SOLICITORS Pye-Smiths of Salisbury have promoted David Healy to head of their new personal injury department.

He has been with the firm eight years and has moved to his new role after being head of the civil litigation department.

The new department, which comprises Mr Healy and four staff, deals with clinical negligence and personal injury.

"I am a medical physics graduate, which fits well with this type of work," he said. "This area of the law has grown considerably.

"The problem with clinical negligence claims is that they are expensive because of the reports needed from experts and a lot of people cannot afford it.

"We have a contract with the Legal Services Commission, so we can do publicly funded work for clinical negligence, which is quite a step forward.

"We also do 'no win no fee work' for clinical negligence," he said.

"I see this work expanding still further and we are looking at recruiting in December."