Advocacy opportunities for junior counsel: Cross-jurisdictional guidance that Coroners should note

A 2021 study from the University of Surrey School of Law looking at gender and seniority of counsel before the UK’s highest court[1] (here) has shown that women are under-represented as leading advocates, especially in major civil and Business and Property Courts litigation before the Supreme Court.   Whilst there are some reassuring findings within the […]

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Mere bystanders? Obtaining the criminal records of lay inquest witnesses

Henry Gargan’s and Edward Butler’s Application [2023] NIKB 103 Although often overshadowed by the Bloody Sunday killings a few weeks earlier, the Springhill killings of 9 July 1972 still stand out as one of the most notorious events during the troubles. The five people shot dead in Belfast that day included three teenagers and a Catholic priest, who was said to have been waving […]

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Are presumptions and burdens of proof relevant in inquests? Insanity and unlawful killing considered

R (Bryan) v HM Assistant Coroner for Buckinghamshire [2024] EWHC (Admin) 26, 12 January 2024 This most tragic of cases concerned the loss of two precious and irreplaceable lives when Ms Redmond put herself in the path of a train whilst holding her three year old daughter. The inevitable conclusion of suicide in Ms Redmond’s […]

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Keeping the deceased at the heart of the inquest

Death and taxes: the past, present and future of the coronial service A lecture by the Chief Coroner of England and Wales, HHJ Thomas Teague KC, celebrating 10 years post-reform The Chief Coroner’s speech on the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, delivered on 22 November 2023 and available […]

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Death Investigation: Coroners and Inquests

A short course for coroners, judges, lawyers and medical professionals Course director: Peter Thornton , Visiting Professor at King’s College London (the first Chief Coroner of England and Wales) In person at King’s College London, Strand Campus, Bush House  Tuesdays on the following dates: 20, 27 February and 5,12,19 March 2024. The course will consist […]

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