Public law governs the exercise of power by public bodies. Despite the numerous types of public bodies and their specialist powers, there are general guiding legal principles which govern their decisions. At SM&B our team of public law specialists have unrivalled expertise and experience of challenging public bodies, including:

• government ministers

• universities, colleges and schools

• statutory tribunals

• local authorities

• coroners

• planning authorities

• Information Commissioner and First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) decisions

• Ombudsmen complaints

• regulatory bodies (eg Ofcom, ASA, PCC disciplinary tribunals)

Our team regularly assists individuals, business and charities in ensuring that public decisions are reasonable and within the legal boundaries of the power from which they derive. We are committed to ensuring that the rights of individuals are fearlessly protected. We regularly challenge by way of judicial review not only the legality of public decisions, public policies and subordinate legislation, but also the compatibility of primary and secondary legislation with the European Convention of Human Rights of primary legislations.

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