Charles
Davey

With a background as both a solicitor and a barrister, Charles brings a rare dual perspective to the conduct and advocacy of cases. Charles has personal experience of court proceedings having assisted his wife in a protracted claim in which she successfully represented herself, including against Queen’s Counsel in the Court of Appeal.

Charles practises in the civil courts and employment tribunals. He is authorised to conduct litigation as well as accept public access instructions and welcomes instructions from both solicitors and direct access clients.

Charles graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford. Originally qualifying as a solicitor in 1987, Charles was called to the Bar in 1989 and built a busy common law and civil liberties practice regularly appearing in jury trials for actions against the police. He relocated to France in 2000 for family reasons and returned to the independent Bar in 2008. He is the author or co-author of several books on law, European property and living and working abroad.

This breadth of experience – including advocacy, litigation, in-house and advisory work – makes him a highly pragmatic barrister who is often able to foresee and prevent issues before they arise.

Charles provides plain-spoken advice, combined with client empathy and a readiness to challenge the status quo when needed. He is calm under pressure, diligent in preparation, and particularly suited to cases where credibility, or protection of individual rights are paramount.

He is happy to advise early in proceedings, draft pleadings, provide second opinions on appeal, and conduct litigation where appropriate.

When not working Charles enjoys spending time with his adult children, and pursuing his hopes to put on two musicals written by his late wife Michaela: Aurora, a romantic love story set in the pyramids and on Mars, and Out of the Dust a story of love and violence set in the Troubles.

Charles acts in personal injury cases for both claimants and defendants, particularly where the facts are contested or the claim raises wider issues of principle or process. He has successfully appealed decisions on the basis that the judge reached a decision that no reasonable judge could have made, as well as overturning costs orders despite a trial judge’s wide discretion on costs.

Recent appeal cases include: 

• Woodcock v Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police [2023] EWHC 1062 (KB) appealed to the Court of Appeal [2025] EWCA Civ, with an application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court (see below)
• Suffolk County Council v Lyall [2025] EWHC 1032 (KB) Council liable for failing to put anti-slip strips on boardwalks in forest resulting in serious injury
• Mckenzie v Alexander Beds Limited [2024]: (unreported) fundamental dishonesty overturned; indemnity costs and interest awarded against Defendant. The Claimant was an aspiring barrister at the start of her career, having valiantly fought many other struggles, including racial prejudice. See Patricia Mckenzie's book here.
• Ruzge & Anor v Ashghar [2024] EWHC 78 (KB) overturning a costs order 
• Sternbaum v Dhesi [2016] EWCA Civ 155: repairing obligations of landlords clarified
• Osman v Adan [2016] EWCA Civ 1256: retrial ordered due misunderstanding by judge and failures of both trial Counsel 

Charles will identify appealable points, work constructively with solicitors, and distil complex procedural errors into persuasive arguments at appellate level.

Charles built much of his early practice on publicly funded work, particularly in civil actions against the police for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution – often under legal aid when it was more widely available. While the current legal aid landscape limits such work, he remains committed to acting in cases involving misconduct, abuse of power, and systemic injustice, often through direct access instructions.

Notable work includes: 

• A claim for malicious process in obtaining an order for detention
• A civil jury awarding £600,000 in aggravated and exemplary damages to a claimant beaten and falsely arrested by police 
• Acting for a claimant repeatedly arrested, prosecuted and assaulted by his police officer neighbour 
• Acting for a police officer arrested on suspicion of burglary
• Representing a university professor arrested under the Mental Health Act, with allegations of misfeasance by a force’s professional standards department in investigating his complaint 
• Charles’s most recent case is that of Woodcock v Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police [2023] EWHC 1062 (KB): representing a woman seriously injured by her former partner after police failed to telephone to tell her that he was waiting for her outside her home. The police successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal [2025] EWCA Civ 13). Charles has settled Grounds of Appeal to the Supreme Court

Charles has appeared in multi-day employment tribunal hearings covering:

• Unfair dismissal
• Race, sex and disability discrimination
• Whistleblowing and victimisation
• His appellate cases include Wieclawski v London Underground
• UKEAT/0074/17/LA concerning reasonable adjustments and Tara Ellis v Buzzacott

UKEAT/00361/10/RN on constructive dismissal and victimisation. Charles’s cases include obtaining a finding of race and sex discrimination by a male of the Claimant’s own race.

He acts for both employers and employees and is particularly interested in belief-based discrimination cases, such as those involving protected philosophical beliefs around gender, healthcare or safeguarding.

Charles is passionate about the rights of complainants in both civil and criminal contexts and is actively engaged in writing and advocacy around women’s rights, policing failures and confidentiality of medical records.

• An appeal to the High Court in a claim for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
• An appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal against a decision not to permit amendment to add a very late claim of discrimination where the employee had only recently concluded that he had been a victim of discrimination.
• A Employment Tribunal claim against a major supermarket that the claimant's line manager had referred to him in Portuguese as "O'Preto", which put neutrally means "the black one".

• A claim involving eviction allegations against a residential landlord.

Charles writes on issues related to civil justice and police powers, including:

• Off the Record: Solicitors & Courts Are Often Indifferent to Claimants’ Rights to Confidentiality, New Law Journal, Feb 2025
• Police Under No Obligation to Warn of Imminent Attack, New Law Journal, July 2025
• Contributor to: The English of Law, Belin, Paris, 2006

Charles’ ongoing interests include writing and researching issues and themes such as:

• Women’s rights to same sex medical care and how to achieve that
• Civil claims as a route to justice for survivors of gender-based violence
• Male wardens in female prisons. Why are they there?