Information for Lawyers & other Court Users

Court facilities 

WiFi is available in the court rooms. To connect, select 'Town Hall Guest' and sign in.

If you require a private room for your clients, please notify the coroner's officer in advance of the hearing. Rooms are available to book within the Town Hall, however are chargeable. A separate room will always be made available for families free of charge. 

Access to the courtroom will generally be permitted 15 minutes before a hearing commences. 

HM Coroners' directions for all Inquests

The directions below are in place for all investigations and hearings in this Coroner Area and should be complied with by all Interested Persons (IPs).  Any IP is however at liberty to apply for an amendment to these directions. If the amendment of any of these directions is sought written submissions should be made to the Coroner conducting the investigation (and served on all other IPs in the case). The Coroner will then review the continued need for the particular direction in the circumstances of the case.

It is directed by the Coroner that:

• IP status:
  • All Interested Persons shall notify the Coroner as soon as reasonably practicable if they become aware of any reason why the Coroner should consider extending Interested Person status to any other individual or organisation. 
• Disclosure and use of disclosed material: 
  • All Interested Persons (IPs) are to disclose to the Coroner any documents they hold that are potentially relevant to the scope of the Inquest.   IPs are reminded of their continuing obligation to provide disclosure.
  • All documents disclosed by the Coroner to IPs are provided in accordance with rule 13 of the Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013.  The Coroner does not authorise their further dissemination and disclosed documents (save for those documents in an IP’s possession in advance of their disclosure by the Coroner) are not to be shown or provided to any person who is not an IP to the inquest or an IP’s legal representative or employee unless such permission has first been given by the Coroner, either orally at a hearing or in writing.   
  • Further, the information contained within these documents is provided solely for the purposes of the Investigation and Inquest and in so far as that information is not already in the public domain then, unless and until made public at an Inquest hearing, IPs are not authorised to use the documents or information within them for any other purpose, nor may the documents or information be shared with any person other than an Interested Person in the Inquest or an Interested Person's legal representative or employee.
• Communication with the Court:  
  • Timing of Submissions
    • Submissions on matters of law where issues are to be addressed at a forthcoming hearing must be filed with the court no less than three full working days before the hearing, unless the Coroner presiding directs that a different period is to apply.
  • Cross service of submissions
    • Any written submission or application on matters of substance made to the Coroner should be served on all other IPs at the same time as it is filed with the Court.  
    • It is the primary responsibility of the person making the submission or application to serve their own document on all the other IPs, unless they are unaware of the identity or contact details of another IP. 
    • This direction applies to any communication in which any representation is made to the court on a matter of substance or procedure but does not apply to communications that are purely routine, uncontentious and administrative.
• Out of hours email correspondence:
  • All those working in and with the Coroner Service should be entitled to disconnect from work in the interests of well-being.  Email correspondence should not be sent by or to the Court or copied to other IPs outside reasonable working hours (between 7am to 7pm) unless correspondence has been requested out of hours or the correspondence is urgent.   
  • Those who wish to compose emails outside normal work hours should set their device to send the email between 7am to 7pm or save the email within a drafts folder until an appropriate time.  
  • Where an email is deemed urgent, and so needs to be sent outside normal working hours, the email should be marked as urgent and commence with an explanation of why it is being sent at the time that it is.
• Witnesses and Special measures: 
  • All Interested Persons should advise the Coroner at the earliest opportunity of (i) any applications for remote attendance of witnesses under rule 17 of the Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013 and (ii) any witnesses who may require special measures, so that steps can be taken to ensure a Ground Rules Hearing is held and vulnerable witnesses can be assisted to give their best evidence.
  • All professional advocates are expected to be familiar with the Advocate’s Gateway and the associated toolkits if they may be handling any vulnerable witness at an Inquest.
• Resources for those practising in the Coroners Courts:
  • All advocates should have familiarised themselves with the resources regarding  ‘Competences for lawyers practicing in the Coroners Courts' set out by the Bar Standards Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority and CILEx Regulation (here)  in advance of any court hearing.