Inquests
3PB has a dedicated team specialising in representing bereaved families, individuals, statutory bodies and corporate entities at coroners inquests. The team draws on experience gathered from many different areas, such as personal injury, health and safety, clinical negligence, public law, prisons, police and military cases and road traffic accidents.
Our barristers advise at all stages of the inquest process, including issues of disclosure, pre-inquest reviews and advocacy at the inquest, in inquests with and without a jury. We are also regularly instructed to review, following inquests, and advise bereaved families and dependents on subsequent stages of civil litigation or criminal proceedings that can often follow – therefore representing interested persons and coroners in the most complex of cases as well as others. Our specialist counsel are all levels of seniority so we have the breadth of experience to suit every client’s needs and budget.
3PB are a leading personal injury chambers and advise on industrial disease cases and fatal workplace accidents. Many industrial disease claims start out as Inquests and we are able to provide expert advocacy from an early stage, to ensure that necessary facts are brought to light which will form the foundation of future fatal accident claims.
We provide representation to families of the deceased and also have over 50 years experience acting for GPs and other clinical practitioners, NHS bodies, private health care and care home providers, insurance companies and self-insured businesses, government departments (including the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence), the police and prison service and individual officers, private prison contractors, local authorities and Coroners. Areas of expertise encompass:
- Medical deaths, including alleged surgical, nursing, obstetric and anaesthetic failures
- Homicides
- Terrorist-related deaths
- Deaths in custody
- Military deaths
- Construction site accidents
- Fire and electrical safety
- Carbon monoxide poisoning,
- Deaths in schools and nurseries
- Road traffic accidents and police pursuits.
Notable cases include:
- 8 day jury inquest into death of undercover policeman in Southampton. Public interest immunity regarding the operation the police were conducting at the time of the fatal accident
- 5 day Art 2 inquest involving a prisoner suicide with alleged early closure of ACCT, safeguarding and mental health issues
- 7 day jury inquest into death of prisoner at HMP Pentonville who ingested drugs and included investigation into prisoner restraint
- Multiple mesothelioma/asbestosis-related inquests
- Representing parents and families at Inquests following high profile deaths of children in hospitals and psychiatric wards
- Representing the NHS and London Ambulance Service (LAS) in a number of cases about quality of emergency care, treatment in hospitals, and delays by paramedics
- Inquest on the death of a marathon runner who died of an ischaemic bowel through dehydration following taking superosmolar sports supplements and ibuprofen.
Inquests conducted in other contexts are often more appropriately dealt with by practitioners from the Public and Regulatory. Details of these specialists can be found here.
Sunyana Sharma and Susan Jones gave a seminar in September 2020 covering the engagement and impact of Article 2 on inquests. View a recording here:
Our Personal Injury Barristers...
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Gaia Pope went missing on 7th November 2017. Following Gaia being reported missing, searches were undertaken by Dorset Police, Her Majesty’s Coastguard, National Police Air Service, Dorset Search and Rescue and other volunteers. Gaia was found deceased on 18th November. This week the Senior Coroner for Dorset swore in a jury for this Article 2 inquest that is anticipated to last 11 weeks. This inquest will examine numerous issues including Gaia’s medical history including mental...
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3PB barrister Antonia Jameson (1999 call), who now specialises in personal injury, clinical negligence and inquests, has returned to 3PB, having spent 12 years away from the Bar as a full-time mother. She will again practice from 3PB’s Bournemouth office, but her caseload is covering the whole of the UK. Antonia, pictured here, has a practice encompassing advocacy and advisory work for both claimants and defendants. She has always represented a wide variety of clients,...
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3PB Barristers offers warmest congratulations to our colleague Sunyana Sharma who has been appointed an Assistant Coroner for Hampshire. Sunyana’s appointment is further recognition of her expertise in inquests and coronial law. Sunyana Sharma is a regulatory and inquest barrister who specialises in clinical deaths, deaths at sea, fatal accidents at work and deaths in care home settings. She provides added value to cases as a result of her previous practice area of personal injury in which...
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3PB’s specialist regulatory and inquest barrister Sunyana Sharma presented a webinar to Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association (MYBTA) last week, giving a comprehensive introduction to practising in the field of inquests followed by a Q&A session. This well-attended, popular event was part of the ‘Expand Your Practice’ Series, developed by the Middle Temple Young Barristers’ Association, and was also available to members of other Inns of Court. Sunyana is also a member of 3PB’s equality...
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An inquest that saw solicitors instructed in early 2018 concluded that Laura Booth, a young woman who went in to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in 2016 for a routine procedure, became unwell and developed malnutrition due to inadequate nutrition. David Evison, a Partner at Anthony Collins, who acted for Laura’s parents throughout the inquest process, says in his write up of the inquest that the coroner found Laura's death was contributed to by neglect on...
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3PB regulatory lawyer and inquest specialist barrister Susan Jones was recently instructed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to represent a registered mental health nurse in a 5-week, Article 2 and hybrid/partially-remote, inquest before Her Majesty’s Assistant Coroner Darren Stewart OBE and a jury. The inquest touching the death of a 46-year remand prisoner considered: complications arising from prescription medication, methods of requesting GP assessment, communication between prison and healthcare staff and the interaction...
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On 26 March 2021, three of 3PB’s regulatory barristers specialising in inquests were invited by the University of Bristol Bar Society to share their experiences of their own personal journey to the Bar in a talk entitled ‘No Bar to the Bar - Inquests and Inquiries at the Bar Talk'. Elisabeth Bussey-Jones, Susan Jones and Sunyana Sharma shared stories of how they came to practise in inquest work, a recount of day to day life as a barrister and...
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Victoria Sheppard-Jones, a specialist in financial crime and regulatory investigations, prosecutions and enforcement in the financial services and healthcare sectors, has joined national chambers 3PB Barristers from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). She has been working at the FCA on an investigation into the Anti Money Laundering and Compliance framework of a large bank. This follows two years as a complex casework lawyer at the Court of Appeal's Criminal Division. Prior to this, Victoria was...
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3PB’s specialist regulatory and criminal law barrister Sunyana Sharma (pictured here) has reviewed the case of R (on the application of Maughan) (AP) v. Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire [2020] UKSC 46. The case related to James Maughan, who was a prisoner held in HMP Bullingdon. Sadly on 11 July 2016 he was found hanging in his cell from a ligature and he was pronounced dead. The jury, in its narrative had originally concluded...
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Mark Sullivan represented the parents of Arietta-Grace Barnett (d.o.b. 6th June 2017) at the Inquest into her death on 9th July 2019. In the course of the two day hearing in Winchester Coroner’s Court on 4/5th November 2020, the Coroner, Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, heard evidence into the tragic circumstances of Arietta’s death. She had been taken to hospital on 28th June 2019 following the suspected accidental ingestion of a toilet cleaning product. She was detained in...
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In this webinar “Article 2 engagement and effect” our speakers Sunyana Sharma and Susan Jones explore the effect of the recent decision of Maguire v HM Senior Coroner for Blackpool [2020] EWCA Civ 738 and the effect this will have on when Article 2 is and is not likely to be engaged. They also considered the impact of Article 2 on the inquest procedure with a particular focus on the impact it has on the...
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3PB (3 Paper Buildings) has joined longstanding client Irwin Mitchell in championing the cause of suicide prevention, including yesterday’s World Suicide Prevention Day. Mark Lomas, Head of 3PB’s Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence teams said: “We see so many tragic instances of suicide – and its devastating effect on families - in my and the teams’ work at Inquests and in claims against UK institutions like hospitals, mental health clinics, prisons and the Armed Services....
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