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Hickman and Rose is one of the country’s leading firms specialising in inquest law. Our expert inquest lawyers represent bereaved families, witnesses and so-called ‘Interested Persons’ at inquests and have acted in some of the most complex and significant matters in recent years.
Hickman & Rose’s inquest team frequently acts in inquests into deaths which follow restraint in police custody, deaths in the workplace, self-inflicted deaths in state custody, fatal police shootings and deadly terrorism incidents. The team also often act in inquests which relate to potential failings of care for mentally ill people, and into homicides involving potential failures of state agents.
The firm’s solicitors have particular expertise in ‘Article 2 inquests’ which are when a death may have been caused by (or have been contributed to) an act or omission by a state agent. State agents in these cases can include police forces and the prison service.
As well as providing full legal representation leading up to and during an inquest hearing, our expert inquest solicitors provide bespoke advice including on matters such as whether an inquest should be held; the type of inquest which should be held; and whether an individual or organisation may be able to apply to become an Interested Person.
We also provide specialist advice on disclosure-related issues, potential inquest conclusions, and Prevention of Future Death reports.
All Hickman & Rose solicitors are empathetic individuals who care about using the inquest process to the obtain the best possible results in the long-term interests of their clients.
An inquest is best understood as being a process of evidence-gathering and inquiry, overseen by a Coroner, which aims to answer certain questions about a death.
Inquests can (but do not always) end in a hearing. Sometimes the hearing will involve the Coroner sitting alone. Sometimes a jury will be called to hear the evidence. At the end of an inquest a Record of Inquest will be produced setting out the cause of death and any other conclusions.
Not all deaths result in an inquest. However, an inquest is required by law in a number of circumstances. These include where a coroner has reason to believe that someone died while in state custody and/or has died a violent or unnatural death or where the cause of death is unknown.
The core purpose of an inquest is to answer the following four basic questions.
(In some situations this fourth question should be read as if asking: by what means and in what circumstances did they die?)
The length of any inquest can vary considerably depending on the issues to be explored and available evidence. Some hearings can last just a few minutes. Others, such as when the circumstances of a death are disputed, or the medical evidence is particularly complex, can last for weeks or even months.
An inquest hearing takes place in a Coroner’s Court. The venue can vary, from purpose built courts to a meeting room. Very large inquests, such as those considering multiple deaths, for where there is particularly acute public interest, may need to be held in facilities booked for that inquest alone.
The inquest format is fairly flexible. Its format is decided by the coroner. Often coroners gather the evidence they need by asking questions of various witnesses. These witnesses may be lay people (such as people who saw the incident in which someone died), or they could be professional / expert witnesses, such as pathologists.
A witness may give evidence simply by producing a written witness statement, which is read into the court record. Alternatively (or additionally) the witness may be called to give evidence in person. It this happens then the witness can be questioned not only by the Coroner, but also by anyone who has been granted ‘Interested Person’ status to the inquest.
If there is a jury, then they too can ask questions of a witnesses. The coroner has the power to limit questions to those the coroner considers to be ‘relevant’.
Although it is for the coroner to decide which witnesses to call (and the order in which to call them to give evidence), an Interested Person can make representations to the coroner for a specific witness or expert to give evidence.
At the end of the inquest the Coroner (or if there is one, the jury) must reach a conclusion about the death in question.
An inquest can result in a number of different conclusions (formerly known as verdicts). These conclusions include short-form conclusions such as ‘death by natural causes’, ‘accident’, ‘suicide’, or ‘unlawful killing’.
Sometimes in addition, or in the alternative, the conclusion will set out the facts surrounding the death in more detail, called a ‘narrative conclusion’.
Whatever the conclusion, no inquest can find that any person or organisation has criminal or civil liability for a death. It is not the inquest’s job to establish legal responsibility of specific persons or organisations – that is for the civil and/or criminal courts.
That said, inquests can be a vital step in the process of holding individual people or organisations to account for someone’s death and may result in criminal proceedings being taken and/or civil liability being admitted or settlements of civil claims without such admissions, sometimes including acceptance of failings and/or formal apologies.
Inquest conclusions can also play an important role in prompting legal changes which will prevent future similar deaths. They can be vital in helping bereaved families obtain official apologies and, in certain circumstances, compensation and damages.
In some circumstances, inquest conclusions can oblige criminal justice organisations, such as the police, Health and Safety Executive or Crown Prosecution Service to open, or re-open, a criminal investigation into a death.
Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to the right to life, requires that certain procedural steps are taken whenever a state agent or organisation may involved in a death. This frequently means that the inquest must be ‘Article 2-compliant’.
Unlike other inquests, Article 2 inquests attempt to answer a wider version of the fourth key question for inquests: by what means and in what circumstances did the person die? They do this in order to comply with the investigative duty created by Article 2 of the ECHR.
Any death that occurs in prison, in police custody, after contact with the police, or while detained by another state body (such as under the Mental Health Act, or by immigration authorities) will almost always result in an Article 2 inquest.
Anyone involved in an Article 2 inquest is strongly advised to obtain legal advice in order to protect their rights and ensure the inquest process works for them.
State organisations will almost always be legally represented in any Article 2 inquest. Sometimes several state organisations and/or individuals can be involved, and be legally represented. In Article 2 inquests, public funding for legal representation, regardless of the finances of the bereaved, will normally be available to assist the bereaved family.
Sometimes there is evidence which may help explain a death, but is withheld from being disclosed to an inquest on the grounds that disclosure would be against the public or national interest. This is called ‘Public Interest Immunity’.
If it is concluded that a Coroner cannot carry out a proper investigation without considering any such withheld evidence, there exists the possibility that a Public Inquiry can held in place of the inquest .
Such a Public Inquiry may also explore mass fatalities, in a way which may remove the need for further inquests to take place. For example, The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is exploring the deaths of those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017.
An inquest is the key method enabling a bereaved family to understand how a loved one died. The family may have had varying involvement in the pre-inquest investigation(s) (which may have been conducted by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, Prison and Probation Ombudsman, police, HSE). In the inquest itself, the family has an established role to play in shaping the proceedings and challenging the evidence. The evidential picture often changes during an inquest, with witnesses under cross examination.
It is often the inquest hearing itself which addresses the family’s questions and concerns, hearing and challenging witnesses, rather than the piece of paper at the end (the conclusion in the Record of Inquest).
Anyone who wants to establish everything they can about about a death is strongly advised to seek legal advice. The same is true for anyone who has (or may have) relevant evidence to provide about a death. Equally, any person or organisation facing the possibility of criticism at an inquest is advised to secure legal advice.
In addition to developing and managing the often complex legal strategy needed for inquest process, an experienced inquest solicitor is able to:
– help secure evidence which may otherwise be overlooked and/or not obtained;
– make representations to the Coroner on a range of issues, including the scope of the inquest, the identification of Interested Persons, the relevant law, conclusions to be left, which witnesses should be called, and whether expert evidence is needed
– forensically question witnesses, including experts.
Where there is evidence to suggest that state agents (such as police and prison authorities) may have caused or contributed to the death of a family member, legal aid is available without a means test to cover the investigation and inquest preparatory work (Legal Help – advice and assistance) and for representation at the inquest hearings (Exceptional Case Funding). No financial contributions will be required. However, some limited means information may still be needed if ‘Legal Help’ funding needs to be put in place without being connected to an ECF application for representation.
The family’s lawyer must have an existing contract with the Legal Aid Agency which relates most closely to the underlying subject matter of the inquest, such as ‘claims against public authorities’ for police or prison related deaths. Hickman and Rose are authorised to carry out such Legal Aid work (although for ECF an application must be made to the Legal Aid Agency to authorise the funding) and specialise in these matters.
Where legal aid funding is in scope, families should not have to resort to campaigning and crowd funding to fund their legal representation.
Where an inquest is not ‘in scope’ for legal aid funding, solicitors, like Hickman & Rose may agree to offer a conditional fee funding agreement (CFA – with discounted hourly rates which could be as low as nil per hour (frequently known as ‘no win, no fee’). Offering such discounted fee agreements is a commercial decision for a firm and often contingent on the prospect of later recovering costs from an opponent in an associated civil claim for damages. A CFA may be terminated if the prospects of a related civil claim dip.
If in scope, legal aid (where necessary alongside a CFA) is clearly more advantageous than going without legal aid. However, if there is not the option of legal aid being within scope, then consideration may be given by a solicitor to offering a CFA. Disbursements, such as travel costs, expert fees and, in some cases, court fees, will frequently need to be paid for by the client.
An Interested Person is any person or organisation entitled to be involved in an inquest, and who has been recognised by the Coroner as an Interested Person. People and organisations with the right to be an Interested Person will always include the following:
The coroner can also designate any person he or she thinks has sufficient interest in the death to be an Interested Person. If someone is not invited to be an Interested Person by the Coroner it is possible to make representations to the Coroner to become one.
By being designated as an Interested Person, an individual or organisation has the right to receive disclosure (witness statements, CCTV footage, expert reports etc) from the Coroner, ask questions of witnesses, make submissions to the Coroner, including on which witnesses should be called, which experts should be instructed, and what conclusions are left to the jury.
Interested Persons have right to appoint legal representatives to act on their behalf.
Ranked as leading ‘Band One’ firm in the Chambers legal directory for this area of law, Hickman & Rose is one the UK’s foremost inquest law firms. Led by Daniel Machover, chair of the charity INQUEST for ten years until February 2022, Hickman & Rose’s inquest team has acted in some of the most complex and significant inquests in recent years.
Recent cases in which the firm has acted include the inquest into death of Jack Merritt in the Fishmongers’ Hall terror attack; the air crash death of footballer Emiliano Sala; the deaths of Dalian Atkinson, Sean Rigg and Thomas Orchard; and the death in immigration detention of Prince Fosu.
Hickman & Rose also represented the mother of Azelle Rodney in the first inquest to be converted into a Public Inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act. Azelle’s son was shot dead in April 2005 by the Metropolitan Police. The firm currently acts for a number of the bereaved families in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
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