The Legal 500

Deans Court Chambers

Chambers of Mark Turner QC

24 ST JOHN STREET, MANCHESTER, M3 4DF, ENGLAND
Tel:
Work 0161 214 6000
Fax:
Fax 0161 214 6001
DX:
718155 MANCHESTER
Web:
www.deanscourt.co.uk
Email:
Preston, Manchester

Deans Court Chambers is a forward-looking set of chambers with a membership of 81 barristers, including eleven Queen’s Counsel.

The set: Chambers has a reputation for the highest standards of professionalism, service and response to clients’ needs. Deans Court Chambers offers specialist advocacy, advisory and drafting expertise at every level of seniority.

Purpose-designed premises at 24 St John Street enhance the range of services offered to clients. Members of chambers (and others) use the well-equipped seminar suite to deliver lectures and seminars on current topics. Facilities for arbitration, mediation and video conferencing are available. Members of chambers have instant access to the major electronic databases.

Types of work undertaken: Civil litigation: the whole range of personal injury, including injuries of the utmost severity (eg spinal injuries, head injuries), class actions, industrial disease, fraudulent claims, road traffic and factory accidents. Professional negligence (especially medical, lawyers, surveyors, architects), insurance (coverage litigation, Road Traffic Act and Motor Insurers’ Bureau), contractual disputes, sale of goods, consumer credit (including credit hire), product liability, arbitration (domestic and international), technology and construction, human rights, false imprisonment. In this field, Deans Court Chambers offers strength in depth unrivalled in the North West.

Chancery and commercial: commercial arbitration, banking, carriage of goods, civil fraud and tracing of assets, corporate and personal insolvency, company law (including shareholders’ disputes and the protection of minority interest, directors’ duties and disqualification), credit and leasing, financial services, injunctions and equitable remedies, insurance and reinsurance, intellectual property, landlord and tenant, mortgages, partnerships, pensions, probate, real property, sale of goods (domestic and international), trusts, settlements and wills.

Family: recent recruitment has further enhanced the family team. Matrimonial finance (distribution of assets on separation, divorce and between co-habitees, injunctive relief, preservation of assets and inter-jurisdictional disputes). Children (care proceedings, residence and contact, inter-jurisdictional disputes, international child abduction, adoption). Civil partnerships. Capacity and competence (mental health, declaratory relief). Public and administrative (judicial review, tribunals of inquiry, social and healthcare ethics, policy, practice and procedure). Education and special educational needs. Inheritance Act claims. Professional negligence. Mediation.

Criminal: prosecution and defence work in all fields and at every level, including homicide and sexual offences, commercial fraud, conspiracy, drug importation and supply, Excise and Revenue offences, health and safety. Senior and junior members of Chambers conduct high-profile trials both locally and nationally.

Business crime and regulatory: advice on compliance with regulation at all stages, advice and advocacy services in criminal prosecutions under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other legislation (members of Chambers are regularly instructed by insurance companies, self-employed persons and company directors), corporate manslaughter, trading standards, food safety, environmental prosecutions and DEFRA prosecutions.

Above material supplied by Deans Court Chambers (Chambers of Mark Turner QC).

Legal Developments in the UK

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
  • HOUSING

    In Nzinga Maswaku v Westminster City Council [2012] EWCA Civ 669 the Court of Appeal clarified that in offering a homeless person with alternative temporary accommodation the local authority is obliged to point that if the offer is refused it has discharged its Part VII duties under the Housing Act 1996.
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  • COUNCIL TAX

    In Harrow LBC v Ayiku [2012] EWHC 1200 (Admin) Sales J held that the word “or” in the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992, art 3 Class N, had a disjunctive meaning, therefore it was sufficient for the non-British spouse of a foreign student to satisfy one or other of the two conditions, namely being prevented from taking paid employment or being prevented from claiming benefits, in order to qualify as a “relevant person” who was exempted from liability to pay council tax.
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  • QUEEN’S SPEECH

    Bills already introduced pursuant to the Queen’s Speech on 9 May 2012 include Local Government Finance Bill and Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, both accompanied by Explanatory Notes, which in each case address ECHR compatibility.
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  • Standards

    In R (Calver) v Adjudication Panel for Wales [2012] EWHC 1172 (Admin) Mr Calver was a member of Manorbier Community Council who successfully challenged the decision of the Panel to dismiss his appeal against a decision by Prembrokeshire County Council Standards Committee censuring him for a number of comments or blogs posted by him on a website he owned and controlled.
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  • A justified retrospective

    Clive Sheldon - QC debates the pros & cons of retrospective tax legislation
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  • Public Sector Equality Duty (“PSED”)

    In R (Greenwich Community Law Centre) v Greenwich LBC [2012] EWCA Civ 496 the Court of Appeal held that the Council had had “due regard to the PSED when making changes to its funding of community legal advice services”. At para 30 Elias LJ said:
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  • Public Sector Equality Duty

    Surrey County Council conducted a review of its Library Service. This culminated in a Report to the Council’s Cabinet. The Recommendations in the Report included that there should be consultation about a community-partnership approach at selected Libraries.
    - 11KBW
  • Judicial Review

    The Judgment of Lindblom J in The Manydown Co Ltd v Basingstoke and Deane BC [2012] EWHC 977 (Admin) repays attention. The Claimant sought to challenge by judicial review 2 decisions of the Council: (1) the Council’s refusal to reconsider its position on the development of a site that it owns (and is the subject matter of a Joint Development Partnership Agreement with the Claimant); and (2) a decision of the Council’s Cabinet approving a selection of sites for development which did not include this site.
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  • The Health and Social Care Act 2012: impact on adult social services

    After its torrid passage through Parliament, the Health and Social Care Bill received Royal Assent on 27 March 2012. The Act deals principally with healthcare reform, but it also contains some amendments to the legislative framework for social care. It will come into force on a day yet to be appointed by the Secretary of State.
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  • Immigration update May 2012

    In this issue: