Caroline Cross

Caroline has a significant inquest practice, encompassing medical, mental health, local authority, probation service and military personnel inquests on behalf of the bereaved and other Interested Persons. She has extensive experience of Article 2 jury and non-jury inquests, inquests dealing with complex medical matters and multiple expert witnesses, and advises other coroners on complex areas of coronial law. She has been appointed Counsel to the Inquest into the death of Peter Dray.

She was appointed an Assistant Coroner for London, Inner South in March 2019.

Caroline is the principal co-editor of, and contributor to, a leading practitioners’ textbook in the field, ‘The Inquest Book (Hart Publishing, 2016). Caroline is also Consultant Editor for Halsbury’s Laws of England on Coroners as well as Burials and Cremations (2019). She is a contributor to the UK Human Rights Blog on inquest matters as well as the 1COR Quarterly Medical Law Review (QMLR), and regularly presents on inquests and coronial law.

Selected Cases

• Inquest into the death of Peter Dray [2021]: Counsel to the Inquest into the death of nursing home resident who suffered numerous medical conditions but who arguably lacked capacity to consent to, or refuse, medical treatment.
• Inquest into the death of Janet Linda Scott [2021]: Represented a senior probation officer in this three-week inquest into the murder of Mrs Scott by her ex-boyfriend. He had served a sentence for murdering his previous ex-partner and was on probation at the time of Mrs Scott’s death.
• Inquest into the death of Jean Lavers [2021]: Represented the family in this jury inquest. Mrs Lavers was dropped from her bed hoist by her carers and suffered a hip fracture that contributed to her death.
• Inquest into the death of Thomas Rawnsley [2020]: Represented a GP in this three-week jury inquest into the death of a resident in a care home who had severe learning difficulties and who died of bronchopneumonia.
• Inquest into the death of Louise Harvey: young mother who died of a pulmonary embolism 16 days after plastic surgery.
• Inquest into the death of an infant [2019]: Represented the family of child who died following inadequate management of chorioamnionitis.
• Inquest into the death of John Brackenbury [2017]: Represented the family of a grandfather who died at Addenbrookes Hospital following a failure to prioritise surgery for a stroke.
• Inquest into death of Heather Loveridge [2017]: Represented the family of a grandmother who set herself on fire at a mental health unit using a cigarette lighter following a failure in the Trust’s search policy.
• Inquest into the death of Amin Abdullah [2017]: Represented the partner of an award-winning nurse who suffered mental health issues as a result of a delayed disciplinary process and dismissal from his post with a Trust. He killed himself whilst an informal patient on a mental health unit.
• Inquest into the death of Marion Munns [2016]: Represented the family of a nurse who died whilst under the care of the community mental health services of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.
• Inquest into the death of Tyler Redhead [2013]: Inquest into the death of a 14 week old baby who died of head injuries and who had suffered other significant non-accidental injuries. Represented the council who were responsible for social care for the family and the deceased.
• Inquest into the death of Martin Dunleavy [2011]: Represented the family in this five day jury inquest. The Deceased, who had exhibited paranoid behaviour leading to his arrest, had been admitted to hospital and was found in a stairwell with fatal injuries. The verdict was accidental death.

Many of Caroline’s clinical negligence cases arise from her inquest work and involve the consideration of complex medical procedures and multi-expert evidence. Previous cases include failures to diagnose and treat appropriately, the provision of incorrect or inappropriate treatment, and failures to obtain informed consent.