Assessing complex inquest evidence: What if a different coroner might take a different view?

McDonnell v Assistant Coroner for West London [2016] EWHC 3078 (Admin) Leo McDonnell died due to a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. At the time of his death he was prescribed nine items of medication including citalopram, amitriptyline, quinine and codeine. To prescribe citalopram alongside some of these drugs was contraindicated and his prescribed daily dose of […]

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Whose death is it anyway? The right to dispose of a body and pre-death decision making in plain English

Re JS (Disposal of Body) EWHC 2859 (Fam) Last month saw the three Brexit judges on the front pages, unfairly lambasted by the media just for doing their jobs properly. It’s a shame that the press who seem, on the whole, to rather like this latest Family Court decision, haven’t sought to make Mr Justice […]

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Anonymisation of victims of sexual-offences in Inquest proceedings

The principle of open justice, allowing pubic scrutiny of how citizens come by their deaths, is at the core of the inquest process. Save in exceptional circumstances[1] Inquests should be heard in open court with the media able to fully report the proceedings. “The names of those who are born and those who die are […]

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