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Barbara Rich Profile picture
Barbara Rich
@BarbaraRich_law
Barrister/mediator, mental capacity, death, inheritance, public understanding of law https://t.co/QK0j6mMPvl
3 subscribers
Oct 18 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A genuine win for the Good Law Project, supporters’ money spent on achieving success in court, in this High Court judgment reversing a decision of the Gender Recognition Panel about an individual transitioning F to M whilst attempting to conceive a child judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl… The panel’s task, in which they erred in this case, is to decide whether an applicant has been living in their acquired gender (LAG). The judge explains that this legal concept is more “subtle and nuanced” than the simple proposition that pregnancy is inconsistent with being male Image
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Aug 30 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Newly-formed @LawForBorders encourages local authorities to “consider legal battles” over hotels housing asylum-seekers. Non-practising barrister Steven Barrett says “we” in speaking of that organisation. Nonsense for him to now say “these issues should not be handled by a judge” Image
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Image Epping’s application for an injunction in the exercise of its functions as local planning authority was strategic litigation or “lawfare”. It was foreseeable that the first instance judgment might not survive an appeal. It’s absurd to now complain that judges are involved in it
Jul 11 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
HHJ Greenberg has now sentenced Farah Damji to 5 1/2 years immediate custody for stalking and two concurrent sentences of 6 months for fraud to run consecutively to the sentence for stalking, making a total of 6 years immediate custody on these convictions Sentencing remarks in R v Farah Damji [2025] published here judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-…
Jun 3 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
GLP latest. Which is more likely? A commercial landlord actively letting office space in a large building in central London has decided to seek an injunction against protests to protect its interest in income from the building, or that it’s done so “at the bidding” of the EHRC? Image
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Image This may all make for a powerful soundbite to promote crowdfunding, but the EHRC’s presence here is as a tenant of a commercial landlord. The right to protest as a human right protected by the EHRC is a right against a public authority, not a private property owner Image
Apr 18 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
“Delegitimising”. These posts are a lawyer, a KC who formerly practised in tax law, who now runs a not for profit campaigning law organisation he set up, and who has a close personal interest in these issues, delegitimising the judgment of our country’s final court of appeal Image The appeal only reached the UK Supreme Court because the court below, the Court of Session Inner House, gave permission to appeal. There is a legal test for this: whether there is an arguable point of public importance that ought to be considered by the Supreme Court of the UK
Jan 16 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I don’t see any strong correlation between the fact this case was crowdfunded and the fact that there was a client-solicitor dispute about the solicitors’ charges. There is no difference in the duties and remedies in that relationship and those in a non-crowdfunded case The crowdfunding platform CrowdJustice transfers funds raised directly to solicitors acting in a case, to ensure they are not used for some other purpose by the crowdfunding promoter, but plays no role in reviewing or auditing the solicitors’ bills in any way
Nov 29, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Bill would create a “state [assisted] suicide service”. It is literal interpretation, not inflammatory to say so. The Bill partially decriminalises the offence of assisting suicide under the Suicide Act 1961 and it gives power to ensure that assistance is available on the NHS Image
Image This former BBC journalist wrongly stigmatises an MP’s literally accurate phrase as “inflammatory”, and in the same breath describes those here who point this out to him as “those famously robust Elon lads”. He needs a bit less gotcha and a bit more reading of what the Bill says
Jun 6, 2024 • 28 tweets • 9 min read
This latest GLP crowdfunder is unsurprisingly controversial. I’m not going to repeat the talking points for or against the merits of the legislation. There is a link to a pre-action letter which sets out the legal arguments. But how persuasive are they?

goodlawproject.org/crowdfunder/tr… Supporters have no access to or indication of the privileged advice on the merits given by the lawyers in the case. And the GLP has not updated its records spreadsheet to show that its most recent crowdfunded judicial review, on voter ID, failed to get permission, as unarguable
Mar 30, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Matthew Parris’s vision of euthanasia is one where people of full mental capacity and free of coercive influence will rationally choose to “check out early”. It’s a callous vision and it takes no account of frailty, folly, or loss of freedom in making a life or death decision This case of a man who killed his mother and was indulgently sentenced for his offence was reported this week. I’m troubled by it. Imagine the same events happening in the moral universe Matthew Parris describes? The Sixth Commandment in shades of grey thetimes.co.uk/article/man-wh…

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Dec 4, 2023 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
The one thing this isn’t is charitable. The crowdfunding page names no lawyers, but describes Chris Packham himself as the case owner. He is not a charity. There is no link to any pre-litigation correspondence or draft grounds of claim, or statement of how a surplus will be used This link is more informative and makes it clear that there are lawyers acting in the case. But why does Chris Packham, who owes his public prominence to work for the BBC, a public service broadcaster funded by licence payers, need to crowdfund for this litigation?
Nov 3, 2023 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
A new litigation crowdfunder for a “class action” on behalf of “all” 1950s born women affected by state pension age increases. This appears to be a successor project to a “CEDAW people’s tribunal” which followed the failed crowdfunded #backto60 litigation

crowdjustice.com/case/group-cla…
Image The litigation prospectus is very vague, and the legal structure and identity of individuals responsible the organisation behind it is opaque. If, as it appears to be, it is a successor organisation to BackTo60, prospective donors should know its history thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions…
Jul 6, 2023 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Congratulations to @AllianceLGB who have now announced that they have won the case and defeated the challenge to their charitable status brought by @Mermaids_Gender with the support of @GoodLawProject. I look forward to reading the judgment. This is a good outcome for charity law Statement from @mermaids_gender which explains that Mermaids’ challenge failed on the issue of standing, but that the tribunal was divided on the issue of whether or not LGBA was entitled to be registered as a charity
Jul 2, 2023 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Judgment of First Tier Tribunal in @Mermaids_Gender challenge to decision of Charity Commission to register @AllianceLGB as a charity to be published, after v long delay, at 10am on Thursday 6 July. A significant case on standing to appeal such a decision, and on the issues 1/2 Evidence heard as long ago as September 2022, and legal arguments in November. Unfair on the participants, especially LGBA, to have to wait so long for a decision. Worth revisiting the legal arguments, published here
and here
https://t.co/rIb3LRWZGs 2/2lgballiance.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
mermaidsuk.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
May 18, 2023 • 22 tweets • 10 min read
The Court of Appeal has ruled on costs in Banks v Cadwalladr: Cadwalladr to pay her own costs and 60% of Banks’s. Will money raised by crowdfunding be sufficient to meet that liability? It looks unlikely on current figures
gofundme.com/f/democracy-th… and crowdjustice.com/case/support-m… ImageImage The Court of Appeal order directs Carole Cadwalladr

1. To pay 60% of Banks’s trial costs, £400,000 on account, rest to be assessed
2. To repay £790,634 trial costs already paid on account by him to her after trial
3. To pay 1/3 of costs in Court of Appeal, assessed at £52,000
Feb 22, 2023 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The GLP’s failed application for permission to seek judicial review of the Met’s investigation of “Partygate” was foreshadowed by the last judge who dealt with it. He was “ troubled” by absence of focus on warnings against courts interfering with conduct of police investigations There isn’t a published judgment or order that I have seen, explaining today’s refusal. But it’s unsurprising, if also disappointing, to see how readily supporters leap for conspiracist accusations about courts and judges, in the absence of any explanation to them of this point
Sep 12, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Mermaids v LGBA - cross-examination of a Mr Roberts, witness for Mermaids by Akua Reindorf for LGBA. This question and answer is at the heart of Mermaids’ case, seeking to appeal the Charity Commission’s decision to register LGBA as a charity Link to nested threads about the appeal, in particular on Mermaids’ standing to argue the appeal at all. The evidence which is being heard this week is relevant both to standing and to the appeal itself, if the tribunal decides they do have standing to argue it
Sep 9, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The hearing of this case starts today. It is a single hearing on the question of Mermaids’s standing to appeal the registration of LGBA as a charity and on the appeal itself if they do have standing. Standing is a serious issue, not a technicality. It may foreseeably go to appeal TLDR - standing is about eligibility to argue a case. Mermaids must show that its legal rights are or may be affected by the decision to register LGBA as a charity. Ideological opposition to a charity’s aims or work isn’t enough
Sep 1, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The Battle of Trevalga - the proposed sale of a Cornish village by the trustees of the 1951 will of Gerald Curgenven and the villagers' opposition to it. I have written about the life of Gerald Curgenven and the legal arguments over his will trust
abarbararich.medium.com/the-battle-of-… This is a long read. TLDR

Gerald Curgenven owned and lived at Trevalga in his lifetime

In his 1951 will he asked his trustees to
- continue to manage Trevalga as it had been in his lifetime
- pay surplus income to Marlborough, his old school
- if they sold, to choose charities
Jul 27, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I’m glad that Allison Bailey succeeded in her discrimination claim, but sorry that this outcome does not reflect well on some in our profession. Barristers should not have discriminated against a colleague or allowed personal views to affect a process which should have been fair Although the tribunal found that it was a reasonable step to initially seek outline help from a QC on the application of @barstandards then new social media guidance, this became an unfair process. I think it would have been better to let the BSB decide for itself
Jul 17, 2022 • 21 tweets • 12 min read
Whenever the name of Anne Frank is trending, it is because of some act of dishonour to her memory. This UK charity established in her name equivocates about a person it associated with, whether through a failure of due diligence, or insouciance. Compare her views with its values ImageImage There’s an echo here of the Royal Court, and of @HMD_UK arranging for Battersea Power Station to light its chimneys purple on Holocaust Memorial Day. Organisations which make this sort of blunder should take a searching look at themselves and make changes to do better in future
Jul 6, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
I wanted to wait until after judgment was published in her case before retweeting this thread from @mforstater. We barristers have strong and divergent opinions and important but not unlimited rights of freedom of speech. I think some of these comments at least test those limits As anyone who follows me knows, I oppose the ready resort to professional regulatory complaints for differences of opinion or for political ends. The best regulation is self-regulation and open discussion of what is or isn’t proper discourse for identifiable professional people