The Chief Coroner, HHJ Mark Lucraft QC, is holding the Inquests into the deaths of the four victims of the Westminster Bridge attack and the Police Officer killed within the Palace of Westminster in March 2017.

Sebastian Naughton of Serjeants’ Inn Chambers is representing one of the NHS Trusts who provided care to victims of the attack.  The inquest transcripts are publicly available here .

For press coverage, please click here and here.

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Alexander dos Santos at Serjeants’​ Inn Chambers. Boosting our Business and Specialist Crime Team in particular, Alexander practises in regulatory and financial matters, both criminal and civil, professional discipline, extradition, inquests and public and commercial law. Alexander is a Specialist Regulatory Advocate and a CPS Specialist Prosecutor. He is also a legal adviser to AFC Wimbledon football club and is appointed to the League Managers Association Legal Panel.

Click here to see further details of Alex’s practice.

We are proud to welcome Nageena Khalique QC, who joins the set from her previous position as deputy Head of Chambers and leader of the Court of Protection; Inquest and Inquiries; and Public and Administrative Law teams at No 5 Chambers.

Nageena is the fourth new arrival from a key competitor set and the third silk to join Serjeants’ Inn this year. Her expertise covers a wide range of medical and public law, including health, inquests, social care and education, clinical negligence and regulatory law.

She is currently acting for a trust in a Court of Appeal case concerning equality duties and Articles 3 and 8 in prison healthcare and she is instructed in the Lambeth Council Redress Scheme for children in care relating to historic abuse whilst under the auspices of local authority social services. She is also on the team which represents families of the victims of the Birmingham Pub Bombings.

An expert in Court of Protection work – both Health & Welfare and Property & Affairs – Nageena is at the forefront of developments in mental health and capacity law, advancing Serjeants’ Inn’s ability to serve its clients in these cases, which range from hospital Trusts and the Official Solicitor to infant patients and high-net-worth individuals.

Joint CEO of Serjeants’ Inn, Catherine Calder comments, “Nageena’s arrival crystallises the progress we have made over the last three years – numbers have increased by 35% with a gain of 11 silks. The set has won 23 awards in the same period and was one of the first chambers to be recognised by the Bar Council for its excellence on well-being. Most importantly it continues to attract the key briefs in crucial cases, such as Alfie Evans, the Deepcut inquests, and last week’s Supreme Court end of life treatment case”.

A full profile for Nageena will be available shortly.

Sarah Clarke QC acts for the Dubai Financial Services Authority in ground breaking enforcement case against Al Ramz Capital LLC and its former Head of IT – Najim Al Attar for serious failures to provide complete and accurate information relevant to a DFSA investigation which commenced in 2014.

The DFSA imposed a fine of USD 205,200 (AED 753,084) on Al Ramz, which is a recognised member of NASDAQ Dubai. Al Ramz is also required to pay USD 100,000 (AED 367,000) towards the DFSA’s investigation costs. In addition, the DFSA imposed a fine of USD 32,640 (AED 119,789) against Mr Al Attar.

The DFSA’s action follows an investigation that initially focused on trading on NASDAQ Dubai by Al Ramz and others, which the DFSA suspected may have breached Part 6 of the DIFC Markets Law 2012. The DFSA later expanded the scope of its investigation to include further suspected contraventions, including obstructing the DFSA’s investigation and providing information which was false, misleading and deceptive.

While the trading in question was eventually found not to be in breach of Part 6 of the DIFC Markets Law 2012, the DFSA found that during the investigation Al Ramz had failed to comply fully with requirements to provide the DFSA with information relevant to the investigation and deal with the DFSA in an open and cooperative manner.  Al Ramz’s misconduct included:

• misleading the DFSA about the users of computers used by two Al Ramz brokers at the time of the trading in question;
• selectively withholding from the DFSA certain material communications (including emails and recordings of telephone calls) relevant to certain trading;
• failing to disclose that a member of Al Ramz’s senior management was centrally involved in such trading; and
• failing to disclose close family relationships between the Al Ramz client connected to the trading and certain senior members of Al Ramz’s staff, including its senior management.

In relation to Mr Al Attar, the DFSA found that he:

• engaged in conduct intended to obstruct the DFSA in the exercise of its powers, without having a reasonable excuse for doing so; and
• provided information that was false or misleading to the DFSA, and concealed information where the concealment of such information was likely to mislead the DFSA.

Mr Al Attar’s misconduct included:

• reconfiguring computers of two Al Ramz brokers and providing these to the DFSA while claiming falsely that they were the computers used by the brokers at the time of the trading in question. In so doing, Mr Al Attar attempted to mislead the DFSA into believing they were the computers used by the brokers when that was not the case;
• altering the email account of one of the Al Ramz brokers in an attempt to remove all email messages sent or received by that broker for the relevant period and conceal them from the DFSA;
• deleting relevant electronic data collected during a DFSA inspection visit;
• refusing to provide the DFSA with certain relevant electronic data stored on Al Ramz’s IT system, and instructing a junior member of Al Ramz’s IT team not to provide the DFSA with such data; and
• providing false and misleading information to the DFSA regarding Al Ramz’s IT system.

The case is significant because it is one of the first Enforcement cases under the new DFSA Enforcement process and demonstrates that the DFSA treats such failures seriously and is prepared to pursue firms and individuals who fall short of its expectations even where the conduct which gave rise to the original investigation does not itself result in disciplinary action.

Sarah Clarke QC acted for the DFSA throughout the original market abuse investigation and subsequent obstruction case and represented the DFSA at the Decision Making Committee hearing.  The case demonstrates the increasingly International focus of our Business and Specialist Crime Team.

For further information click here: DFSA, The National and ZAWYA

HH Peter Rook QC has today handed down his findings of fact and conclusions in respect of the inquest into the death of Private Sean Benton, a trainee soldier, at Deepcut Army Barracks on 9 June 1995.

He has concluded that Sean died as a result of suicide when, he shot himself with a SA80 Rifle causing five wounds to the chest.  HH Peter Rook QC has found that no third party fired any shots during the incident that led to Sean’s death.   The full Record of Inquest can be seen here.

Bridget Dolan QC and Jamie Mathieson have been assisting HH Peter Rook QC as Counsel to the Inquest.   John Beggs QC and Cecily White represented Surrey Police, instructed by Hannah Walsh of Weightmans, and Paul Spencer was instructed by Judith Duffin of Clyde & Co on behalf of the Camp GP.

Michael Mylonas QC, Sophia Roper and Claire Watson in ground-breaking case in which a dying man’s wife was permitted by the Court to have his sperm retrieved, stored and used without his express written consent, under a Mental Capacity Act application: Michael was instructed  for the Applicant by Vardags, Claire by the hospital and Sophia by the Official Solicitor.

Click here to see press coverage on the case, and here for our recent blog post on the UK Medical Decision Law Blog.

In Henderson -v- Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust Angus and Cecily  argued that Ms Henderson, who was convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility in 2011, should not be allowed to recover damages relating to the consequences of killing her mother. The case raises important questions about the defence of illegality in tort and in clinical negligence actions. Judgment was reserved by the Court of Appeal.

John and Cecily recently represented the Commissioner in the inquest into the death of Rashan Charles before HM Coroner Mary Hassell at St Pancras Coroner’s Court. Rashan was restrained by police in Hackney and a plastic package was later retrieved from his mouth. The jury found the death to have been accidental and that Rashan’s life had not been salvageable prior to the point at which a medical emergency was identifiable.

See BBC News coverage here.