Regulatory & Public Law, Inquests and Inquiries, Personal Injury, Crime
Matt has a mixed practice split across inquests, civil claims and judicial review claims. He has appeared in courts at all levels including the Supreme Court and recently appeared before the Grand Chamber in Strasbourg in Nealon v United Kingdom.
Matt has substantial experience of appearing at inquests, often in the context of deaths in custody and detention, where he draws upon a vast experience of prison and mental health law and practice. He has particular expertise in inquests following on from unlawful killings, including “justice after acquittal cases”, and those where there are allegations of failures by state agencies. He appears for a range of interested persons from families, police forces, local authorities and care homes. He has also appeared as counsel to the inquest. Matt sits as an Assistant Coroner in South Yorkshire East (Doncaster).
In terms of civil work Matt has experience in a range of areas and in particular claims against public authorities, TOLATA claims and clinical negligence. He is a appointed as a Recorder (Civil).
Matt has vast experience of judicial review claims over almost 20 years, representing claimants, defendants and interested parties across a full spectrum of claims including prison cases, age assessments, claims involving regulators and ombudsmen, and challenges to inquests.
Matt acts in a range of personal injury claims, often but not exclusively involving public authorities. He acts in claims for negligence and assaults involving the police and prisons. He is instructed in human rights claims against local authorities arising from child sexual exploitation. He is commonly instructed to advise and appear in cases arising from his inquest practice and has significant experience of fatal accidents claims. Matt also acts in clinical negligence claims arising from his inquest practice and generally.
Matt acted for Victor Nealon in his claim against the police resulting from his notorious miscarriage of justice.
Matt is ranked as a band one leading junior in the UK Legal 500and Chambers and Partners. His day-to-day practice is split between inquests and civil claims, usually involving actions against public authorities. He in a recognised leading junior in administrative and public law, and has particular expertise in civil liberties cases, and those with a criminal law angle. He has acted as leading junior in the criminal and civil divisions of the Court of Appeal, and has appeared in cases before the Supreme Court, and the European Court of Human Rights.
Having started out as a criminal practitioner, Matt continues to accept instructions in some criminal cases. He has a specialist criminal appeals practice and
has been involved in a number of leading cases, including R v Hunter [2015] 2 Cr App R 9, the leading case on good character directions and R v Edwards [2018] 4 WLR, the leading case on the making of hybrids orders under the Mental Health Act. Matt has particular and substantial experience of appeals with a mental health angle, most recently in R v Crerand [2022] EWCA Crim 962, in which a life sentence was substituted with a hospital order.
Matt has acted in a number of Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referrals and judicial review challenges to CCRC decisions. He is instructed on behalf of miscarriage of justice victim Victor Nealon in his challenge to the miscarriage of justice compensation scheme, which is the currently before the European Court on Human Rights.
Matt also appears in cases with a civil or public law angle, bringing his experience in those areas to matters such as stalking protection orders, gang injunctions, and applications to be removed from the sex offender notification requirements (the register). He acted for the claimant in a successful challenge to a refusal to remove him from the notification requirements: R (NE) v Birmingham Magistrates’ Court [2015] 1 WLR 4771.
Matt has particular and specialist experience in cases involving a criminal and public law crossover. He appeared in R (Gibson) v Secretary of State for Justice [2018] 1 WLR 629 – a successful Supreme Court challenge to the way in which repayments against confiscation orders are deducted from a default sentence.
Matt is ranked as a band one leading junior in the UK Legal 500and Chambers and Partners. His day-to-day practice is split between inquests and civil claims, usually involving actions against public authorities. He in a recognised leading junior in administrative and public law, and has particular expertise in civil liberties cases, and those with a criminal law angle. He has acted as leading junior in the criminal and civil divisions of the Court of Appeal, and has appeared in cases before the Supreme Court, and the European Court of Human Rights.
North-Eastern Circuit
Appointments:2019 - Assistant Coroner, South Yorkshire East
2023 - Recorder (Civil)