise to security of tenure
Professional Negligence
Rawdon has long of experience of professional negligence work, going back to pupillage in Carpmael Building (now 3 Serjeants' Inn). While there, he appeared in procedural stages of the whooping cough vaccine litigation and was involved as a pupil in the preparation of the respondent's case for the hearing in the House of Lords of Sidaway v. Governors of the Bethlehem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital [1984] 2 WLR 778. Although he has continued to do clinical negligence work, the majority of his professional negligence practice since joining these Chambers in 1986 has involved claims against solicitors and surveyors. His experience of Mundic block litigation dates back to that time and the case of Marder v. Sautelle-Smith (1986) QB unrep., which established the date of knowledge of the Mundic problem within the surveyors' profession. More recently he has been involved in cases ranging from failed foreign property transactions, through a double solicitor's negligence in a potentially significant personal injury claim, to a claim against a local authority for failing to protect children.
Specific Areas of Expertise
- Solicitors – Property & Conveyancing, Conflict of Interest, Personal Injury, Limitation
- Surveyors - Surveys & valuations, Mundic block
- Local Authorities - Failure to protect children
Contract
Rawdon's experience encompasses a wide range of contractual disputes, which extend from straightforward cases such as debt actions and claims relating to the supply goods or services to complex commercial litigation, examples of which have been a quantum meruit claim for electrical mechanical design work against a major car dealership and a substantial claim by a taxi firm arising out of the supply of defective telecommunications equipment. In the wake of the last recession, Rawdon was involved in multiple claims by an insurance company seeking to recover advances of commission from tied agents.
Specific Areas of Expertise
- Sale of Goods and supply of services
- Consumer Credit & Hire Purchase
- Commercial contracts
Other areas of Practice
- Personal Injury (including vibration white finger and work-related upper limb disorder claims)
- Bankruptcy and Insolvency
- Partnership
- Local Government
- Planning enforcement
- Private Hire and Taxi Regulation (in particular the signage of private hire vehicles)
- Licensing
- Tribunal work
- Employment Tribunals
- Land Registry Adjudications
- Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeal Panel work
- Inquests
- Family Law
- Confiscation & Restraint (which often involves an overlap with aspects of civil law or ancillary relief). Rawdon appeared for the Crown in R v. McKinnon [2004] EWCA Crim 395 (2004) Crim LR 485, which established the territorial ambit of the confiscation provisions of s.71 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
Qualifications
LLB (Hons) London (University College) 1983
Blackstone Award, Middle Temple 1984
Bar Finals 1984
Called to the Bar: Middle Temple 1984
Devon & Cornwall Representative on the Wine Committee* of the Western Circuit 1998-2000
*For those who are off circuit, or otherwise unaware, the Wine Committee is in fact the governing body of the Western Circuit; the name harking back to happier and less troubled times, when there were fewer decisions of real importance to be made. That is no longer the case and The Western Circuit has been at the forefront of fighting the Bar's corner and seeking to persuade successive Governments to behave in a less legislatively incontinent and more responsible manner. I was lucky enough to serve my term when John Royce QC. (as he then was) was Leader and the wine, sadly, was never a significant feature of the committee's discussions.
Published Articles
A Lack of Care: Local Authorities, Care & Negligence Claims: Family Law Week 2nd. April 2009 http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed34182
Sell to Rent Back: how proprietary estoppel may assist sell-to-rent-back tenants who have sold to unscrupulous landlords: Law Society Gazette (2009) Vol. 106 No.19 p.27
Abuses in the sell-to rent-back market - an estoppel response: Landlord & Tenant Review (2009) Vol.13 No.3 Pages 104-107 an extended and editorially enhanced version of the earlier Gazette article (also available on Westlaw and Legal Hub).
When damage occurs - limitation and pecuniary loss in tort - an examination of the courts' divergent approaches: Journal of Professional Negligence P.N. (2009) Vol.25 No.2 Pages 68-75 (also available on Westlaw).
Contact
Please telephone 01752 221551 or email our clerking team
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