News & Events
News & Events
Solicitors’ firm, Slater & Gordon, is representing 19 parents caught up in the Emstrey Crematorium scandal in Shrewsbury who are now taking legal action against Shropshire council. Lawyers acting for the bereaved families say the crematorium breached the Human Rights Act by failing to return the ashes of their babies. Between 1996 and 2012 the equipment for cremation used the same setting for adults and children, which made it difficult to recover small amounts of ashes. An inquiry led by Shropshire council earlier this year found more than 50 families had been affected. It also emerged that parents in other parts of the UK had suffered similar experiences. Bereaved families in Shrewsbury founded the ‘Ashes 4 Ashes’ group which visited 10…
News 26 Oct, 2015
The second phase of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry (IJCI) has just got underway. Counsel to the Inquiry, Mr Patrick Sadd, has provided a summary of Phase 1 and the witnesses who have given evidence so far – many raising allegations of abuse suffered in the care of the States. Evidence in Phase 2 will be heard from different groups of witnesses from various authorities: the States of Jersey Police (SOJP), the Honorary Police, politicians, law officers, former law officers and the Bailiff. Mr Sadd also listed some of the events between 1989 and 2010 that formed a backdrop to Phase 2, including convictions of abusers, the dropping of charges against alleged abusers and the establishment and closing down of…
News 20 Oct, 2015
Outer Temple Chambers is delighted to note the elevation of Stephen Climie to the bench as a circuit judge. He will be deployed to the South Eastern Circuit, based at Guildford Crown Court with effect from 15th October 2015. Our congratulations and best wishes to his Honour Judge Climie. His Honour was called to the Bar in 1982, appointed as an Assistant Recorder in 1998 and as a Recorder in 2000.
News 14 Oct, 2015
John, instructed by Irwin Mitchell, Guile Nicholas, Steel and Shamash and O’Donells, represented 7 respondents in proceedings before the Vice President of the Court of Protection, Mr Justice Charles, in which local authorities sought relief by way of the authorisation of the respondents’ deprivation of liberty, occasioned by their restrictive care plans. These were the first such applications since the controversial decisions of the President in Re X [2014] EWCOP 25 and 37 and the Court of Appeal in Re X (Court of Protection Practice) [2015] EWCA Civ 599 in which the courts have grappled with the practice, procedure and resource implications of the Supreme Court decision in P (By His Litigation Friend the Official Solicitor) v Cheshire West and…
News 12 Oct, 2015
John, instructed by Christine Helden at Hempsons, acted for the NHS Trust seeking urgent declarations in respect of a 10 year old boy’s medical treatment. The boy, who cannot be named, needs urgent surgery to remove a cancer of the jaw. His parents oppose this and have returned to Poland. The case has attracted considerable media attention. The judgement of Mr Justice Mostyn can be found here. Press reports can be found on BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, MailOnline and Mirror.
News 11 Oct, 2015
Tim Green and James Leonard today addressed 50 members of the Health & Safety Lawyers Association (HSLA) in the third successive collaboration between the HSLA and Outer Temple Chambers since February 2015. Tim discussed how defence lawyers might be best prepared to take advantage of a significant rise in the number of private prosecutions whilst James reviewed the law, procedural rules, case law and best practice in costs awards. As with previous OTC/HSLA seminars in Bristol and Manchester, both seminars were well received and followed by drinks generously provided by DAC Beachcroft. Outer Temple Chambers has been consistently ranked as one of England’s leading sets of chambers for Health & Safety work and is committed to spreading best practice in health and safety law and procedure.
News 7 Oct, 2015
The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010 led the European Commission to review the safety of offshore oil and gas activities. Three years later it published the Directive on Safety of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations (OSD). On 19 July 2015 amended regulations – the Offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case etc) Regulations 2015 – came into force, which are seen as the ‘key to the management of offshore health and safety and environmental major hazards’. Richard Lissack QC & Fiona Horlick have identified and analysed the main points of the 2015 regulations in an article written for the New Law Journal. The article can be found here through the NLJ website.
News 30 Sep, 2015
In a judgment with important implications for the law of consent in clinical negligence claims (Jones v Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust), on 22 September 2015, Mr Recorder Blunt, QC handed down a judgment in favour of a 74 year old female patient. Mrs Kathleen Jones had been put on the waiting list to have surgery performed at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital by a highly respected and well known consultant spinal surgeon of her choice, only to discover, on the morning of the operation, that it had never been intended that he was to perform it. Instead, it was to be carried out by a more junior and much less experienced spinal Fellow at the hospital.…
News 30 Sep, 2015
Outer Temple Chambers is delighted to again be listed amongst the top sets for barristers and set rankings in the edition of the Legal 500 Bar Guide 2015. Chambers of Michael Bowes QC, David Westcott QC and Andrew Spink QC has been recommended as a Top-Tier Set in the practice area of Business & Regulatory Crime (including global investigations) and has also been listed in other main areas of law: Banking & Finance (including consumer credit), Clinical Negligence, Consumer, Employment, Fraud – Crime (including money laundering and asset forfeiture), Health & Safety, Pensions, Personal Injury, Professional Discipline and Regulatory law. 14 QCs are listed in the “Leading silks” list and 37 barristers are listed as “Leading juniors” in the above…
News 23 Sep, 2015
Tim Green secures convictions for offences contrary to the Waste Permitting Regulations 2010.
News 1 Sep, 2015
The Spinal Injuries Association will hold its solicitors’ training conference on Thursday 22 October at Glazier’s Hall by London Bridge, SE1. Aimed at solicitors and barristers practising in personal injury work, the conference will include sessions on working with children and young people with SCI, and becoming spinal cord injured at an early age. The conference will be chaired by Christopher Wilson-Smith QC. Matthew Stockwell and Sarah Crowther will discuss selecting and managing expert witnesses, while John McKendrick and Katarina Sydow will make a presentation on education needs for children with a SCI. Delegate cost is £160 +vat for SIA Corporate Partners, and £220 + vat for non-Corporate Partners. Click here for the agenda and bookings.
News 27 Aug, 2015
Gerard McDermott QC and Ben Bradley (instructed by Daniel Herman, Stewarts Law LLP, Leeds) successfully represented the claimant in a 2 day preliminary issue trial pertaining to the causation of a stroke following an RTA. Mr Young, a 77 year old man, was seriously injured following a head on collision whilst driving back from a funeral. As a consequence of the accident, he went on to suffer a heart attack and then, subsequently, a spinal haematoma which rendered him paraplegic. 22 days after the initial accident (and 18 days after the heart attack), Mr Young suffered a non-haemorrhagic stroke, causing left side paralysis. The issue in the preliminary trial related to whether the stroke had been caused by the road…
News 24 Aug, 2015
