Since INQUEST was founded in 1981, have challenged a fundamental injustice in the inquest system. When someone dies at the hands of the state, bereaved families are often left to navigate a complex legal process without legal representation, while public bodies are represented by state-funded lawyers.
Working alongside bereaved families, we have argued that this imbalance denies families their rights, limits scrutiny of state actions, and undermines the ability of inquests to prevent future deaths.
Legal representation is essential to uncover the truth, expose failures, and ensure accountability. Despite this, bereaved families are still forced to fight for funding.
This is why the expansion of non-means-tested legal aid for inquests, proposed under Hillsborough Law (also known as the Public Office Accountability Bill) matters so deeply.
On Tuesday 16 December, INQUEST participated in the APPG for Access to Justice’s event on Hillsborough Law, focusing on the Bill’s proposals to extend legal aid for bereaved families going through inquests.
Currently, many families must fight to qualify for legal aid. It is restricted to deaths engaging Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, our right to life, such as deaths in custody or in state care. Hillsborough Law will change this by ensuring families automatically receive non means tested legal funding when public bodies are involved in an inquest.
This change will rebalance the scales of justice, ensure bereaved families are heard, and help prevent future deaths.
At the event, two families supported by INQUEST spoke powerfully about what this inequality of arms means. Read their full speeches.
Please note that the content in these speeches contains reference to suicide and may be distressing to read.
Moira Durdy is the mother of Jess Durdy who died in 2020 following failures of the mental health services caring for her. Jess was 27 and worked as a civil engineer for the environment agency. She died by suicide in Link House, an NHS funded crisis house in Bristol.
“Amid the bewilderment and devastation of our loss, we found ourselves having to navigate a lengthy legal process we knew nothing about...
The Mental Health trust, the crisis house, the Police and the ambulance service all had state funded legal teams at the Pre-Inquest Review Hearings and at the inquest. I remember being absolutely horrified by the numerous lawyers who all seemed intent on trying to persuade the coroner to limit the scope of the inquest, and to encourage him not to engage Article 2. We felt outnumbered, overwhelmed and helpless at the tide of defensiveness, the disinterest both in our loss and in the failures in the system that had allowed Jess’s death to happen.
At the final Pre-Inquest Review Hearing, Article 2 was definitively refused by the coroner. At this point it seemed our access to legal aid would be lost, and we would need to find many thousands of pounds (we were told £5-10K) for representation at the two-week inquest (that was on top of our accommodation and other costs).”
The energy of our lawyers would have been better spent preparing our questions and concerns around the death of our daughter for the coroner, and exploring what went wrong, so as to avoid future similar tragedies, rather than in chasing funds which were automatically being granted to the organisations that let Jess and us down so badly.”
Adele Zeynep Walton is an online safety campaigner, journalist and member of Bereaved Families for Online Safety and Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms. Adele’s sister Aimee died in 2022 after visiting a forum that promotes and encourages suicide.
“My family is yet to have our inquest, but we’ve been through the process of having to seek and apply for legal aid, and I cannot put into words how stressful and painful that process has been. We’ve had to battle to get legal aid for our inquest, to have our coroner acknowledge our concerns about systematic failings, which has led to a need for judicial review.
I also asked my mum to share her reflections with me on our experience, this was what she told me. “Have you ever had a dream in which you couldn't speak? You were talking, shouting, even screaming but no noise was coming out. I imagine this is how not having legal representation must feel like. You are voiceless, you are unheard, you are unseen. How can someone with no legal training, at the most traumatic time of their life, be able to represent themselves in a daunting process such as an inquest. To expect such a thing would be like asking a patient with complex health issues to find a cure for their illness.”
Our sole goal, and I would argue the goal of inquests and their recommendations, is to prevent future deaths. Legal aid for families is what makes that a tangible reality, and it’s vital that the expansion of legal aid under the Hillsborough Law is made swiftly, so that no family has to go through the turmoil of being excluded from a system that is meant to serve the purpose of getting answers and accountability.”
Hillsborough Law: Why legal aid is essential for bereaved families
Since INQUEST was founded in 1981, have challenged a fundamental injustice in the inquest system. When someone dies at the hands of the state, bereaved families are often left to navigate a complex legal process without legal representation, while public bodies are represented by state-funded lawyers.
Working alongside bereaved families, we have argued that this imbalance denies families their rights, limits scrutiny of state actions, and undermines the ability of inquests to prevent future deaths.
Legal representation is essential to uncover the truth, expose failures, and ensure accountability. Despite this, bereaved families are still forced to fight for funding.
This is why the expansion of non-means-tested legal aid for inquests, proposed under Hillsborough Law (also known as the Public Office Accountability Bill) matters so deeply.
On Tuesday 16 December, INQUEST participated in the APPG for Access to Justice’s event on Hillsborough Law, focusing on the Bill’s proposals to extend legal aid for bereaved families going through inquests.
Currently, many families must fight to qualify for legal aid. It is restricted to deaths engaging Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, our right to life, such as deaths in custody or in state care. Hillsborough Law will change this by ensuring families automatically receive non means tested legal funding when public bodies are involved in an inquest.
This change will rebalance the scales of justice, ensure bereaved families are heard, and help prevent future deaths.
At the event, two families supported by INQUEST spoke powerfully about what this inequality of arms means. Read their full speeches.
Please note that the content in these speeches contains reference to suicide and may be distressing to read.
Moira Durdy is the mother of Jess Durdy who died in 2020 following failures of the mental health services caring for her. Jess was 27 and worked as a civil engineer for the environment agency. She died by suicide in Link House, an NHS funded crisis house in Bristol.
“Amid the bewilderment and devastation of our loss, we found ourselves having to navigate a lengthy legal process we knew nothing about...
The Mental Health trust, the crisis house, the Police and the ambulance service all had state funded legal teams at the Pre-Inquest Review Hearings and at the inquest. I remember being absolutely horrified by the numerous lawyers who all seemed intent on trying to persuade the coroner to limit the scope of the inquest, and to encourage him not to engage Article 2. We felt outnumbered, overwhelmed and helpless at the tide of defensiveness, the disinterest both in our loss and in the failures in the system that had allowed Jess’s death to happen.
At the final Pre-Inquest Review Hearing, Article 2 was definitively refused by the coroner. At this point it seemed our access to legal aid would be lost, and we would need to find many thousands of pounds (we were told £5-10K) for representation at the two-week inquest (that was on top of our accommodation and other costs).”
The energy of our lawyers would have been better spent preparing our questions and concerns around the death of our daughter for the coroner, and exploring what went wrong, so as to avoid future similar tragedies, rather than in chasing funds which were automatically being granted to the organisations that let Jess and us down so badly.”
Adele Zeynep Walton is an online safety campaigner, journalist and member of Bereaved Families for Online Safety and Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms. Adele’s sister Aimee died in 2022 after visiting a forum that promotes and encourages suicide.
“My family is yet to have our inquest, but we’ve been through the process of having to seek and apply for legal aid, and I cannot put into words how stressful and painful that process has been. We’ve had to battle to get legal aid for our inquest, to have our coroner acknowledge our concerns about systematic failings, which has led to a need for judicial review.
I also asked my mum to share her reflections with me on our experience, this was what she told me. “Have you ever had a dream in which you couldn't speak? You were talking, shouting, even screaming but no noise was coming out. I imagine this is how not having legal representation must feel like. You are voiceless, you are unheard, you are unseen. How can someone with no legal training, at the most traumatic time of their life, be able to represent themselves in a daunting process such as an inquest. To expect such a thing would be like asking a patient with complex health issues to find a cure for their illness.”
Our sole goal, and I would argue the goal of inquests and their recommendations, is to prevent future deaths. Legal aid for families is what makes that a tangible reality, and it’s vital that the expansion of legal aid under the Hillsborough Law is made swiftly, so that no family has to go through the turmoil of being excluded from a system that is meant to serve the purpose of getting answers and accountability.”
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