Andrew Byles

Practice

Housing law

Undertakes representation and advisory work for tenants and other occupiers in a full range of housing work including: possession proceedings, cases involving anti-social behaviour, closure orders, unlawful eviction, harassment, disrepair, injunction applications, committal hearings and homelessness appeals.

Employment

Undertakes representation and advisory work on behalf of employees and trade unions in Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal including: unfair dismissal (including pregnancy related unfair dismissal), wrongful dismissal, race and sex discrimination, disability discrimination, TUPE, union discrimination, equal pay and pension cases. Also represents claimants in internal disciplinary hearings and hearings before professional councils.

Notable cases:

Joshi v Manchester City Council [2008] All ER (D) 246 (Jan) (time limits under the Statutory Grievance Procedure) > news item and judgment

Foster v Brighton and Hove City Council [2004] UKEAT/0737/04/ILB (unfair dismissal perversity appeal) judgment

Personal injury / negligence

Undertakes a range of representation and advisory work for claimants in the County Court and High Court including: negligence, occupier’s liability and defective premises, injuries at work, road and other traffic accidents, and infant settlements.

Notable cases

8/7/09 - High Court lifts stay on claims for COPD compensation for first time since the closure of the Coal Health Compensation Scheme in 2004

Other activities

A member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) Preferred Counsel Panel > more
Shortlisted for Bar Pro Bono Award 2010 > news story , Bar Pro Bono website
Undertakes pro bono work for the Bar Pro Bono Unit, Law Centres and CABx.

Articles and media comment

> 8/2/11 - What could more litigants in person mean for practitioners? (Lexis Nexis Current Awareness)
> 17/12/10 - Court considers access to a sealed file (under CPR 5.4C) following ABC Ltd v Y [2010] EWHC 3176 Ch (interview discussing issues raised by this case - published on LexisNexis Current Awareness)
> 22/11/10 - Service of former partners - court provides useful guidance following Brooks v AH Brooks & Co (a firm) [2010] EWHC 2720 Ch (interview discussing issues raised by this case - published on LexisWeb.co.uk)

Professional Associations

Amnesty
Liberty
Howard League for Penal Reform

Background and personal profile

Volunteer at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Centre, USA (2003-2004) working on death row cases and other wrongly detained prisoners. See:
> http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2005_05_31deathrowinterns /
> 24/5/05 The young britons who do time on death row (The Times) ... extract: "Andrew Byles spent several months working alone in a small Louisiana town ...Byles visited all 1,200 prisoners being held on remand in the local jail, to assess the quality (or absence) of their legal representation. He became a local hero when his work resulted in the release of more than 50 people who had been held without trial (and often without seeing a lawyer) longer than the maximum sentence that could have been imposed."

Undertook pro bono employment work with the Free Representation Unit (2003 to 2005)
Volunteer at the Prisoners’ Advice Service (2002)
Before being called to the Bar, worked for the charity Community Service Volunteers.