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Hodge Jones & Allen brands itself as a progressive law firm that has been representing ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances since its foundation in 1977. Its three founders —Henry Hodge, Peter Jones and Patrick Allen — were passionate about enabling individuals to have access to justice and a firm that would help them to “fight for what’s right”.
As environmental concerns continue, Raj Chada, who heads the criminal defence department, has represented climate change protesters whose actions have led to them being charged with criminal offences.
He is acting for Trudi Warner, a retired social worker who the solicitor-general is seeking to prosecute for contempt of court. She faces jail for staging a protest outside a court that allegedly encouraged jurors to break their oaths. Warner was arrested at a protest outside Inner London crown court, where she held a sign that read: “Jurors you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.”
The firm’s civil liberties and human rights team acted for Kristina O’Connor, the daughter of the late entertainer Des O’Connor, who brought a legal challenge against the Metropolitan Police over its handling of a sexual misconduct case.
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O’Connor said that a serving officer who was investigating a violent mugging committed against her, sent her inappropriate messages, kept his job after going before a misconduct panel and went on to work with the former Met commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.
She told the High Court that the officer asked her out for a drink, called her “amazingly hot”, and told her that she had “taken top spot as my favourite Camden victim of crime”.
O’Connor said that the investigation was flawed, her complaint was not dealt with adequately and that the Met’s misconduct panel had “enabled misogyny”.
Medical negligence solicitors at the firm were instrumental in the recent upgrading of the Essex Mental Health inquiry into a statutory public inquiry, representing more than 100 families whose relatives died or suffered serious harm due to deficiencies in mental healthcare services in the county. The firm provided hundreds of hours of pro-bono support to the group led by Melanie Leahy, who has been campaigning for answers since her son, Matthew, died in 2012.
Hodge Jones & Allen continues to represent a number of the sub-postmasters still fighting for justice after the Horizon scandal, in which hundreds were wrongly prosecuted for crimes of fraud and theft due to the faulty accounting software.
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Its lawyers supported clients involved with the Undercover Policing inquiry and represented campaigners who were part of an anti-Apartheid group infiltrated by undercover police.
Inquest work has included acting for the family of Benjamin McQueen, a Royal Marine who died during training. The coroner found that he had been “let down” by the Ministry of Defence.
During the year, Hodge Jones & Allen has continued to represent Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter, Ella, was the first person in the UK to have their death attributed to excessive air pollution after a hard-won second inquest.
★ Commended for administrative & public law; crime; financial crime; human rights; landlord & tenant; personal injury & clinical negligence
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