Areas of Work
Coroners and Inquests
Temple Gardens is instructed in inquests and regularly advises Coroners and the Home Office (amongst others) in all areas of coronial law.
Members of Chambers have acted in the leading coroners' cases including:
R (on the application of Christine Hurst) v HM Coroner for Northern District London (HL) [2007] UKHL 13 - the Court of Appeal had been wrong to find that no matter when the death occurred, since the coming into force of s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998, s.11(5)(b)(ii) of the Coroners Act 1988 had to be interpreted to require an inquest to comply with the United Kingdom's international obligations under Art.2 of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 (Ian Burnett QC).
Paul v Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household (QBD) 2/3/2007 - rulings that the inquests into the deaths of Diana Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed were to be conducted by the coroner as deputy coroner of the Queen's household without a jury were flawed and had to be quashed (Ian Burnett QC and Jonathan Hough).
Canning v HM Coroner for Northampton (CA) 25/7/2006 - the court had been entitled to uphold a coroner's decision to refuse to hold an inquest into the death of a child without evidence of culpable human failure sufficient to put a properly instructed coroner on notice of the need for further investigation (Ian Burnett QC).
Goodson v HM Coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton (QBD) (2006) 1 WLR 432 - under Art.2 of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 there was no separate procedural obligation to investigate where a death in hospital raised no more than potential negligence. Therefore, it could not be argued that a coroner had to seek the assistance of an independent medical expert at the inquest into the death of an NHS patient (Ian Burnett QC).
R (on the app of Sacker) v HM Coroner for West Yorkshire (HL) (2004) 1 WLR 796 - in an inquest into a death of a prisoner, "how" was not to be interpreted as meaning "by what means" but "by what means and in what circumstances" (Ian Burnett QC).