Charlotte Haworth Hird

Practice Areas

Charlotte is a partner at Bhatt Murphy. She specialises in acting for vulnerable individuals and their families with particular expertise in representing the families of those who have died whilst in the care of the state including mental health patients, individuals with a learning disability and children in foster care.

Career

In representing bereaved families, Charlotte advises and assists in respect of all related investigations including internal NHS Trust investigations, criminal prosecutions and, investigations by the Care Quality Commission, Health and Safety Executive and regulatory bodies. She also acts for families in civil claims arising out of their loved one’s death.

Charlotte also represents individuals in claims arising out of their treatment whilst under the care of the state, including following psychological or physical abuse in care homes and in claims where individuals have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty.

Charlotte was awarded the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award in the category of inquests and actions against the state in 2014 and was joint winner of Liberty’s Close to Home Award with the #JusticeforLB campaign and INQUEST in 2016.

Charlotte is committed to improving the way in which families are treated following a contentious death. In this regard, she has been a member of various working groups including the JUSTICE Working Party for their report ‘When Things Go Wrong: the response of the justice system’ and the advisory group to the Care Quality Commission in respect of its report ‘Learning, candour and accountability; A review of the way NHS trusts review and investigate the deaths of patients in England’. She regularly advises and trains stakeholders, NGOs and campaigning organisations on issues arising out of deaths of psychiatric patients and linked specialist points of inquest and human rights law.

Charlotte has experience of acting in public inquiries and was recently instructed as Solicitor to the Independent QC Investigation, which was established by the Welsh Government to investigate the decision to sack a member of the Welsh Assembly who took his own life shortly after being removed from post.

Professional Memberships

Inquest Lawyers Group; INQUEST Lawyers Steering Group; Human Rights Lawyers Association; Police Action Lawyers Group; Liberty.