Background
Betty is a solicitor working in our London Actions Against Public Authorities team. She joined as a Paralegal in 2022 after working as a Paralegal in another firm’s Public Law and Human Rights team for 3 years, where she worked on Actions Against Public Authorities and Court of Protection cases. She qualified as a solicitor in 2025.
She was previously a member of the Young Legal Aid Lawyers (YLAL) committee and is interested in broadening access to the profession to lawyers from communities underrepresented in the legal sector. She is a member of the Police Action Lawyers Group, the Inquest Lawyers’ Group, and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.
Expertise
Betty represents clients who have been harmed by the actions of state agencies, including the police and prisons. She also acts for the families of loved ones who died in police or prison custody, following contact with the police or as the result of failings by state agencies, including mental health services. She has experience in cases arising from domestic homicides following state failures to address risk of violence. She is passionate about using the law to defend the rights of individuals facing systemic injustice, and about helping bereaved families navigate the difficult inquest process.
Betty’s work covers civil claims, inquests, judicial reviews, and complaints. She is particularly interested in prisoner’s rights, migrants’ rights, representing women and trans people, and cases concerning discrimination, including disability discrimination.
Key work highlights include
- Ongoing cases concerning a series of self-inflicted deaths in a failing women’s prison. One of these inquests investigated the death of a very vulnerable woman with autism and complex PTSD who died by self-inflicted death. The inquest resulted in a highly critical jury conclusion including a finding that the death was contributed to by neglect, which in a prison death case is only found in the most extreme circumstances. The Senior Coroner made a number of important reports to prevent future deaths, including for mandatory training on neurodiversity across the prison estate. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/26/kay-melhuish-family-uk-justice-system-reform-prison-suicide