Joshua Swirsky

Practice Areas

Joshua is a highly experienced barrister with more than 30 years' experience. His main areas of focus are: - community care, Court of Protection and public law/local government law.

Although he mainly acts for local authorities, he also represents individuals and companies.

Community care: Joshua conducts judicial reviews and other proceedings concerning community care (both adults and children), age assessments and housing and property-related issues. He is regularly instructed in complex cases about the Care Act 2014, its interaction with housing issues, funding and age assessments.

He is often instructed to advise on and draft local authority policies and procedures.

Career

In 2023 Joshua defended the successful local authority in a judicial review concerning the effect of s23 of the Care Act 2014 and the interplay between the care regime and the Housing Act 1996; R (Campbell) v London Borough of Ealing.

This followed on from his earlier case on similar issues; R(Idolo) v London Borough of Bromley (2020). In 2022 he represented the local authority in R(HAM) v London Borough of Brent which clarified that it was not necessary to comply with a check-list to ensure that age assessments were Merton compliant.

He was appointed a recorder in 2009.