Jade Batstone

Jade has worked for DAC Beachcroft since 2009. Jade is now Partner and is a member of the national vehicle hire and damage management team. Having qualified as a Solicitor in 2015, she specialises in credit hire disputes. 

Jade defends claims for large corporate, personal and public sector insured’s clients with values up to £100,000. She deals with complex points of law, credit hire and vehicle damage and also has experience in bodily injury claims.

Together with the national vehicle hire and damage technical managers, Jade develops strategies against specific credit hire companies and designs work flows accordingly.

Jade provides training both internally and for clients as a result of changes in the law, and constantly adapts her approach to take into account the latest tactics from opponents and develop a best practice approach. Some examples of this include loss of profit strategy, specifically on taxi claims, and credit hire in the portal strategy.

Jade’s relevant experience includes:

Defending a credit hire claim for £70,000 where the claimant failed to comply with directions and the claim was struck out. The claimant solicitors promptly applied to come off record leaving the client with limited recourse to recover their costs. Jade made an application for a non-party costs order to seek the costs from the credit hire company who were the main driver of litigation. This was successful and the client was able to recover the costs of defending the claim.

Successfully defending a £93,000 credit hire claim for a replacement bus, arguing need, mitigation and loss of profit. Jade worked with the client on obtaining fleet information and evidence to show that the claimant company had sufficient fleet that they did not utilise and therefore did not need to hire. The claim has now been negotiated favourably for the client, limiting costs risk.

Jade is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.