Melanie Misselbrook

Melanie is a Partner and the Head of the Casualty Team based in Leeds.

Melanie joined Markel Law in 2024, with over 20 years' experience of defending complex and high value personal injury claims, with most of her career spent at Top 50 Law Firms. Melanie has represented large commercial insurers, local authorities, police forces and the Ministry of Defence.

Her current focus lies within social care and construction handling a broad spectrum of employers’ liability; occupiers’ liability; public liability and professional negligence claims. She draws upon her experience of claims involving burns, de-gloving and crush injuries, fatalities, repetitive strain injuries, occupational stress, bullying, harassment, head injuries, all range of orthopaedic injuries and psychiatric injuries, such as functional neurological disorder, chronic regional pain syndrome and somatic symptom disorder.

Melanie is highly adaptable and quick to understand the nuance of a case. Her expertise lies in the ability to ‘ask the right questions’ and quickly assimilate large volumes of complex evidence, enabling her to formulate pragmatic defence strategies. Consequently, she has achieved a consistently high success rate and significant savings for her clients.

Case highlights include:

• Securing a £25,000 contribution to the defendant’s costs following the discontinuance of an exaggerated claim, pleaded in excess of £200,000.
• Successfully defending to trial an alleged bullying claim relating to a voluntary redundancy process. The case required a forensic analysis of a large volume of documents and the involvement of several witnesses.
• Achieved a significant reduction in the settlement value of a claim. Medical evidence was obtained on behalf of the defendant which concluded the accident brought forward a pre-existing condition by a matter of days. An early tactical offer was accepted.

Not only is Melanie passionate about client service, but she is also a fervent believer in the ‘People First’ approach. She is dedicated to ensuring the career development of her colleagues, supporting them in the provision of client training, publishing articles and offering mentorship to further develop their technical expertise.