The government has yet to decide the 'trigger point' for making legal aid funding available for inquests under 'Hillsborough law', MPs have heard - after an unrepresented bereaved party revealed that he received disclosure the evening before his son’s inquest.
Johnny Santer, whose 15-year-old son Gabriel fell to his death from the open roof of a multi-storey car park in Liverpool, told the House of Commons justice select committee yesterday that he only received a bundle that had he requested, which contained information about witness statements, at 7.30pm on the evening before the inquest.
Santer, who is campaigning to raise the legal minimum height of rooftop perimeters, said: ‘I’m reading through this for the first time and there is evidence that is in that bundle that was brand new to me… And that was where the re-traumatisation happened, because I was like “Oh my god, what has actually happened here”?
Deborah Coles, executive director of bereavement support charity INQUEST, told the committee that legal representation for a family at the outset can make a real difference because they will have lawyers who understand the inquest process, make the necessary requests for disclosure and get disclosure in a timely way.
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill would provide bereaved families with non-means tested help and support for inquests. Coles said: ‘One issue we are waiting for government to make a decision on, is the point at which funding for families’ representation is made, what we call the “trigger point”.’
Access to a lawyer early would not only help families properly grieve, Coles added - lawyers can impact into any pre-inquest investigation, which would 'help minimise the experience that Johnny had, which is that they will get disclosure in advance, so they have some degree of preparation of what is going to come up at the subsequent inquest’.
The family's lawyer can also ‘stand up to some of the quite aggressive adversarial conduct that we see by state and corporate lawyers’, Coles added.
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