Nicola Howlett

Practice Areas

Nicola is an Associate in the Weightmans police team based in London. She specialises in defending civil actions against the police and represents a number of police forces across the country. She predominantly advises on litigated claims for all the core areas of public liability claims. Nicola has gained rapid experience in defending multi-track claims to trial, including jury trials, and appeals in the High Court. She is instructed to assist in high profile and complex matters including a trespass to property claim with a pleaded value of over £3milllion.

Recently reported and notable cases include:

• R (John Dalton) v The Chief Constable of Kent Police [2025] EWHC 2340 (Admin) — Refusal of permission to bring a judicial review claim of the police’s response to the Claimant’s data subject access requests where it was not a remedy of last resort.

• Edwin Afriyie v The Commissioner of Police for the City of London [2024] EWCA Civ 1269; [2023] EWHC 1974 (KB) and [2023] EWHC 1632 (KB) — concerning the use of a ‘taser’ as reasonable and necessary use of force as a pre-emptive use of force in self-defence and the application of Qualified One-way Costs Shifting. Nicola’s involvement extended to coordinating an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court with the support of the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council as interveners.

• Andrew Reynolds v The Chief Constable of Kent Police [2024] EWHC 2487 (KB) — important guidance provided on the scope Fundamental Dishonesty under s.57 CJCA 2015 in police claims.

• Leonard Ogilvy v The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and The Chief Constable of Kent Police [2024] EWHC 732 (KB) — successfully resisted an interim application for the return of property under s.54 and s.59 Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.

• Kieran Upadrasta v The Commissioner of Police for the City of London [2023] EWHC 1853 (KB) — interim application regarding permission to bring a claim for false imprisonment under s.139 Mental Health Act.

Nicola enjoys keeping up to date with recent legal developments. She has previously delivered training on the rising trend of “police auditors” and how to manage them, as well as training to in-house police lawyers on the most common civil actions against the police.