In the matter of Downey [2021] NIQB 108 There is much to be learned from this recusal application, that was founded on the Coroner having allegedly expressed a decided view regarding an important legal point before he had received the written submissions he had invited on the issue. Despite a High Court judge initially having […]
Read More… from Coronial bias: a predisposition is not a predetermination
Senior Coroner for West Sussex v (1) Chief Constable Sussex Police (2) Secretary of State for Transport (3) Mr Hill [2022] EWHC 215 (QB) The Shoreham Aircrash in 2015, its investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, (published in 2017) and the ensuing criminal trial (concluding in 2019) have produced a highly unusual, if not unique, […]
R (Boyce) v HM Senior Coroner for Teesside and Hartlepool (and (1) Middlesbrough Borough Council (2) Tees Valley Care Ltd) [2022] EWHC 107 (Admin) There can be no dispute that Article 2 procedural obligations will extend to all violent deaths and suicides of those in state detention, such that a full Article 2 inquest must automatically […]
R (Bilski) v Her Majesty’s Coroner for Inner West London [2021] EWHC 3339 (Admin) It was perhaps more in hope than expectation that the Claimant sought an oral permission hearing in this judicial review claim, where the main issue in contention was the adequacy of a single box within the Record of Inquest form (‘ROI’). It […]
Read More… from You should read the Record of Inquest as a whole
The Grenfell Tower fire shows the need to give coroners’ recommendations more teeth. On 28 March 2013 the coroner, after verdicts were returned on the deaths of six people in Lakanal House in 2009, made important and potential life saving recommendations (see for example her Letter to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local […]
Read More… from Change the law to make Reports to Prevent Future Deaths work