Kirsten Mercer

Regulatory & Public and Criminal

Regulatory & Public

Kirsten is a highly experienced inquest advocate, who represents interested persons in a wide range of matters from deaths arising out of road traffic collisions to unlawful killing.

Kirsten is regularly instructed in article 2 inquests on behalf of the state. She is junior counsel to the crown, appointed to the regional B panel. As a result she receives instructions on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, the National Probation Service and the Department of Work and Pensions in the most serious of cases. She has significant experience of representing interested persons where there has been a death in custody and has a detailed understanding of the relevant prison service instructions relevant to emergency responses and the management of prisoners at risk of harm to self, to others and from others.

Kirsten is a specialist in inquests arising out of deaths in custody and she now receives instructions on behalf of prisons and relevant healthcare providers. Kirsten has also been instructed in a number of inquests involving deaths where there has been recent contact with the police, representing individual officers and police forces.

She is organised and approachable with an excellent understanding of the difficulties that witnesses face giving evidence about their involvement in cases before the Coroner’s Court. Kirsten has undertaken training in respect of questioning of vulnerable witnesses, applicable equally in the Coroner’s Court as in the Crown Court. Kirsten is confident handling expert witnesses and is used to doing so in both an inquisitorial and adversarial setting.

Kirsten has recently represented a defendant in a fraud matter linked to the death of a baby in a cot, where the co-accused initially facing a charge of gross negligence manslaughter, pleaded guilty to health and safety offences arising out of the design and manufacture of the cot.

Kirsten has been Government Legal Department panel counsel since 2012 and was appointed to the B panel of the specialist regulatory advocates in 2019.

CrimeKirsten Mercer is an experienced criminal practitioner.  She is frequently instructed to prosecute and defend in serious of cases. Her work encompasses the spectrum of criminal offending including homicide, serious violence and multi-handed conspiracies. She is dedicated to ensuring that each case is thoroughly prepared and that all relevant material is obtained and before the jury to ensure the very best representation for each client.

She has significant experience of dealing with cases involving young and vulnerable witnesses and defendants.  She also has a thorough understanding of Proceeds of Crime matters, in particular the complexities which arise in cases where there are multiple defendants and shared assets. She deals with cases where the prosecution seek to re-visit POCA orders some years after the original confiscation orders were made.

Kirsten hasrience of cases where there are difficult disclosure issues. She is regularly instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service in cases where there are known to be complexities in disclosure including multi-handed homicide cases and multi-agency prosecutions where there are issues of disclosure spanning multiple public bodies.

Kirsten is a grade 3 prosecutor and was appointed to the B panel of specialist regulatory prosecution advocates in 2019. Kirsten has acted as independent counsel for the National Crime Agency.

2005Newcastle University, LLB

2006Nottingham Law School, BVC (Very Competent)