Public inquiries can be an important means of securing accountability for state abuses and wrongdoings. They can leave victims with a fuller understanding of the sequence of events that led to a particular injustice, and a better understanding of the culture that allowed the wrongdoing in question to go unchallenged or undetected.
Deighton Pierce Glynn’s lawyers have longstanding experience in public inquiries, from the ground-breaking Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the significant Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) where serious concerns over the failures of organisations into investigating sexual abuse against children were examined to the current Undercover Policing inquiry and Grenfell inquiry. This experience sits alongside our reputation as one of the leading practices in the UK for inquests, having acted in scores of complex and high profile inquests in recent years.
We can help you identify the issues of deepest concern to you, and advise you on how to ensure those issues are included within the scope of the inquiry. We can advise you on possible legal challenges to widen the scope of the inquiry if it is too narrow. We will work with you to ensure that the fullest possible disclosure of documents is provided, so that you are able to participate on an equal footing with the state bodies whose actions are under scrutiny. We will choose with you the best advocates to represent you and question witnesses. Where the conduct of the inquiry leads you to fear a whitewash, we will advise you on your options in terms of challenging that conduct including through judicial review – and we are widely acknowledged to have one of the best teams of judicial review lawyers in the UK.
Our expertise across a wide-range of areas of law means we can offer a multi-disciplinary approach in our inquiry work. As with all our work, we place the client at the heart of the process and work collaboratively with campaigning organisations and other lawyers, as appropriate, to secure the best possible outcome.
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