R (Mid and West Wales Fire & Rescue Service) v Senior Coroner for Pembrokeshire & Carmarthenshire and Marine Accident Investigation Branch [2023] EWHC 1669 (Admin) The High Court’s Norfolk[1] decision has sat uneasily with some in the coronial law community. Although coroners have a statutory duty to investigate a cause of death, the effect of […]
R (Maguire) v HM Senior Coroner for Blackpool and Fylde [2023] UKSC 20 Anyone who had been holding their breath waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision in Maguire can now breathe out. Nothing has changed. The Senior Coroner, the Chief Coroner,[1] a High Court judge, and four Court of Appeal judges were all right. Article […]
Read More… from Supreme Court outlines Art 2 obligations in community & healthcare settings
R (Bailey) v Secretary of State for Justice [2023] EWHC 821 (Admin) A challenge to the Secretary of State for Justice amending the Parole Board rules and issuing guidance about those changes is not obvious bed-time reading for those who work in the coronial jurisdiction. But hidden within the series of judgments arising from this […]
Read More… from Refusal to answer a question seeking an opinion may be a contempt of court
Bell v HM Senior Coroner for South Yorkshire, King’s Bench Division (Administrative Court) 21 March 2023, [2023] 3 WLUK 342 Hot on the heels of his decision as part of the appellate bench in Dove[1] last week, comes another foray into the question of the extent of the scope of an inquest into a likely […]
Read More… from Cogent evidence required before a fresh inquest is ordered
Dove v Assistant Coroner for Teesside [2023] EWCA Civ 289 In Middleton[1] the House of Lords considered that a coroner determining ‘how’ a person died in a non-Art 2 inquest need only determine ‘by what means’ they died and not the broad circumstances . But what does ‘by what means’ actually mean? The answer seems […]