Inquests
Ranked Band 1 for Inquests & Public Inquiries – Chambers & Partners (2024) – 4 years ranked
Ranked in Tier 1 for Inquests and Inquiries in – The Legal 500 (2024)
Ranked Band 2 for Inquests & Public Inquiries – Chambers & Partners (2023)
‘A junior who stands alongside KCs and shines extremely brightly.’ Legal 500 (2024)
“Janine is highly collaborative, and has a persuasive advocacy style.” Chambers & Partners (2024)
“Janine has excellent client skills, provides clear and strategic advice and is a robust advocate.” Chambers & Partners (2024)
‘A barrister who shines in court. She has all the strength, ability, knowledge and charm of a KC.’ Legal 500 (2023)
“Janine is approachable and quite practical and will try to resolve things. A very pleasant advocate, who is persuasive with the coroner and is likeable and approachable.” Chambers & Partners (2023)
“She’s a very solid performer and a strong advocate.” “She is an approachable, helpful and reassuring barrister.” Chambers & Partners 2022
“Janine is a safe pair of hands. She is thoroughly prepared and extremely knowledgeable regarding deaths in custody. She is extremely capable in court.” Legal 500 (2022)
“A highly accomplished advocate who works extremely hard for clients” “Frequently undertakes Regulation 28 reporting and Article 2 matters, representing the Treasury Solicitor in an Article 2 inquest into a prisoner’s death which involved far-reaching systemic failings.” – The Legal 500 (2021)
“Janine is very personable, and her ability to condense complex legal points into simple terms for all concerned shows how acute her knowledge and skills are. Her strengths include her attention to detail and client care skills.” – Chambers & Partners (2021)
Janine Wolstenholme is a highly sought after barrister. She is in particular demand for high profile, complex, and sensitive cases. Many have linked matters including civil claims, judicial reviews, and regulatory and disciplinary proceedings, with clients benefitting from the continuity of representation she provides across the various jurisdictions.
She is extremely experienced in the coroners’ courts, appearing country-wide, representing the interests the state, large corporations, small businesses, professionals, individuals, and bereaved families, as well Counsel to the Inquest.
Janine’s experience ranges from short, natural causes deaths to lengthy cases involving several interested parties, with the majority of her instructions invoking Article 2 and requiring a jury. Regulation 28/PFD issues routinely feature.
She has a particular interest in cases involving children and protected parties, including obstetrics and fetal medicine, but has significant experience in the full range of cases, including: care and nursing homes, custody/detention, educational settings/contagion, DOLS, domestic homicide, medical treatment (or lack of), mental health, neglect, road traffic collisions, substance and alcohol misuse, workplace deaths.
Selected cases
- Acting for company responsible for care home where vulnerable resident on an interim NHS placement sustained fractured humerus following poor manual handling by staff
- Acting for NHS Trust in an inquest where a patient with chronic pain who had knowingly become addicted to, and taking, excessive amounts of opiate based medication for a number of years.
- CTI in an inquest where a young woman took her own life, when gate keepers to an inpatient unit failed to adequate asses her increased, and apparent, risk of doing so.
- Acting for the registered manager of a care home following a death of a vulnerable resident whose wheelchair caught fire from a dropped cigarette.
- Acting for the family of a man crushed at work when a conveyor fell from a trailer during a transhipment operation
- Acting for a private school following the death of two students a few weeks apart.
- A complicated three-week inquest in respect of a death in custody involving, inter alia, mental and physical health concerns, language barriers, and bullying.
- Acting for a nurse, as an individual, in respect of a death in a nursing home following administration of the wrong medication.
- The successful defence of a claim for judicial review, brought against a coroner, for his refusal to conduct an Article 2 inquest and sit with a jury, in respect of the death of a very young child who passed away having developed septicaemia.
- Acting for the Probation Service in a six-week inquest into the death of a woman killed by her partner who had previously served life for the murder of his ex-partner.
- An inquest into the death of a man who passed away whilst in a specialist residential unit undergoing a voluntary detoxification programme.
Janine also provides training, and has delivered sessions to clinical staff at NHS hospital trusts.
Janine has a nationwide practice and is happy to travel to accommodate her clients’ needs, as well as deliver training and seminars to clients at their premises.
Public Access
Janine may accept Public Access work, where she can be instructed directly by a member of the public rather than a solicitor.
Contact Janine’s clerks
Madeleine Gray on 0113 202 8603
