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A committed peace, environmental and social justice activist turned barrister, Jo now specialises in immigration, asylum and human rights with additional interests in public law and mental health. Practice Jo maintains a busy paperwork practice and regularly appears in the first-tier and upper tribunals of the Asylum and Immigration Chamber with experience in asylum, deportation, domestic violence, bail, EEA and general immigration matters. She has also appeared in the Administrative Court and Court of Appeal on immigration and asylum matters and is a member of the emergency judicial review team. She has extensive experience representing applicants in domestic violence appeals, having representied both women and men who had suffered abuse including purely psychological abuse. She has acted in claims against the Secretary of State and UKBA in matters including unlawful detention, discrimination, harassment and misfeasance in public office, recently securing a large settlement for a client who was repeatedly unlawfully detained over a period of years. She is particularly committed to quality representation of children in asylum and immigration cases, to challenging age assessments in the higher courts and to any case with an immigration-mental health crossover. Immigrants with mental health problems frequently suffer from a double disadvantage which is not well dealt with by the Home Office and the Tribunal. She also has a special interest in family reunion cases where parents are separated from children or other minor family members, including those where the children have "aged out" of the family reunion rules during the asylum process. She is a contributor to the latest edition of MacDonald's Immigration Law and Practice. Having previously worked as an advocate for Bristol Mind on behalf of mental health service users Jo is also keen to develop her mental health practice as part of Chambers' growing mental health team. Background Jo became a tenant at Garden Court after completing pupillage with us. Prior to that she spent several months in Iraq before, during and after the 2003 invasion documenting civilian casualties, writing a weblog which became a book and later a stage-play, "Don't Shoot the Clowns," and setting up and running a small circus working with traumatised and internally displaced children. She also spent time in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege, escorting ambulances through conflict areas. For this work she was co-nominated as one of the 1000 Peacewomen for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her writing from Fallujah was described by the journalist John Pilger as, "some of the finest frontline reporting of the war." Cases GK (Zimbabwe) [2011] Court of Appeal: permission granted on asylum and articles 3 and 8 on the basis of arguments which took the matter beyond "pure medical" issues to bring the Appellant's sight loss within the scope of articles 3 and 8. IB (Algeria) [2011] Court of Appeal: article 8 permission application involving a young adult separated from his family as a child. The issue is whether the "context" of his relationship with his (de facto) foster carer falls to be assessed objectively or subjectively. DN (Iraq) [2011] Court of Appeal: ongoing challenge to Upper Tribunal's finding that an Iraqi Christian teenager, at risk in his home area, can relocate to the Kurdish Regional Zone. JO (Nigeria) v SSHD [2009] EWCA Civ 318 Plausibility challenge to determination of the AIT in asylum case of a homosexual Nigerian man. Permission granted by Laws LJ on oral renewal. R (Haidari) v SSHD [2011] Admin Court: obtained an injunction based on improper service of SSHD's decision and procedural impropriety in deciding the case without the medical report. Ongoing judicial review challenge to unlawful detention. Mahamet v SSHD [2010]: injunction granted preventing removal of Iraqi Kurd to Baghdad on the basis of risks faced by Kurds of detention at the airport and during travel to the KRG Ratnasingham v SSHD, 2008, AIT unreported: EEA third-country case where it was argued that the EEA family member's right to reside in the UK, which would have been extinguished by her relocating to Sri Lanka to continue family life with her non-EEA husband, was a relevant consideration for Article 8 in assessing whether it was reasonable for her to do so. Chipeni v SSHD 2007 AIT unreported: Article 8 case where a mother, granted asylum after inordinate Home Office delay, was denied family reunion with her elder child who had turned eighteen the day after the asylum decision. Tribunal decided that the refusal was disproportionate. Mental health crossover cases TWM v SSHD - first tier tribunal, Asylum and Immigration Chamber. The question is whether and how the Appellant's serious mental health difficulties would affect his ability to demonstrate the necessary loyalty to the Zimbabwean regime in order to avoid persecution. Farah v SSHD - first tier tribunal, Asylum and Immigration Chamber. Bail case where the Tribunal had refused to release the applicant on bail because of his mental health condition, despite the fact that he was not sectioned and there was no other sustainable objection to bail. Advised on application to the Administrative Court. Personal Jo is mum to two small children.
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