News in brief
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It is best to approach the editor, Neil Rose, initially to discuss your idea before writing it. Email editor@costslawyer.co.uk
Coroner ordered to pay costs
The senior coroner for Inner North London has been ordered to pay £68,000 on account of costs due to her unreasonable conduct and loss of neutrality.
In a high-profile ruling in April, a Jewish burial society and a woman concerned about the effects of the coroner’s so-called ‘cab rank’ policy, successfully brought a judicial review claim over her refusal to take into account Jewish or Muslim belief in the importance of speedy burials. The Divisional Court held that the policy was contrary to article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, discriminatory and irrational.
In R (on the application of Adath Yisroel Burial Society & Anor) v HM Senior Coroner for Inner North London [2018] EWHC 1286 (Admin), the claimants sought their costs, to which the court acceded in part for two reasons.
First was the defendant’s failure to reconsider her policy in light of the Chief Coroner’s intervention. “This is an important consideration when considering where, in fairness, the claimants’ costs should fall,” the court said, citing the fourth limb of the test set out in the leading authority on costs against coroners, R (Davies) v Birmingham Deputy Coroner [2004] EWCA Civ 207.
Second was the defendant’s addendum detailed grounds, filed in answer to the Chief Coroner’s detailed grounds, which the court said “mark the point at which she ceased to be neutral in stance (second limb of Davies). By them and from that point she advocated the correctness of her policy. She was no longer simply giving information to the court”.
As a result, the defendant, indemnified by the London Borough of Camden, had to pay the claimants’ reasonable costs from the date she filed her addendum. That there would be no costs ordered for the period before then was “consistent with Davies and the principle that a coroner who remains neutral should not ordinarily be liable for costs”.
Sam Grodzinski QC and Benjamin Tankel (instructed by Asserson Law Offices) for the claimants. Bridget Dolan QC and Briony Ballard (instructed by London Borough of Camden) and then Jonathan Glasson QC (instructed by Withers) for the defendant.
Ends