Inquests & Inquiries

Our Inquests & Inquiries Group

Members of the Inquest Team represent interested parties in all types of coronial hearings. We have counsel at all levels of seniority and experience and can therefore meet expectations in relation to your client’s requirements and funding.

Junior members of the team regularly attend inquests in straightforward road traffic accident cases and inquests preceding potential civil claims. More senior members often appear in challenging Article 2 jury inquests and high-profile and long-running inquests.

We are instructed by Senior Coroners (as counsel to the inquest), NHS Trusts, insurers, private prison operators and other contractors (eg, providing security, escort and clinical services), local authorities, government departments, individual professionals and families.

The cases that we handle include the following:

• Deaths in state care (prison, police custody and hospital)
• Deaths following discharge from Mental Health Act 1983 admission
• Deaths following a decision not to admit a person for assessment or treatment under the MHA 1983
• Deaths relating to medical care
• Deaths in the workplace
• Deaths of service personnel
• Deaths as a result of road traffic accidents
• Acting on behalf of employers following a work-related death
• Inquests as a result of road traffic accidents 

We have enormous experience in difficult and complex cases involving physical restraint, neglect, unlawful killing and suicide, including the following cases:

• Inquest into the death of Police Sergeant Matt Retana (2023): Richard Furniss led Max Mongomery as Counsel to the Inquest. 

  The Inquest, held over three weeks in November 2023, touched the death of Police Sergeant Matt Ratana, who was murdered in Croydon Custody Centre on 25 September 2020 by Louis De Zoysa. Mr De Zoysa had been arrested for possession of cannabis with intent to supply and possession of ammunition following a stop and search by a Metropolitan Police Constable. A loaded revolver in a holster on his person was not discovered during the search and was used in custody by De Zoysa to shoot and kill Sergeant Ratana. The Senior Coroner found there was "failure to carry out a safe, thorough and systematic search". De Zoysa had been convicted of murder so the conclusion was inevitably that of ‘Unlawful Killing’.

• The Sandilands Croydon Tram Disaster (2021): Members of chambers are instructed as counsel to the inquest