Jim Duffy

Inquests

Jim appears in inquests on a regular basis. He has represented families in cases spanning a wide range of medical issues, including iatrogenic bowel injury, sepsis and dementia. Recently He represented the family of Natasha Wild, a young woman who was tragically killed by her boyfriend, who was a paranoid schizophrenic. The jury recorded a number of failings by police, the local authority and the NHS Trust that had been treating him.

Jim also often represents clinicians on behalf of medical defence organisations and represents the Ministry of Justice in prison death inquests. Recent cases have involved venous thromboembolism, neonatal deaths, a failed tracheostomy following tongue ablation surgery, and suicide.  He has particular experience of inquests in a mental health context and of the role of Article 2 in inquests.

Selected Cases

• Oliver Steeper inquest (2024): Jim acts for Ofsted in connection with the death of a baby following a choking incident at nursery.
• Abbigail Smith inquest (2024): Jim is representing the family of a 26-year-old woman who was discharged from a psychiatric in-patient facility on 14 February 2022. Abbi was found dead, having apparently ligatured the following day.
• Al–Kharboush and Ors (2024): Appearing for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in inquests into the deaths of neonates who received total parenteral nutrition feed.
• Marwo Kassim inquest (2023): Appeared for the family of a young woman with epilepsy who fell from her third floor balcony. The accident was found to have been caused by the failure by the local authority and housing association to provide her with a ground floor flat.
• Stephen Richardson inquest (2023): Acted for the family of a mental health in-patient who ligatured on a ward. The jury found that an earlier failure to secure for him a ward on a mental health unit was a gross failure that contributed to his hanging.
• Rita Britten inquest (2022): Represented son of a psychiatric in-patient who choked on an apple and was found to have suffered ‘neglect’. Prevention of future deaths report concerning choking guidance relating to larger patients.
• Gosport inquests (2022): Instructed by a number of families whose elderly relatives died at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in the 1980s and 1990s. They seek fresh inquests.
• WMP inquest (2022): Representing the parents of an otherwise healthy infant who died tragically following a failure to administer Vitamin K during the ante-natal period.
• Stefan Quagraine inquest (2022): Appeared for family of a 23 year-old poet and musician who died after contracting COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
• Brenda Burbeck inquest (2022): Represented a GP in relation to the death of an elderly patient in circumstances where her blood thinning medication had been paused following a road traffic accident.
• Chanel Nelson inquest (2022): Represented the family of a young woman who died on the operating table during an operation to remove a benign tumour.
• Chloe Lumb inquest (2022): Appeared on behalf of the husband of a 24-year-old mother of two. She died as a result of a hospital’s failure to diagnose an aortic dissection.
• T Inquest: Acted for Animal and Plant Health Authority at inquest into the death of man from salmonella.
• Y Inquest: Represented GP in high profile inquest into the death of pregnant woman who committed suicide.
• O Inquest: Acted for family in Article 2 inquest into death of woman who died in psychiatric care due to myocarditis caused by clozapine toxicity.
• W Inquest: Represented an Edinburgh-based GP practice at death of a student from anorexia nervosa.
• Wild Inquest: Complex Article 2 inquest into death of young woman who was unlawfully killed.
• Patterson Inquest: Represented the family of woman whose death was contributed to by medical neglect.
• Peter Maher Inquest: Represented a GP who carried out a mental health assessment on the deceased. This two-week jury inquest involved complex Article 2 ECHR issues and multiple state agencies.
• TJ Pimm Inquest: Appeared for the family in an Article 2 inquest where jury found that adequate precautions were not taken to manage a young man’s suicide risk.
• XW inquest: Acted for the family of Mr W, who ended his life in a Birmingham hospital.
• ED inquest: Appeared on behalf of the deceased’s treating GP.
• ETF inquest: Represented an orthopaedic surgeon in a complex venous thromboembolism case.
• NW inquest: Currently acting for the family of a woman killed by her schizophrenic boyfriend having successfully argued that the investigation engages Article 2 and requires a jury.