Ryan Smith
Partner
Ryan is Partner and Head of the Kirkcaldy office. He joined the firm in 2015 after completing his traineeship with a trade-union personal injury firm in Edinburgh.
Ryan has experience in running proofs in the Court of Session, National Personal Injury Court, local Sheriff Courts and the Sheriff Appeal Court. Prior to qualifying as a solicitor, Ryan was a paralegal specialising in personal injury law. Ryan also provides regular training to junior fee earners within the firm.
Ryan specialises in fatal accidents, acting for bereaved family members in relation to accidents resulting in a fatality. He also specialises in claims relating to accidents at work, road traffic accidents (especially motorcycle accidents) along with accidents in public places (occupiers liability and public liability claims). Ryan also deals with injuries involving amputations.
Ryan is one of the few solicitors in Scotland that have successfully appealed a personal injury decision from the National Personal Injury Court, in the Sheriff Appeal Court. In the case of Andrew Wright v National Galleries of Scotland [2020] SAC (Civ) 6, Ryan was able to prove, by overturning the original Sheriff’s decision, that the gallery owed a duty of care to Mr Wright who was there delivering milk early in the morning.
Ryan was also the lead solicitor in the important case of Lee Birch v George McPhie & Son Ltd 2020 SLT (Sh Ct) 93. In this case, Mr Birch had badly burned his hands using a sink at work to wash his hands.
Ryan is the Fife partner contact for BRAKE – The Road Safety Charity. He supports the charity by helping local bereaved families dealing with deaths on Scotland’s roads.
Ryan is a Law Society of Scotland accredited specialist in Personal Injury, a Senior Litigator of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and is a Notary Public.
