FULLY BOOKED Inquests and inquiries: a one-day course

Course date: 1st February 2019
Venue: Doughty Street Chambers
Course Time: 9.15am-5.15 pm
Accreditation: 6 hours CPD
Lecturers’ Names: Kate Maynard and Daniel Machover/ Fiona Murphy and Jesse Nicholls

Commercial rate: £215 + VAT

Standard rate: £205 + VAT

Trainers: Kate Maynard and Daniel Machover

This course will provide an overview of the law and procedure of the coroner's court and of public inquiries. It is aimed at those representing bereaved families at inquests, and those representing bereaved families or members of the public who are core participants at public inquiries.

1. The key provisions of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 and Coroners Rules 2013, together with the Inquiries Act 2005 and Inquiry Rules 2006.

2. Public funding for inquests and the relationship with civil claims for damages.

3. Client care, disclosure, gathering evidence, pre-inquest review hearings and preparation for the inquest.

4. The inquest hearing: witnesses, written evidence, juries and conclusions.

5. Working strategically on cases with INQUEST (led by a caseworker from INQUEST).

6. Applying to be a core participant at a public inquiry, getting funding.

7. Preparation for a public inquiry, the preliminary and final hearings, and the Inquiry’s report.

1. This course is aimed at those who are new to this area of practice or who wish to develop their knowledge.

2.The aim is to ensure that those attending the course have a practical toolkit for each of the major stages of the investigation, inquest or inquiry.

3. Pitfalls and tactics will be identified and discussed.

4. Attendees will acquire an overview of the Coroners Act 2009 and Coroners Rules 2013 and the Inquiries Act 2005 and Inquiry Rules 2006.

Trainers: Fiona Murphy and Jesse Nicholls

This advanced course will provide a comprehensive update of all significant legal and practical developments about inquests, investigations, inquiries and related civil claims over the last 12 months. It will help practitioners to get involved with important future legal developments, and give guidance on the issues that may be confronted in more complex cases.

Topics include:

1. A review of all important recent domestic and ECtHR cases and other legal developments, and an analysis of their implications for investigations, inquests, inquiries and civil claims.

2. Hot topics over the next 12 months.

3. Tips and tactical issues in public inquiries and other forms of inquiry, such as permission to question witnesses.

4. Complex cases, such as those involving large disasters, terrorism, sensitive material, historical deaths or abuse, and deaths abroad or caused by those abroad.

5. Public law challenges, including to coronial, CPS or IPCC decisions, failure to investigate, and failure to ensure disciplinary or criminal proceedings take place.

Lecture format. Case studies and question and answer sessions enable delegates to explore this area of law. Comprehensive course handouts will be distributed to all delegates.

Kate Maynard of Hickman and Rose Solicitors is a specialist in private and public law claims relating to the criminal justice system. Acts for a number of prisoners in claims against the Ministry of Justice, for protesters and others in actions against the police, and victims of crime who have been failed by the police and criminal justice system.

She also represents bereaved families at inquests into deaths in custody, including deaths involving police restraint and following the use of force, prison murders and self-inflicted deaths and deaths in immigration custody. Her international work includes assisting victims of torture and war crimes to pursue the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators both in the UK and elsewhere. She is experienced in multi-party litigation against the state.

Daniel Machover is head of the civil litigation department at Hickman and Rose Solicitors, which specialises in inquests and inquiries, actions against the police, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office and civil fraud. He is co-author of Inquests - A Practitioner's Guide (3rd edn). He is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of INQUEST and writes regularly for the legal press including Legal Action in which he co-authors the regular column 'Recent developments in inquest law'.

Relevant cases include the inquests into the deaths of Harry Stanley, Shahid Aziz, Godfrey Moyo and Sean Rigg, the public inquiry into the death of Azelle Rodney and the on-going Grenfell Tower Inquiry; McCann and others v UK (1995) 21 EHRR 97 (in which Daniel co-authored Liberty's third party intervention at the European Court of Human Rights), R (Irene Stanley) v HM Coroner for Inner North London [2003] EWHC 1180 Admin, R (Graeme Reynolds) v IPCC [2008] EWCA Civ 1160, R (E7) v Chairman of the Azelle Rodney Inquiry [2014] EWHC 452 (Admin) and Power v HM Senior Coroner for Inner London [2017] EWHC 3117 (Admin).

Fiona Murphy is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in claims against the police and other detaining authorities, inquests and inquiries, and related public law work.

Her current inquest and inquiry work includes the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the Anthony Grainger Inquiry, the Undercover Policy Inquiry and instruction in relation to the restraint related deaths of Dalian Atkinson and Shane Bryant. She is also currently instructed in the Hillsborough Victims Misfeasance Group Litigation having been instructed in the 77 families’ team at the new Inquests. Other notable inquest and related litigation work the restraint related deaths of Jimmy Mubenga and Richard O’Brien who were found to be unlawfully killed and R (Lewis) v Shropshire Coroner. Fiona represents victims of human rights infringements.

Jesse Nicholls is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers specialising in claims against the police and other detaining authorities, inquests and inquiries, and related public law work.

Jesse has acted in many of the most high-profile inquests and inquires in recent years, including the Hillsborough inquests, the Undercover Policing Inquiry, and the inquest into the death of Sean Benton, one of four soldiers who died at Deepcut Barracks between 1995 and 2002. He currently acts for numerous victims and bereaved families at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, he is instructed as Counsel to the Inquests in the Manchester Arena Bombing inquests, and he represents the family of James Collinson, who died at Deepcut Barracks in 2002. He is co-editor of INQUEST’s quarterly publication and has written on inquest law and Article 2 issues for Legal Action. He has also authored chapters for Inquests: A Practitioner’s Guide (3rd edn, LAG) and Halsbury’s Laws of England: Rights and Freedoms (5th edn), he is a contributor to Judicial Review: Law and Practice (Jordans).

Commercial rate: £215 + VAT - commercial organisations including barristers and solicitors in private practice.

Standard rate: £205 + VAT - statutory and not for profit organisations.