Head of Immigration Group Call: 2007
Specialist in
Experience
Harriet practices predominantly in two areas: immigration and related public law, and inquests and inquiries.
Harriet combines practice with her appointments as a Deputy District Judge (Civil, South Eastern Circuit) and a First-tier Tribunal Judge (Special Educational Needs and Disability) and as a Legal Aid Assessor.
Harriet represents families in inquests. She has experience in Article 2 and jury inquests including deaths in prisons, psychiatric units, and community mental health settings. Her current and recent instructions include natural disasters (death of a young person in a riptide at a supervised beach), death following police motor vehicle pursuit, deaths in prison and death of a teenager in the community under the care of CAHMS.
In Harriet’s immigration practice she provides advice and representation in nationality, immigration, asylum, human rights, trafficking, and related public law. She regularly appears in the First-tier and Upper Tribunal (Asylum and Immigration Chamber), the Administrative Court and the Court of Appeal. She is very experienced in urgent removal cases and is comfortable taking instructions at short notice.
Some recent examples of inquests in which Harriet has acted are:
Inquest touching on the death of a person recently released from Cardiff Bay police station https://www.inquest.org.uk/mohamud-hassan-inquest
Inquest touching on the death of an 18-year-old in Exeter Prison (Exeter)
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/full-inquest-set-death-18-4368408
Inquest touching on the death of a person with schizophrenia in prison
The jury found that failures in communications between drug and alcohol services and healthcare were possibly causative of the self-inflicted death which occurred during a psychotic episode. (Inner London South)
Inquest touching on the death of a long-term NPS user
The jury found that the prison officer’s failure to call an emergency code possibly caused or contributed to the death of a long-term NPS user in HMP Parc. (Pontypridd)
Inquest touching on the death of a vulnerable drug user whilst on home curfew
The Coroner found multiple failings in the decision to release to home curfew (Nottingham)
https://www.simpsonmillar.co.uk/media/public-law-human-rights/stacey-macdonald-inquest/
She has represented families whose loved ones died while admitted under s.3 MHA. (Black Country)
https://www.judiciary.uk/prevention-of-future-death-reports/lisa-grant/
Inquest touching on the death of a trans-identified young person (instructed by Advocate and Inquest) (Lancashire & Blackburn)
https://www.inquest.org.uk/max-sumner-inquest#:~:text=The%20Coroner%20concluded%20that%20Max,risk%20at%20which%20he%20presented.
Harriet was instructed in an inquest before Bournemouth Coroner’s court investigating deaths on Bournemouth Beach in June 2023
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23778618.bournemouth-beach-tragedy-mum-joe-abbess-legacy/
Harriet worked for two years as the Legal Officer on the Robert Hamill Inquiry into police collusion in Portadown, Northern Ireland in 1998. She was instructed to advice on inquiry process and procedure for victims in the Leveson Inquiry.
In her immigration practice, Harriet has particular expertise in third country and inadmissibility cases, including Italy and Hungarian returns, and removals to Rwanda. She was instructed for the Claimant NA in the test case MS & Others.
Harriet’s asylum practice includes country guidance cases, including guidance on returns to Mogadishu, Somalia (AMM & Others) where the Tribunal found a universal risk of FGM to women in Somalia; and the most recent guidance on returns to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (BM & Others) where the Tribunal found a risk to members of APARECO. She is a compassionate advocate, and is understanding of the needs of vulnerable clients. Led by Victoria Laughton, Harriet represented the appellant PS in the UT case considering cessation and removal to Zimbabwe.
Harriet advises in unlawful detention claims, both in the administrative and county courts. She is an experienced trafficking practitioner and provides advice and representation in statutory appeals, and challenges to refusals of leave.
Harriet advises on complex and routine nationality issues, including tracing, and decisions to refuse applications for naturalisation on bad character grounds. She represented several clients who received unreasoned bad character refusals on grounds of national security, and resulting appeal before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Harriet is an active member of ILPA, and is appointed as ILPA’s representative on the Chief Inspector for Border and Immigration’s Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI).
Harriet is public access qualified, and is happy to advise directly where suitable.
What the directories say
‘Very knowledgeable with an attention to detail above and beyond others in her field.’ Legal 500 Immigration 2025
Harriet has the uncanny ability to deal with complex issues in a very short space of time.’ Legal 500 Immigration 2024
Ranked: Tier 4
Education
LLB Law (LSE)
LLM International Human Rights law (Essex)
Professional Memberships
ILPA
Harriet Short represented Evelyn Gibson's family at the inquest into her death. She died in April 2022, six weeks after she was discharged from the Leicester mental health ward.
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