Training & Knowledge: February 2020

27th Feb 2020Articles

The importance of giving reasons

R. (on the application of Lewis) v Senior Coroner for North West Kent [2020] 2 WLUK 180 This recent judicial review highlights the importance of a coroner providing reasons when a particular conclusion is not left to the jury. The deceased suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was placed under psychiatric care. From 2016 she began […]

27th Feb 2020Articles

The poison pen letter

Soni v General Pharmaceutical Council [2020] EWHC 348 (Admin) Patient A attended a pharmacy, seeking the morning after pill. She alleged Mr Soni, an experienced pharmacist of many years, discussed the medication with her but then physically examined her breasts. Prior to the hearing it emerged that Patient A had instructed solicitors with a view […]

19th Feb 2020Newsletters

Safeguarding and extending time limits

BB v Disclosure and Barring Service (extension of time) [2019] UKUT 366 (AAC) The Disclosure and Barring Service’s (“DBS”) public function runs in parallel with that of our medical regulatory bodies. It exercises its brutal binary function, barring or not barring professionals from working with children and vulnerable adults, without anything in between. It does […]

19th Feb 2020Newsletters

Replacing a Warning:

R (Bramhall) v. GMC [2019] EWHC 3525 (Admin) In the widely reported case of Simon Bramhall – a surgeon who branded the livers of patients on whom he had performed transplant surgery – the High Court has ruled that, following Mr Bramhall’s conviction, the GMC’s decision to effectively reverse a warning he had previously been […]

19th Feb 2020Newsletters

When is strike-off all but automatic?

SRA v Mohammed Dar [2019] EWHC 2831 There has long been an issue with some regulators wanting to establish something of a tariff for certain disciplinary offences, particularly dishonesty. Many defence practitioners will remember the overuse of Parkinson v NMC [2010] EWHC 1898 (Admin) where a rule of law seemed to be created from an […]