Your challenges
Healthcare staff face increasingly difficult inquests. More and more lawyers use them to investigate the detail of a patient’s death often using the Human Rights Act. We face early disclosure of information. There are questions in a public arena. The press are often present. Has there been neglect or a systems failure?
Observations by the coroner can have a damaging effect on the people involved and the service provider. Inquests can lead to public criticism and legal actions. You need to learn lessons and tackle problems before you get to the inquest and reports by the coroner can lead to censure by regulators.
Achieving your ambitions
Giving you confidence, we help you through the emotional and difficult process and limit the investigation to what is proper in law. We will talk you and your staff through the process, listening to your concerns and making it easier for staff and limiting your exposure. We will analyse the issues and help you with presentation.
Getting all available evidence from the coroner we advise on your risks, help you address problems and make sure the coroner understands the lessons learnt/changes in place. Helping the coroner to get the right verdict, we will limit the use of the Human Rights Act. In addition to all of this, we can help you face the press afterwards.
The strength you need
With our team you have access to one of the largest and most experienced set of lawyers in the country. Our group has over 15 lawyers who appear before the coroner all the time. This includes three partners and a fully trained and practising assistant coroner. We cover inquests in any setting including all healthcare providers, public authorities and prisons.
We are right up to date with the latest law and coronial thinking and approaches. We understand the process and the pressures you face. As a team, we always exchange new learning, experiences and fresh ways of working to make sure that you get a better service. For example, we offer an online Tailored Inquest Service. We use an online profiler to assess the risks each inquest poses and then recommend the approach to be taken. The approach suggested could mean, for low risk cases, not involving lawyers at all!
Where we do advise input, we offer a set of fixed price modules to provide both value and certainty. For more complex cases, charges will be based on hourly rates and estimates agreed with you in advance. The real bonus of the service is the witness support tools that it offers - free of charge. This consists of a number of documents and videos from those who have been involved in an inquest telling their story and helping to prepare staff for the day.
Lawyers you can trust
Chambers UK says we combine a “personalised service with great depth of resources”.
Our lawyers have a reputation for the highest standard and excellent value. But for us the best recommendation comes from clients who say that we are “user friendly” and “extremely responsive” with a “great eye for detail”. One client praised our work as helping them to “feel secure on the ground”. A trust in the north west recently thanked us personally for picking up a difficult inquest at very short notice and making sure that managers dealt with the right issues and avoided public criticism.
It is vital to get the inquest process right, not just for the NHS, but for the family, regulators and coroner as well. Our service delivers. One coroner has endorsed the service provided by Mills & Reeve as "the most helpful, sensible and efficient firm of solicitors he deals with".
Legal 500 2009 said: "Jill Mason's team is the top choice for health: whatever you need, they will be able to help."
Legal 500 2010 said: "the response times are remarkable and the acumen and knowledge excellent."