Oliver Wooding, a member of our Chancery and Commercial team, acted alongside Sharon Macaulay, Wendy Rixon and Ravandeep Khela of Taylor Rose pro-bono on behalf of the three year old daughter (and her legal guardian) of Cher Maximen, who was tragically stabbed at the Notting Hill Carnival in 2024. Last week her killer was found guilty of murder after a trial at the Old Bailey.
The local coroner initially decided to release Cher’s body to a family member from whom Cher was estranged, and who had contacted the coroner. The Taylor Rose team and Oliver acted rapidly to establish Cher’s daughter’s rights to organise the funeral arrangements for Cher including a burial in Bristol, which was important to Cher. The coroner ultimately changed their decision and released Cher’s body to those acting on behalf of her daughter, rather than the estranged family member, without the need for any injunction or court proceedings.
Taylor Rose have provided a more detailed summary of the legal case, which deals amongst other things with competing priorities to a grant under Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, read here.
Oliver has a niche practice in funeral and burial disputes as part of his wider wills and trusts work. He has previously acted in cases involving the determination of the location of a funeral, the entitlement to disposal of the body, and the nature and order of the funeral arrangements between competing family members, including drafting and seeking urgent injunctive relief. More details of his probate work can be found here.