Author: Bridget Dolan QC

Commencing 6 November 2025 The Centre for Contemporary Coronial Law at the University of Greater Manchester  is pleased to announce that the highly successful Coronial Law short course will be offered again, starting on Thursday, 6th November 2025. Designed for practitioners working in, with, or aspiring to join the coronial service, the course blends clear […]

Read More… from Coronial Law Course: University of Greater Manchester 2025-2026

R (Ferguson) v  HM Assistant Coroner for Sefton, Knowsley & St Helens and the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police [2025] EWHC 1901 (Admin) 23 July 2025 –  judgment here Q1: What strength of evidence will make it arguable that an article 2 duty has arisen and/or make it arguable that a duty has been breached, […]

Read More… from Low means low: the arguability threshold for the Article 2 procedural duty.

R (Drysdale) v HMAC Manchester (South) [2025] EWHC 1850 (Admin) 18 July 2025, judgment here To what extent an inquest must investigate possible causes of death is often a perplexing question. Until oral evidence is explored in a hearing it may not be known whether a possibility will crystallise into probability and so lend itself […]

Read More… from “Over-interpreting a very speculative dataset”: theoretical possibilities need not be explored at an inquest

His Majesty’s Senior Coroner for West Yorkshire (Western District)  [2025] EWHC 1672 (Admin) 3 July 2025. Judgment here This Divisional Court judgment recounts what should have been a completely uncontroversial application under s.13 Coroners Act 1988 for a fresh inquest.   Some highly relevant evidence had come to light which was not before the Coroner at […]

Read More… from Attorney General’s delay to granting a fiat impacts the interests of justice