Turan Hursit

Turan acts in a variety of clinical negligence cases and related interlocutory applications and CCMCs. She provides a range of drafting services, conducts conferences with lay clients, solicitors, and medical experts in the lead-up to trial, and acts in multi-track trials. Her cases often involve experts from multiple disciplines. She is praised for her sensitive handling of lay clients with traumatic injuries, her tactical approach to litigation, and her clear drafting style. Examples of cases on which Turan has worked include cases concerning negligent conduct of surgery, mistaken prescription of medication, failures to diagnose and treat cauda equina syndrome, delayed diagnosis of a number of different types of cancer, birth-related injuries, brain injuries, infertility, and haemophilia. Turan has recently also assisted with cases arising from the infected blood scandal. Her caseload as sole counsel includes cases worth up to £1 million and she has experience of appearing in clinical negligence matters unled in the High Court.

Turan undertook her pupillage at a leading clinical negligence set, gaining in-depth experience of cases from both Claimant and Defendant perspectives. Whilst training, she drafted particulars of claim, defences, advices on liability and quantum, schedules and counter-schedules of loss, mediation notes, and skeleton arguments on cases up to and including Court of Appeal level, as well as preparing conferences, roundtable meetings, mediations, and trials. She assisted KCs with extensive legal research on issues of causation, quantum, and costs, including in the case of XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832 (at Court of Appeal stage), concerning the recoverability of the costs of commercial surrogacy.

Turan acts in fast-track and multi-track trials concerning road traffic accidents, employers’ liability, occupiers’ liability, public liability, industrial disease, and sexual abuse. She is fast building a practice in high-value and complex cases, acting in cases worth up to £1 million as sole counsel and up to £4 million as junior counsel. Turan regularly conducts conferences with experts (often from multiple disciplines) and lay clients. She advises on liability, quantum, procedure, and tactics in all personal injury cases, including those overlapping with her other areas of practice (for example, in personal injury cases concerning claimants who lack capacity where there are simultaneous Court of Protection proceedings). She is praised for her thorough drafting of particulars of claim, attention to detail in schedules of loss, and clarity of advice on liability and quantum.

Turan has appellate experience and was instructed as a junior counsel in Bass v Ministry of Defence [2020] EWHC 36 (QB), a high-profile test case against the Ministry of Defence, acting on behalf of a Claimant who contracted Q Fever whilst serving as a soldier in Afghanistan. She is instructed as part of the team of counsel dealing with civil claims arising from the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Having previously worked at the European Court of Justice and being fluent in a number of languages, Turan has a particular interest in cross-jurisdictional issues. She spent a month in September 2024 working at a Parisian law firm specialising in cross-border catastrophic injury and welcomes instructions in this area. She also has experience of cases concerning issues of state immunity, service outside of the jurisdiction, and insolvent and deceased foreign defendants.

Turan accepts instructions in all fields of health & welfare and property & financial affairs in the Court of Protection. She is ranked as an ‘Up and Coming’ barrister in Chapters & Partners and a ‘Rising Star’ in the Legal 500 for Court of Protection work. She is instructed by the Official Solicitor, local authorities, CCGs, and individuals in both interim and contested final hearings, as well as in roundtable meetings and counsel-to-counsel negotiations. She has particular experience of applications under sections 16 and 21A of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 concerning capacity and best interests. She also represents clients contesting capacity in section 16 deputyship scenarios and in costs hearings. Turan has appeared as sole counsel in the High Court before the Vice-President of the Court of Protection.

Turan has experience of serious medical treatment cases, recently acting in a case concerning an amputee who required urgent life-saving treatment for his leg wound. She has also appeared in cases concerning capacity to consent to sexual relations and use of social media. She regularly appears against opponents 15 – 20 years her senior and in multi-party cases involving litigants-in-person.

Turan acts in related civil claims concerning unlawful deprivations of liberty and violations of the Care Act 2014, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Equality Act 2010. She also acts in cases in the Court of Protection which follow clinical negligence or personal injury proceedings (for example, for clients who have sustained brain injuries).

Turan was a contributing author to the Ministry of Justice consultation on revising the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice. Turan sits on the Equality and Diversity Committee of the Court of Protection Bar Association.

Turan represents all Interested Persons, and primarily bereaved families, in cases concerning failures by state bodies (including the NHS, the police, and prison services) and private companies, before both coroners and juries. She has particular experience of cases concerning psychiatric evidence in a healthcare context and is adept at making Article 2 arguments. She is praised by solicitors and lay clients for her skilled legal analysis and cross-examination and for her sensitive handling of clients. Turan is ranked as a ‘Rising Star’ in Chambers & Partners and ‘Up and Coming’ in the Legal 500 for her inquest work.

Turan has acted in many inquests concerning nationally-reported deaths arising from medical treatment for both physical conditions and psychiatric disorders (including eating disorders), self-inflicted deaths, police restraint, and malpractice at care homes. Her recent cases include the inquests into the deaths of Megan Davison (concerning a self-inflicted death of a sufferer of T1DE, leading to a national Preventing Future Deaths report), Neal Saunders (concerning a death following police restraint), and Cristofaro Priolo (concerning a death at a care home following a choking incident, in which the Coroner made a standalone neglect finding). She is presently instructed in several high-profile cases concerning deaths following anaphylactic shock and stress in the workplace at a national newspaper. She has also previously acted in pre-inquest review hearings for the inquest into the Manchester Arena bombings (at pre-inquiry stage) and the Guildford pub bombings.

Turan regularly advises on the bringing of civil claims in negligence, under the Human Rights Act, and under the Equality Act following inquests, and on judicial reviews of coronial decisions.

Turan advises and acts in a range of public law and human rights matters.

Turan has experience of community care issues and regularly advises on cases concerning withdrawals of healthcare funding, breaches of the Care Act 2014, and breaches of sections 17 and 20 of the Children Act 1989. She is particularly interested in the rights of vulnerable adults, particularly those suffering from disabilities.

She acts in actions against the police arising from false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, assault, battery, discrimination, breaches of Articles 3, 5, 8, and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and problematic police investigations (including in cases concerning rape and/or sexual abuse). She has experience of related claims concerning breaches of the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation and misuse of private information.

Turan advises on claims for damages under both the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010 in a variety of contexts. Her caseload includes Article 2 claims following fatal accidents, Article 3 claims for torture/inhuman and degrading treatment, claims under Articles 5 and 8 concerning unlawful deprivations of liberty, breaches of healthcare rights, discrimination, and breaches of equality rights (including the public sector equality duty), particularly in relation to disabled and/or vulnerable individuals.

Turan acts in judicial review matters, particularly in the fields of healthcare, community care, local government, police law, and CICA matters.

Turan accepts instructions in all aspects of employment and discrimination law (including employment status, unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, whistleblowing, victimisation, health and safety, and human rights). She has a particular interest in cases concerning breaches of the public sector equality duty, having worked on cases concerning discrimination challenges whilst a trainee at the European Court of Justice (including the joined cases of Achbita & Anor v G4S Secure Solutions NV [2017] CJEU C-157/15 and Bougnaoui and ADDH v Micropole SA [2015] CJEU C-188/1, concerning religious discrimination in the workplace).

• Appointments to the Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel
• Turan Hursit selected for Paris Bar Exchange 2024
• Turan Hursit acts in inquest into the death of Megan Davison leading to national Preventing Future Deaths report
• Six members of Old Square Chambers appointed to EHRC panel
• Court of Appeal delivers judgment in significant case concerning recoupment of Human Rights Act damages from awards under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2008