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Helen Stone is a civil litigator who specialises in vindicating the rights of those who had have suffered at the hands of the state. Her core work includes inquests, civil claims, and complaints against the police, as well as claims for judicial review and public inquiries.
A dedicated and tenacious solicitor, Helen has long experience representing the families of people who died after contact with the police or while in custody. Her cases include some of the most significant police and prison death cases of recent years, helping to achieve justice for the bereaved.
Helen is also an accomplished public inquiry lawyer, having acted for clients in the Azelle Rodney Inquiry, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, and the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
She carries out public law work on behalf of her clients, including acting in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
Helen has helped her clients achieve significant sums in compensation from state agencies.
She also advises those seeking to achieve accountability for the actions of state agents, whether through disciplinary or criminal proceedings, and in seeking to force authorities to change their policies and procedures.
Helen regularly gives training, including for the Legal Action Group’s Inquest and Inquiries course. She is a member of the Police Actions Lawyers Group and is on the steering group for the Inquest Lawyers Group.
Ranked in Band 1 for inquests in Chambers and Partners 2025, Helen is an inquest law expert who has significant experience representing the families of people who have died in police and prison custody, acting in some of the most significant and high profile cases of recent years.
Helen currently acts for:
Helen’s past inquest experience includes acting for families where the actions of state agents were found to have contributed to the death, including the inquests of Sean Rigg, Jake Hardy, and Duncan Tomlin. In 2023 and 2024 she represented the families of four men who had died between April 2020 and August 2021 as a result of self-inflicted deaths at HMP Wormwood Scrubs. Each of the inquests found that more than one organisation involved in the care of the deceased had a causative role in the death.
Helen is experienced in acting for core participants in public inquiries created under the Inquiries Act 2005. She has acted for the mother of Azelle Rodney, who was shot dead by a police firearms officer in April 2005, in the Azelle Rodney Inquiry. The Inquiry was the first to replace an inquest under the Inquiries Act 2005. Helen has also acted for some of the bereaved, survivors and relatives in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and currently acts for a number of non-state core participants in the Undercover Policing Inquiry, the Inquiry tasked with investigating undercover policing operations in England and Wales since 1968 until the present day.
Helen has substantial experience in human-rights related actions against state bodies. In particular this has related to bodies involved in the criminal justice system. Her work has included acting in relation to deaths in police or prison custody, including self-inflicted deaths, restraint-related deaths, and death by police shooting. The cases in which Helen has acted often include complex issues, with a number of investigations, including in relation to disciplinary and/or criminal proceedings, and frequently involve a considerable number of different state agencies. Her work has included acting in relation to the deaths of Sean Rigg, Duncan Tomlin, Azelle Rodney, Thomas Orchard and Sean Fitzgerald.
Helen’s work includes acting in civil claims against state bodies, including for breaches of the Human Rights Act 1998, false imprisonment, negligence and misfeasance in public office. Her work has included being part of the team who won a £3.8 million settlement from Sussex Police for Gary Reynolds who suffered permanent brain injury and partial paralysis following arrest and detention in March 2008. She has also acted for clients in public law challenges against state bodies, including acting for clients in challenging the administration of cautions and challenging decisions not to prosecute through the Victims Right of Review schemes.
Helen’s work frequently involves advising in relation to investigations into the actions of state bodies, including those carried out by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Health and Safety Executive.
Helen is experienced in public law challenges in relation to the decisions of state bodies, including by way of judicial review and under the Victims Right of Review schemes.
Helen’s judicial review work has included acting for the charity INQUEST as an intervener in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in the case of R (Maughan) v HM Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire, which considered the standard of proof necessary for an inquest hearing to come the determination that someone died by suicide. Her other judicial review work has included acting on all three judicial reviews connected with the Azelle Rodney Inquiry, challenging the lawfulness of police cautions, acting for companies in a British Overseas Territory challenging the decisions of an Airport Authority, and as part of the team representing Andrew Adams in the Supreme Court, challenging the Justice Secretary’s definition of “miscarriage of justice”.
Helen’s work in relation to the Victims Right of Review has included success in the CPS overturning their decision not to charge a police officer with perjury.
Helen is part of Hickman and Rose’s civil fraud team, which acts for both claimants and defendants. The team’s cases have included acting in multi-million pound fraud claims, as well as those of a smaller financial value. The team often works in collaboration with the firm’s criminal department, in order for their clients have the benefit of both civil and criminal litigation expertise to assist in achieving the client’s objectives.
7 Nov 2024
Hickman & Rose is proud to be recognised again in The Times newspaper’s 2025 list of the best law firms in England and Wales.
Hickman & Rose has been a staple of The Times’ list since it…
17 Oct 2024
Hickman & Rose is proud to have been recognised as one of the UK’s leading law firms in the 2025 edition of the Chambers and Partners legal directory.
As well as broad uplift in individual…
9 Oct 2024
Hickman & Rose is proud to have been shortlisted as “Boutique or Regional Investigations Practice of the Year” in Global Investigations Review’s annual review of the best law firms working in…
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