Legal aid—Coroner’s inquest—Investigation pursuant to Human Rights obligation

Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court (London), Hickinbottom J, 13 April 2010

The High Court has given guidance on the approach the Legal Services Commission should take to funding legal representation at a coroner’s inquest.

Stephen Simblet (instructed by Howells LLP) for the claimant. Barbara Hewson instructed by and for the defendant. The interested party did not appear.

In July 2008, the claimant’s son, aged 10, died in hospital after an asthma attack to which the emergency services responded. He had suffered severe asthma from the age of two. The claimant was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence, apparently arising from concerns that she had not supervised her son’s medication properly. She was not in the event charged. The interested party coroner decided to hold an inquest into the son’s death. The claimant applied for, and was refused, funding by the defendant Legal Services Commission. The claimant applied to challenge