William Audland KC

Barrister KC

Sports law has always played a central part in William’s personal injury, clinical negligence and international law practice. He is a keen sportsman himself. He acts for claimants and defendants, including in high-profile claims in football and rugby, and his practice covers a wide variety of other sports such as skiing, water-skiing, sailing, cycling, scuba diving. Clients include the RFL and the PFA.

Ongoing and recent cases include:

Football: William acted for the defendant in a claim for loss of career earnings brought by former Premier League goal keeper Carlo Cudicini after a motorcycle accident.

Rugby League: William is retained by the RFL to lead the defence of a claim being brought against it by a number of former RFL professionals who allege that they suffered a range of neurodegenerative injuries as a result of negligent governance of the professional game from the 1960s to date.

Cycling:

A High Court claim for catastrophic spinal injuries resulting from an accident when the claimant – a keen amateur cyclist out cycling with friends – fell when cycling along a shared path for cyclists and pedestrians forming part of the A50 highway and over a central raised white line separating the two lanes of user. The claim alleged negligent design and construction (in the 1990s) of the pathway; negligent failure to remove the raised white line; and/or failure to warn the line was slippery when wet. The significance of this case was that there are hundreds of miles of such shared paths with raised white lines up and down the country. The claim was defended by William and settled for a modest sum.
Dougan v Bike Events Limited: A claim against the organiser of an open road cycling sportive event (the well-known Manchester 100) arising out of a cycling collision due allegedly to negligent risk assessment, signage and marshalling. The High Court claim was for catastrophic brain injuries. William represented the successful defendant organiser: the claim was dismissed at a trial in the Manchester District Registry in June 2021. The claimant’s application for permission to appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

Diving:

A claim for injury and damage suffered by a stroke said to have resulted from a near drowning accident when the claimant was using the second defendant’s patented diving system while on holiday in the Caribbean. The stroke occurred many months after the claimant experienced breathing difficulties under water. The claim involved different laws (UK, Californian, and St Lucian) in relation to different defendants and different aspects of the claim, and issues of double insurance. The claim was settled.

Skiing: William has acted in a wide variety of cross-border skiing accident claims arising out of negligent skiing, falls arising out of negligent teaching/guiding and negligent boot/binding fitting and the like.