Hugh James environmental solicitors
are well known and highly regarded for advising on environmental
group actions and leading judicial reviews against local authority
and government decisions.
What is a judical review?
Judicial review is only concerned
with the lawfulness of the decision making process. It cannot
consider the merits of any decision. It will not interfere
with the discretion of a public body unless the public body has
acted unlawfully.
The usual result from a judicial
review procedure is that the decision is quashed or
nullified. In turn this usually means that the decision has
to be taken again. However, if a decision was taken
inappropriately at the first instance, it will be difficult for it
to be taken again.
Judicial review proceedings have to
be issued promptly and usually within three months after
the decision in question has been made. It can be difficult
to assess when time begins to run in various cases. It is
therefore important that if you wish to challenge a public
authority’s decision that you take steps to do as soon as possible.
Because of the tight timescales involved, we will require
your assistance to organise the documents before sending them to
us, so that we can assess the prospects of your potential judicial
review claim in the quickest and most efficient way
possible.
Permission must be obtained from
the court before a full hearing will be permitted before the High
Court.
Public funding (formally known as
Legal Aid) is still available for judicial review cases subject to
a successful application.
Read our guidelines on how to
start a judicial review process
Judicial review environmental
claim types
The environmental solicitors at
Hugh James haved acted on many different types of
environmental judicial review cases. We have significant
expertise in leading judicial reviews against all different kinds
of environmental concerns against planning applications.
In addition, we can also help you
with the following:
- Land Compensation Act claims
read more
- Airport expansion and development
concerns read more
- Road expansion and development
concerns read more
Hugh James solicitors environmental judicial review
experience
Hugh James environmental solicitors
are regularly instructed by groups of residents wishing to
challenge decisions which impact on the environment.
The law relating to judicial review
is complex and we recommend that you take specialist advice if you
are considering a challenge. The main thing you need to know is
that the court will not readily interfere with public authority’s
decisions however decision makers must act lawfully and in a
procedurally fair way. This includes taking into account material
considerations, not taking into account immaterial considerations,
and acting within their powers. The court has a supervisory
role in ensuring that the decision maker has acted
lawfully.
Contact
our environmental team on 029 2039 1118 for more information and
advice.