Judicial Review & Regulatory

The link between Judicial Review and the annual review process We are regularly contacted by clients who have had an Annual Review of their child’s Special Educational Needs, but the review process has not been fully completed by the Local...

In a landmark judgment issued today (8 March 2022) the High Court has made it clear that every local council must keep to fixed legal time limits when reviewing the needs of children and young people with special educational needs . Councils have been...

High Court rules that student finance regulations discriminated against students who were unable to prove their immigration status in time due to pandemic delays Re Jawad Naeem v Secretary of State for Education and Kyra Morris [2022[ EWHC 15...

In late 2019,  Emma Grimbly  (Education Paralegal) was working on numerous cases whereby Devon County Council were neglecting their duties to issue an  Annual Review Decision Notice within the required 4-week period and neglecting to...

A judicial challenge against Devon County Council brought by Watkins Solicitors on behalf of three children with special education needs has succeeded in the Court of Appeal this week. All three appeal judges agreed that there are important issues that the...

Watkins Solicitors have successfully been granted permission to appeal in the Court of Appeal on behalf of 3 children with SEND in a judicial review that could significantly impact on local authority procedures for children with EHCP’s. The claims...

A Judicial Review against funding cuts by Cornwall Council to college education for autistic young people concluded today, 11 December 2019, with a huge success. Full course funding has been restored, not merely for the September 2019 cohort but for...

The Administrative Court in Cardiff has permitted a final hearing of Judicial Review proceedings to challenge the cutback of education for young people with special educational needs in Cornwall. 

Dr Keith Lomax, our Judicial Review Specialist, successfully brought proceedings against a local council in Huddersfield on behalf of his client, whose allotments were being seized. The National Allotments Society tried to join the proceedings, which they...

Watkins’ solicitor Dr Keith Lomax, who specialises in challenging public bodies, is instructed by parent groups supporting two of the schools that the council plans to close. Friends of Larkrise School in Trowbridge and St Nicholas School in Chippenham...

Dr Keith Lomax , our judicial review & regulatory specialist, was interviewed by Ben Prater on BBC Radio Wiltshire this morning. The topic of conversation was Wiltshire Council's proposals to close special schools in Chippenham and Trowbridge....

As you may have heard in the news today, a judgment has been handed down in the Supreme Court in a case that involved a number of linked appeals including ’W’ for whom our Judicial Review & Public Law Specialist, Keith Lomax , has been...