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Thanks to Butterworths.co.uk Wider powers for inquests' juriesA landmark House of Lords judgment will allow juries in inquests into jail deaths to blame failings in the prison system for an inmate�s suicide. Richard Eaton, a solicitor-advocate from Clarke Willmott solicitors, who represented the West Somerset coroner Michael Rose involved in the case talks to Stephen Ward about the changes� Juries in inquests are to be allowed to give much wider findings than the narrow cause of death, as a result of a Lords ruling last week to take account of the Human Rights Act. [Regina v Her Majesty's Coroner for the Western District of Somerset (Respondent) and another (Appellant) ex parte Middleton (FC) (Respondent)BLD 1203041067]. The case surrounded a mother�s desire for an inquest to be allowed to blame failings in the prison system for contributing to her son�s suicide. Richard Eaton, a solicitor-advocate from Clarke Willmott solicitors, who represented the West Somerset coroner Michael Rose involved in the inquest, says it will apply more widely than to prisons, but how widely will depend on coroners� interpretations and challenges to them. Eaton says: "An inquest is to determine a number of questions about a death- who? when? where? and most importantly how? What [the previous ruling] said was that the �how� should be restricted to a narrow question of how the deceased came by their death. What they�re saying now in the light of article 2 is that the duty must also be interpreted as not only asking by what means, but also in what circumstances. "That is a significant difference and it broadens the range of verdicts and the scope of the commentary on a verdict to bring in a prison suicide � comment can be made about the standard of care or the circumstances leading up to it." Delivering the unanimous judgment of the five Law Lords, Lord Bingham said that when appropriate inquests should "culminate in an expression, however brief, of the jury's conclusion on the disputed factual issues at the heart of the case". Eaton says: "The family wanted Article 2 (the right to life under the Human Rights Convention) to allow a jury to make a much more critical searching finding in the form of inquisition than had hitherto been the case. The Home Office were obviously hoping the court would say that an inquest is simply a fact-finding mission, and it would be sufficient to satisfy Article 2 if it�s a full investigation." The Lords ruling is broadly more in favour of the family than of the Home Office he says, in the way it re-interpreted remarks, by the then Sir Thomas Bingham, in 1994 [in R v HM Coroner for North Humberside and Scunthorpe, ex parte Jamieson]. "That basically tells the coroner it is not the function of a coroner or his jury to determine, or appear to determine, any question of criminal or civil liability, to apportion guilt or attribute blame," Eaton says. The Law Lords said that removing this prohibition was the only change required to the coroners' rules to comply with the Human Rights Act, which required a proper investigation into any death in state custody. But they also said there must be no finding of criminal liability on the part of a named person, and juries should avoid words suggesting civil liability, such as `neglect' or `carelessness'. They said a possible verdict would be that : "The deceased took his own life, in part because the risk of his doing so was not recognised and appropriate precautions were not taken to prevent his doing so." (19/03/04) LexisNexisUK is introducing a new look to the Legal Updater service that will enable you to monitor, research and respond to the latest legal developments at a much faster speed. If you have an enquiry about subscribing to Legal Updater or about the content please contact 0800 007777. If you have any comments about this or any other news item or feature, please respond via e-mail to:[email protected] Legislative annotations in other services:- Case annotations in other services:-
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