Doughty Street Chambers

Zia specialises in civil and public law.

He is vastly experienced and has acted in cases at all levels including the House of Lords, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

His practice consists of a mixture of public and private law. 

He has particular expertise in public and administrative law in challenging public authority decisions on housing and community care provision to adults and children. He is an expert on the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010, and has been involved in several cutting edge cases concerning their interpretation.  One of his cases, Ali v Birmingham City Council [2010] 2 A.C. 39 (whether article 6 ECHR applies to statutory homelessness reviews) is currently being considered by the ECtHR. Another, Kanu v LB Southwark [2014] EWCA Civ 1085, is currently awaiting judgment from the Supreme Court on the relationship between the public sector equality duty and the statutory test for vulnerability in homeless cases.

As part of his wide ranging public law practice, he has also advised and acted in procurement judicial reviews brought by solicitors firms challenging the tendering of legal aid contracts, in a case alleging breach of legitimate expectation arising from monies provided under the New Deal for Communities programme, and in cases challenging the decisions to change existing care provision to residents in care homes. 

He has also acted in cases involving trusts of land, mortgages and consumer credit agreements. He appeared in the leading House of Lords case on landlords’ duties in nuisance to their tenants.

He is from time to time instructed by the official solicitor acting for persons lacking mental capacity, most recently in a case where a constructive trust was successfully asserted in defence to a claim for possession.