Verity accepts instructions across all areas of Chambers’ work, with a particular interest in public, planning, environmental, mental capacity and data protection law. She is a member of the Attorney General’s Civil Panel Counsel Junior Juniors scheme and is also a member of the cross-disciplinary Cornerstone Climate team.
Before coming to the Bar, Verity was the judicial assistant to Mr Justice Hayden, the Vice-President of the Court of Protection in the High Court of England and Wales.
She previously worked as a research assistant at the Law Commission of England and Wales on proposals for the reform of surrogacy law, and taught family law at University College London.
Expertise
- Planning, Environment and Climate
Verity is developing a diverse planning and environmental law practice. Her experience includes:
- Drafting summary grounds of resistance on behalf of a local planning authority in response to an application for judicial review, successfully defending a decision to refuse to determine a planning application pursuant to section 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
- Advising a parish council on the consultation duties of a local planning authority under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997.
- Advising a local planning authority on costs in judicial review at the permission stage.
- Advising a parish council at the pre-action stage on potential grounds of judicial review following the grant of planning permission for further fossil fuel development.
Verity is a member of the Attorney General’s Civil Panel Counsel Junior Juniors scheme and has completed work for a number of central government departments.
During pupillage, Verity:
- Assisted Estelle Dehon KC in R. (on the application of Misbourne Environmental Protection Ltd) v Environment Agency [2021] EWHC 3094 (Admin), in which permission for judicial review of a consent granted to construct a 16-kilometre twin tunnel as part of HS2 was successfully resisted.
- Assisted Estelle Dehon KC in the Court of Appeal in R. (Finch on behalf of Weald Action Group) v Surrey County Council and Others [2022] EWCA Civ 187, which concerned a challenge to the lawfulness of a Council’s decision not to require an environmental impact assessment for a fossil fuel extraction development which included an assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the use of the extracted crude oil.
Her planning inquiry experience during pupillage includes:
- Assisting Estelle Dehon KC acting on behalf of a Rule 6 party (an environmental campaigning group) at the called-in inquiry considering proposals to open a metallurgical coal mine in Whitehaven.
- Assisting Estelle Dehon KC acting on behalf of an environmental campaigning group at the inquiry considering the proposal to expand Bristol Airport.
- Assisting Tom Cosgrove KC and Robert Williams in successfully defending at appeal the decision of a local planning authority, Guildford Borough Council, to refuse planning permission for 73 dwellings on an allocated housing site.
- Court of Protection and Community Care
Verity has acted for for local authorities, integrated care boards and other parties in both health and welfare and property and affairs matters in the Court of Protection. Her experience includes:
- Acting for an applicant local authority in contested section 16 declaration proceedings concerning respite care, healthcare and vaccination for an adult with cognitive impairments.
- Acting for an applicant local authority in a contested deputyship application, in which a young adult P with a diagnosis of a personality disorder contested the issue of their capacity to make decisions about their property and affairs.
- Acting for a range of respondent local authorities in section 21A proceedings concerning P’s deprivation of liberty in care home settings, including advising on whether arrangements amount to deprivations of liberty imputable to the state, and in proceedings involving the interface between the section 21A regime and sectioning under the Mental Health Act 1983.
- Acting for an applicant local authority in contested section 16 declaration proceedings concerning whether it would be in P’s best interests for restrictions to be placed on contact with their sibling, in circumstances where previous care placements had broken down as a result of relations between the sibling and care home.
- Acting for a respondent local authority in section 21A proceedings in which the issue of whether it would be in an older adult P’s best interests to return to their own home towards the end of their life was contested by a family member.
- Acting and advising a respondent local authority in section 21A proceedings on the issue of video surveillance technology installed in a care home during ongoing Court of Protection proceedings.
- Acting on behalf of a provider of social housing who was a party to Court of Protection proceedings involving declarations concerning P’s capacity to enter into and understand obligations under a tenancy, and advising on concurrent civil proceedings for possession of the property against a trespasser.
- Advising on the scope of transparency orders and the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection to grant injunctions.
She has experience acting in cases involving vulnerable witnesses, witnesses requiring reasonable adjustments to give evidence owing to disability, and hearings involving evidence in translation.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Verity developed her experience as the judicial assistant to the Vice-President of the Court of Protection in the High Court of England and Wales, Mr Justice Hayden.
- Public Law and Judicial Review
Recent instructions include:
- Advising and drafting summary grounds of resistance for a local authority responding to a judicial review of its decision to refuse a grant of funding under the Covid-19 Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant Scheme.
- Drafting summary grounds of resistance on behalf of a local planning authority in response to an application for judicial review, successfully defending a decision to refuse to determine a planning application pursuant to section 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
- Advising a local planning authority on costs in judicial review at the permission stage.
- Acting on behalf of a local authority in a challenge to the lawfulness of a discretionary payment made under the Adoption Support Service Regulations 2005 to an adoptive parent.
Verity is a member of the Attorney General’s Civil Panel Counsel Junior Juniors scheme and has completed work for a number of central government departments.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Verity worked at the Law Commission of England and Wales as a research assistant on their proposals for reform of the law relating to surrogacy, with a particular focus on the potential impact of Article 14 and Article 8 ECHR on proposals.
- Data Protection and Information Law
Verity welcomes instructions across all areas of information law including the UK GDPR/DPA, FOIA and Environmental Information Regulations.
During pupillage, Verity assisted in advising a public body on the lawfulness of refusing to act on a subject access request on the basis it was manifestly unfounded or excessive pursuant to Article 12(5) GDPR.
- Housing
Verity has experience with a broad variety of possession, disrepair and discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010. She regularly appears in the County Court and acts on behalf of a range of clients, including local authorities, providers of social housing, charities and private landlords. Her experience includes:
- Acting on behalf of a local authority seeking possession of commercial property following trespass, in circumstances where the Defendant sought to raise a claim of adverse possession.
- Acting on behalf of a local authority seeking an injunction against a tenant, advising on the Public Sector Equality Duty and mental capacity to comply with an injunction.
In Wales, Verity has particular expertise in advising on the implementation of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and related legislation.
She has also acted for local authorities and the police in a range of matters involving the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, including injunctions and closure orders.