Jasper Gold

Inquests

Jasper accepts instructions from families and other Interested Persons and has particular experience in medical inquests, having spent six months seconded to the advisory team of a leading healthcare law firm, where he attended court multiple times per week for inquest and pre-inquest review hearings as well as advising on legal issues and the preparation of witness and documentary evidence, and drafting applications and submissions.

Jasper has experience of ‘Middleton’ (Article 2) inquests and inquests before juries, spanning a range of psychiatric and physical illnesses and injuries. He is happy to consider acting pro bono in appropriate cases.

Jasper is the co-author of two chapters in the forthcoming second edition of The Inquest Book: The Law of Coroners and Inquests (Bloomsbury): Juries (with Richard Mumford) and Inquests Involving Intelligence Services and Agencies (With Sir Neil Garnham and Neil Sheldon KC).

Selected Cases

• Inquest touching the death of EA: represented the family at a three day inquest examining the death of an 89-year-old woman who died after fracturing her skull in a fall at a care home. The care home did not accept there had been failures in her supervision, but the Coroner found that lack of mandated supervision caused EA’s death, and added a neglect rider to her conclusion. She issues a Prevention of Future Deaths report identifying five separate areas of concern.
• Inquest touching the death of CS: represented an NHS Trust who had provided care to CS, a non-verbal autistic 17 year old who had an ingested foreign object lodged in his oesophagus. The foreign object was missed in radiological imaging, and CS died after being overwhelmed by infection. The Coroner gave a non-critical narrative conclusion and did not enter a Prevention of Future Deaths report.
• Inquest touching the death of KA: represented an NHS Health Board at a six day ‘Article 2’ jury inquest examining the death by ligature of a prisoner with a history of mental health struggles and suicidal ideation.
• Inquest touching the death of SW: represented the family at the inquest of a woman who died, following placement of a pacemaker, in circumstances where the cause of death was not clear.
• Inquest touching the death of CT: represented, and advised on prevention of future deaths evidence for, an NHS Trust in a two day ‘Article 2’ inquest resumed following a criminal trial in which it was found that the deceased, an inpatient in a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit, had been beaten to death then set on fire by another patient. The Coroner did not issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report.
• Inquest touching the death of SH: represented an NHS Trust in an inquest examining the death of a healthy man in his 40s who attended hospital with symptoms indicating a pulmonary embolism. The Family’s position that the treating clinicians had failed to give anticoagulant medication in line with Trust policy, then failed to be honest about it. The Coroner entered a conclusion of natural causes and found that all Trust witnesses had given honest, helpful evidence.
• Inquest touching the death of JL: advised an NHS Trust on strategy, witness preparation and evidence gathering in an inquest where there was a potential malfunction of sophisticated medical equipment.
• Inquest touching the death of AD: represented an NHS Trust in an inquest into the death of a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest following a needle dislodgment during routine dialysis. Successfully resisted arguments seeking a finding of neglect.