Police Law

Members of St Pauls Chambers have extensive experience as police law barristers. They have acted in cases both for and against the Independent Office for Police Complaints (IOPC), and have a firm understanding of the regulatory framework under which it operates.

What is Police Law?

Police law is a shorthand term for the broad range of legal issues relating to the police service and individual police officers.

The stakes are often high in litigation involving police and the law, both in financial and reputational terms for police forces or individual officers. Our team of police law barristers are acutely aware of the stresses involved in such cases and the consequent need for empathy towards stakeholders.

The types of cases in which our police law barristers have experience include:

• Bringing judicial review proceedings or defending them on behalf of police forces and individual police officers.
• Advising on and conducting litigation relating to police pensions disputes.
• Conducting civil actions against the police, on behalf of claimants and defendants.
• Firearms licensing.
• Civil confiscation proceedings.
• Inquests
• Police misconduct proceedings, both presenting and defending.
• Employment law, including disability discrimination claims brought by police officers.
• The provision of generic advice – topics on which members have advised range from powers of arrest to the creation of officers’ written accounts following the use of lethal force.
• Representing individual police officers accused of criminal wrongdoing.