Damages

Claimants' convictions quashed by Court of Appeal - independent assessor awarding compensation for miscarriage of justice - failure to itemise award inconsistent with obligation to apply analogous principle of greater transparency

R (O'Brien and others) v Independent Assessor: QBD (Mr Justice Maurice Kay): 16 April 2003

The first claimant was convicted of robbery and murder on 20 July 1988.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and released on bail in 1998.

His conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division on 25 January 2000.

The second and third claimants were convicted of murder and aggravated burglary on 9 November 1979.

They remained in custody until released on bail in February 1997.

On 30 July 1997 their convictions for murder and aggravated burglary were quashed.

All three claimants applied to the Secretary of State for the Home Department for compensation under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

The secretary of state determined that in each of the cases the claimant had a right to compensation.

Those claims were assessed by the independent assessor at the time.

He awarded them various amounts of damages, but he did not fully break down the awards for non-pecuniary loss and he declined to accede to the claimants' requests for a further breakdown.

The claimants sought judicial review.

Heather Williams (instructed by Hickman & Rose) for the first claimant; Philip Engelman (instructed by Hodge Jones & Allen) for the second and third claimants; Robin Tam (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the independent assessor.

Held, granting the claims for judicial review, an independent assessor's refusal to itemise non-pecuniary loss when calculating an award of damages for an applicant claiming compensation for a miscarriage of justice was inconsistent with his obligation to apply an analogous principle of greater transparency.