Court sets date for ‘rolled-up’ hearing in CM’s claim for judicial review of Openshaw findings 

The Chief Minister’s application for judicial review of critical findings of him made in the Openshaw Report has been listed for a “rolled-up” hearing starting on November 9, according to a directions order issued by the Supreme Court this week. 

The order means the court will consider both permission to proceed with the judicial review and the substantive merits of the claim during a 10-day hearing later this year. 

The case will be heard by Chief Justice Anthony Dudley. 

Lawyers for Fabian Picardo have argued in court documents that critical findings of him in the Openshaw Report were “irrational” because they were not borne out by the facts heard in the McGrail Inquiry.   

Mr Picardo is seeking a judicial review of 14 findings about him in the report and called on the Supreme Court to make a declaration that they were “unlawfully arrived at” and “legally invalid”, alongside any further relief the court thinks fair including an order that they be set aside or quashed.  

The application for judicial review is being resisted by lawyers for Sir Peter Openshaw, the retired UK High Court judge who chaired the McGrail Inquiry.  

In court documents, they said the “extremely unusual” application had little prospect of success and amounted to “an attempt to re-argue the merits through a forensic attack on specific passages” of the inquiry’s final report.  

The directions order sets out a timeline for the hearing and prior deadlines by which lawyers must file skeleton arguments and other documents needed by the court, including an agreed list of issues; an agreed chronology of events; an agreed list of essential documents for advance reading by the court; and an agreed list of legal authorities. 

Lawyers can also file any items that either party wishes to include and on which they cannot agree. 

The hearing is set down for 10 days but the directions order notes this may increase to 15 days should any other person be granted permission to participate in the hearing as an intervenor or interested party. 

The timeline includes two days allocated as pre-reading days. 

Mr Picardo is represented in the claim by Sir Peter Caruana, KC, Christopher Allan and Philip Dumas.  

Sir Peter Openshaw is represented by Julian Santos, KC, and Hope Williams.