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Paul
Nettleship

Partner

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Paul is a Partner and specialises in Immigration, Human Rights Claims, Claims against Public Authorities, and Public Law (Judicial Review). His practice covers a full range of immigration and nationality matters, civil actions and public law claims against the Government and Public Authorities. He has a particular interest in religious liberty cases and his services are regularly sought out by NGOs seeking to make referrals.

 

 

Paul has been working in Immigration, Asylum, Nationality and Human Rights law since 2001 and has similar experience in public law claims and in civil claims against Public Authorities. He is a Law Society Accredited Supervisor and Senior Caseworker under the Immigration and Asylum Accreditation Scheme.

 

Paul has dealt with hundreds of immigration and asylum cases, hundreds of judicial reviews and dozens of civil claims. Having worked in these fields for many years, Paul has a wealth of experience, maintains a very high success rate in all areas of practice and is particularly experienced in judicial review and civil claims. He is also a solicitor advocate who has conducted his own advocacy before the High Court and Upper Tribunal, and who has acted as junior counsel in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.  Paul is particularly adept at dealing with complex matters and high court litigation, including strategic litigation, but also advises and deals with initial immigration applications and appeals.

Experience

Paul qualified as a Solicitor in 2004 following completion of his two-year training contract at a London firm before joining the firm in 2005. He became a partner in 2013 and is a solicitor advocate with higher rights of audience. Paul supervises the work of the immigration department.

Recent Work and  Notable Cases

  • Winning a deportation appeal for an EU citizen with a British child who was facing deportation for committing a serious offence.

 

  • Securing family reunion at appeal for an adult child of a refugee on the basis of exceptional compassionate circumstances.

 

  • Succeeding in the Supreme Court in an unlawful detention judicial review in a ground-breaking case in which the Supreme Court held that a public law error in a distinct decision, separate from the decision to detain but which bore on the decision to detain, rendered detention unlawful, notwithstanding that the separate decision had been unsuccessfully appealed before the specialist tribunal. The Supreme Court in allowing the appeal overturned the judgement of the Court of Appeal, and overturned other long-standing Court of Appeal authority pertaining to unlawful detention.

 

  • Challenge to the issuing of an exhumation licence by the Ministry of in respect of a Polish priest who was in the process of being beatified.

 

  • Succeeding in a medical case on the basis of article 3 (conceded at hearing before the First Tier Tribunal) on the basis that treatment in the country of origin was not available and accessible and that removal would have dire consequences.

 

  • Securing refugee status following successful appeal before the Upper Tribunal, successfully appealing a negative determination from the first-tier tribunal, on the basis of risk as a concert to Christianity.

 

  • Challenge to the imposition of a condition of ‘no recourse to public fund’ in respect of a  person granted leave to remain on the basis of private life in the UK.

 

  • Challenge to the decision to extradite a Spanish National following the issuing of a European Arrest Warrant.

 

  • Securing £20,000 damages in a false imprisonment claim against the Home Office for a client who was detained following completion of his criminal sentence owing to the failure to provide a release address following a successful bail application, and a failure to formulate a release plan. (One of many successful civil claims securing substantive damages. Paul has succeeded in every case in which he has been instructed in securing substantive damages against the Home Office).

 

  • Successful application for UK ancestry visa.

 

  • Challenging successfully by judicial review the failure to issue a visa to the dependant child of a person with limited leave in the UK who was stuck in their country of origin to the failure to issue the relevant paperwork and vignette.

 

  • Successful asylum appeal in relation to Sri Lankan client who the Home Office had been excluded from refugee protection under article 1F.

 

  • Successful pre-action challenge to negative conclusive grounds decision in relation to a Victim of Trafficking forcing the Home Office to withdraw and agree to re-make their decision.

 

  • Successful appeal to the Court of Appeal in a judicial review claim regarding the refusal of an Afghan fresh claim where the Upper Tribunal had refused permission at an oral hearing.

 

  • Successful Administrative Court challenge to a decision of the Home Office refusing a protection claim and unlawfully preferring her own country information over the information / guidance in the current country guidance which also involved a successful challenge to detention.

 

  • Successful deportation appeal on the basis of family life for the parent of a disabled child with a British citizen mother.

 

  • Successful challenge, before the High Court in which Paul acted as sole counsel, to a refusal of a fresh claim on the basis of breach of in a medical claim and lack of treatment leading to article 3 breach on return.

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