Police Misconduct Webinar - Law & Practice Update

This webinar will cover recent developments, cases and updates in police misconduct law, based on the upcoming Law & Practice update in Legal Action magazine.

The speakers are Stephen Cragg KC and Maya Sikand KC from Doughty Street Chambers, and Carolynn Gallwey from Bhatt Murphy.

Topics include:  

• Tort cases against the police, including misfeasance in public office, false imprisonment and assault

• Questions relating to costs in unsuccessful cases

• Police prosecution decisions

• Police involvement in deaths where there is an inquest

• Police officers' membership of the Freemasons

• Police use of disappearing WhatsApp messages

• The right to information from stops under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000

• The use of live facial recognition by the police

• The compellability of police witnesses in public inquiries
  
  

Attendees will receive a free copy of the upcoming Police Misconduct Law & Practice update, usually only available to Legal Action subscribers.

The webinar is for all levels of police law practitioner.

Attendees will also receive a recording of the webinar.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Stephen Cragg KC, Doughty Street Chambers
Stephen Cragg KC has a longstanding expertise in actions against the police. He is co-author of Police Misconduct: Legal Remedies, the 5th edition of which was published in 2022, and has co-authored LAG's Police Misconduct Updates for many years. He has a special interest in cases involving the retention and disclosure of information by the police, including cases in the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court, on issues such as DNA retention, facial recognition technology and criminal records.

He acts in cases involving assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and other causes of action against the police. He has a speciality in judicial review cases and has appeared in over 100 full judicial review hearings and appeals. For many years he has acted for families in death in custody inquests, often involving police misconduct. He has been a member of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody and Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee. He is a past leader of Doughty Street's Actions Against the Police team.

Maya Sikand KC, Doughty Street Chambers
Maya has a high-profile civil liberties and human rights practice, holding public authorities to account through public inquiries (currently including the Undercover Policing Inquiry and Lampard Inquiry), private and public law claims against a range of public bodies (including Human Rights Act, discrimination, data protection and the full range of tortious claims), and death in custody inquests.

Maya also has notable expertise in statutory compensation claims e.g. the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, the Miscarriage of Justice Application Scheme (with a focus on victims of trafficking) and the Windrush Compensation Scheme, as well as the private Harrods Redress Scheme, which seeks to compensate victims of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed. Maya is also a contributor to various legal textbooks, including LAG’s Police Misconduct: Legal Remedies.

Carolynn Gallwey, Bhatt Murphy
Carolynn Gallwey is a Partner in Bhatt Murphy's police law department and has been with Bhatt Murphy since 2001. She specialises in civil actions and complaints against the police, and in inquests predominately arising from deaths in police custody. 

Carolynn has a particular interest in how discriminatory and/or heavy handed use of street level police powers impact on individuals and communities, particularly in relation to how young people are treated within the criminal justice system, from being arbitrarily stopped and searched, to being unnecessarily detained in cells, to being the victims of punishment-led incarceration practices in private Secure Training Centres.  She also represents women victims of violence who have been failed by the police in their investigative functions. 

Her inquest practice focusses on deaths in police custody, and in particular where restraint is a factor, and she has developed a body of expert knowledge in that area over a period of more than 25 years. 

These cases, pursued as private law claims for malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, assault, negligence, discrimination, breaches of the Human Rights Act and data breaches, through inquests and inquiries and through police complaints have secured a range of remedies for her clients: out of court settlements and judgments for damages ranging from several thousand pounds to more than a million pounds, criminal prosecutions and gross misconduct proceedings for police officers, apologies and the deletion of data, and even to HSE prosecutions and also the only Crown Censure of the Prison Service following a death in prison custody.

She regularly writes about and delivers training in her specialist areas, including through Legal Action Group. Carolynn is ranked in Band 1 in Chambers & Partners for her work representing Claimants in cases against the police, and Band 2 for inquests.