Isabel McArdle

Inquests

Isabel regularly acts in inquests, typically involving clinical negligence, prison and/or human rights issues.

Her experience includes inquests arising from surgical errors, failures by GPs to refer patients to hospital, prison deaths of a self-inflicted nature and inquests in which the state may have played a role in the death through a failure to implement appropriate healthcare systems (Article 2 ECHR).

Selected Cases

• Re RM (2021): acted for the family of the Deceased at an inquest into a death caused by venous thromboembolism following inadequate prophylactic medication and pharmacy corrections to the prescription not being acted on.
• Re PJCR (2021): acted for the Ministry of Justice at an Art. 2 inquest into the self-inflicted death of a prisoner.
• Re JK (2021): acted for a government department at an inquest into the self-inflicted death of an employee at its premises.
• Re CJWW (2020): acted for the family of the Deceased at an Art. 2 inquest into the death of a prisoner with epilepsy and a complex drug history.
• Re IMW (2020): represented a doctor at an inquest into the death of a professional rugby player from a rare condition.
• Re DAS (2020): acted for the family of a teenage girl who died during elective dental surgery.
• Re HH (2020): acted for the family of the Deceased at an inquest into the death of a man from a fractured neck following a fall in hospital, with complex causation issues.
• Re GW (2020): represented the family of the Deceased at an Art. 2 inquest into the death of a prisoner following a prolonged period in which prison healthcare failed to supply the correct prescribed medication. The jury found that systemic failures contributed to the death.