Family
Public Law
Elizabeth has experience of acting for local authorities, parents, intervenors and children in Public Law Proceedings. She has appeared at all levels of Court up to the Court of Appeal. She is regularly instructed in cases involving neglect, sexual abuse, and non-accidental injuries; and has acted on behalf of local authorities, parents and children in a number of ‘shaken baby’ cases.
She has particular experience of acting for parents with limited cognitive functioning and regularly works with clients supported by intermediaries and mental health advocates. She also receives instructions from the Official Solicitor in relation to parents who lack capacity to conduct proceedings.
Private Law
Elizabeth accepts instructions in relation to all aspects of private law, and is regularly instructed on behalf of children in complex Private Law Proceedings.
Disclosure and Public Interest Immunity
Elizabeth has experience of acting on behalf of local authorities in relation to applications in criminal proceedings for disclosure of social services records. Her role involved reviewing, flagging and redacting large volumes of material in cases involving allegations of historical sexual abuse. She also dealt with the public interest immunity hearings in the Criminal Court.
Cases
- CEBC v S [2020] – Acted on behalf of the child in relation to care proceedings to determine where the child should live in the long term, and under what order. Judge agreed with skeleton argument on behalf of the child that here should be a fact finding hearing, and that the principal of res judicata did not apply in this case.
- A local authority v B [2020] – Instructed on behalf of the mother in relation to allegations of fabricated or induced illness (FII) spanning a number of years.
- A local authority v G [2020] – Acted for the child during the fact find and subsequent final hearing arising from allegations that the child had been forcefully shaken resulting in an acute subdural haemorrhage and a fractured skull.
- A local authority v T [2019] – Acted for the father as junior counsel in relation to allegations that he shook his child resulting in catastrophic brain injuries. The case involved issues of cross disclosure between parallel criminal and family proceedings.
- A local authority v M [2018] – Acted for the mother in a finding of fact hearing dealing with the causation of a skull fracture to her 3 month old child. Successfully argued that the injury occurred accidentally.
- A local authority v A and T [2015] – Acted for the local authority in a 3 week fact find involving allegations that the child had been shaken on a number of occasions over a period of months. The case involved complex and conflicting expert evidence.
