R (Henshaw) v Assistant Coroner for Derby and Derbyshire [2025] EWHC 357 (Admin), 20 Feb 2025, judgment here As is often said, ‘when things go bad, they arrive in threes’. And when three things do arise you really wouldn’t want them to be in a case which was already (as Mr Justice Jay remarked) “…a difficult […]
Read More… from Directing an inquest jury and Tainton revisited
Whittle v HM Coroner North West Wales [2025] EWHC 236 (Admin) judgment here What were you doing on 24 November 1994? Can you describe the things you said or heard that day or explain the rationale for any significant decision you made. If I tell you that is the year Nelson Mandela was first elected […]
Read More… from Interests of justice require a fresh inquest after 30 years
R (Glaister & Carr) v HM Asst Coroner for North Wales. [2025] EWHC 167 (Admin) (here) The decision whether and how to leave an unlawful killing conclusion for the jury in respect of a 16 year old falling from a mountainside on an explorer scout weekend overseen by volunteer scout leaders was always going to […]
Read More… from Identifying the perpetrator of an unlawful killing by their role is permissible
The Chief Coroner, HHJ Alexia Durran, has today launched the “Chief Coroner’s Guidance for Coroners on the Bench” It has been produced as a resource for coroners to help them locate key principles, practical information and precedents when dealing with inquests, but of course will also be an invaluable reference point for all inquest practitioners. […]
Read More… from Chief Coroner’s Guidance for Coroners on the Bench
“In English law a person’s name is that by which he himself chooses to be known.”[1] Despite Baroness Hale’s very clear statement it remains a surprise to some to learn that we have no ‘legal name’ under English and Welsh law. The identity of a person is not a matter of legal formality in that […]
Read More… from What’s in a name? Registering the deceased by their chosen name