Richard Borrett

Richard acts for families and other interested parties, primarily state bodies, in all kinds of inquests. He has extensive expertise in the application of Article 2 in both medical and non-medical spheres.

Richard is ranked in Band 2 of Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for inquests in 2025

• “Richard is excellent with clients in inquest and he is very sensitive in his dealing with local authority clients and social workers. He gets to grips with a large amount of documentation quickly and is good on his feet, getting to the issue quickly.” (L500 2025)
• Richard is excellent with clients and very nervous witnesses and has a clear handle on the detail.” (C&P 2024)
• Richard Borrett is a go-to barrister for families and other interested parties in a wide range of inquests, with particular expertise in cases involving deaths of service personnel, self-inflicted deaths and medical issues. He is frequently instructed by local authorities, care providers and families, who benefit from his broader clinical negligence strength. (C&P 2025)
• “When you have a healthcare inquest, Richard is a go-to choice because of his deep understanding of medical implications” “”Richard Borrett is very thorough and on top of all details, particularly with medical inquests. “ “Richard Borrett is really focused, detailed and good in inquests hearings” (C&P 2025)
• Richard is excellent with witnesses at inquests where the situation can be quite emotional. He is very pragmatic, flexible to the demands of the case and analytical. He is also very good on his feet. Highly recommended for complex Article 2 inquests, particularly those involving social care and the vulnerable.’ (L500 2023)

• “…excellent with our Local Authority clients, cutting through the extraneous matters and getting to the issue at hand. Inquests involving social care input are by their nature document heavy and in many cases complex and Richard has a great aptitude for identifying the salient points quickly.” (L500 2021)

Particular areas of expertise

• Self-inflicted deaths
• Psychiatric treatment, particularly decisions as to discharge/s.117/ground leave
• Medical/hospital deaths
• Military deaths (in the UK and abroad)
• ‘Safeguarding’ / Mental Capacity Act issues
• Social care / multi-agency inquests

Social Care

Richard has particular experience in inquests involving social care/safeguarding/local authorities, examples include:

• 4-week Jury inquest into the death of TR, an autistic care-home resident, following a series of chest infections (for Local Authority)
• Death of DOLS resident who suffered from Korsakoff’s dementia who was permitted to decline all personal care, and over a period of many weeks developed a skin infection which developed into sepsis. Counsel to the Inquest instructed; Jury inquest; 15 interested parties. Various issues as to capacity/use of the MCA. (For Family.)
• Unexplained death of man with learning difficulties, who had been locked in his flat by his nephew, where there had been safeguarding referrals to the local authority in the weeks prior to death. (For local authority)
• Article 2, Jury inquest into domestic homicide by a schizophrenic perpetrator, where the family of the victim had sought help from the LA via the duty social worker in the weeks prior to death (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/paranoid-schizophrenic-discharged-mental-health-17319377). (For Local Authority)
• Death of supported living resident from head injuries potentially caused by headbanging, raising issues of supervision and/or whether padding/helmet should have been provided. (For LA.)
• Death of looked after child who was accommodated in a nursing home, raising issues of suitability of the placement. (For LA.)

Notable Inquests cases

4-week jury inquest into the death of a detained patient with ASD and schizophrenia, who died from Psychogenic polydipsia, acting for the ICB.

Inquest touching the death of Alison Doyle, a cyclist killed when she hit a pothole and lost control of her bicycle;

Inquest into the Castlemartin tank incident (led by Michael Rawlinson KC);

See media coverage here (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/02/corporals-died-in-tank-blast-after-officer-given-guest-experience-walesinquest-hears

Suicide of community patient where CAMHS had not communicated to her mother that the deceased would not be visited and so she was left alone and took her life;

Inquest into death of Jamie-Lee Sawyer on a kayaking exercise in Cyprus, when local weather warnings were not heeded;

Acting for hospital in 2-week Jury inquest into death of a detained psychiatric patient who absconded whilst on ground leave;

Suicide by serving soldier who complained of bullying and mistreatment by chain of command;

Jury inquest into RTA death where pedestrian was walking in inside lane of motorway at night, having recently been stopped by the police;

Suicide of community psychiatric patient who had been referred to the emergency duty team shortly before his death, but had been 'triaged' by unqualified staff, raising issues of whether there was a 'real and immediate' risk to his life;

High profile inquest into death of Afghanistan veteran on exercise. The vehicle in which he was travelling overturned, and he was ejected;

Neonatal death reported as a 'stillbirth', but which the coroner found was not;

Death of a spectator at a mountain-biking event, caused when a competitor left the course and collided with her.