Julia Appleton

7th Floor, 85 Fleet Street
London EC4Y 1AE
Email: julia.appleton@rlb-law.com

Julia is a Partner in the Healthcare team specialising in health and social care.
Julia has acted for the majority of the teaching hospitals in London and many large state and private sector providers around the country.
Julia is ranked as a recommended lawyer in the Legal 500 legal directory. She has been described as ‘faultless’ and ‘compassionate, thoughtful and sensitive’.
Julia regularly speaks at events and receives feedback includes: ‘Great speaker,’ ‘Julia Appleton was particularly good at getting the point across and the ability to talk around the points’ and ‘Very inspiring and knowledgeable.’
‘Julia Appleton is clever, competent and always personable. She is always pragmatic and sensible whatever the demands of the situation.’ Legal 500 2020
Julia Appleton focuses on matters relating to consent, confidentiality and mental health. Legal 500 2019
The ‘astute and perceptive’ Julia Appleton… ‘can be firm while maintaining a lightness of touch.’ Legal 500 2017
Areas of Expertise
Julia has advised on a wide range of medico-legal matters, including consent, confidentiality, on urgent admissions and treatment issues, including force-feeding of anorexics, treatment of minor Jehovah’s Witnesses with blood transfusions, and deaths in hospital, including suicides and attempted murders.
She is regularly instructed to attend inquests on behalf of healthcare bodies and care home providers and undertakes advocacy at inquests.
Julia has a particular interest in the operation of the Mental Health Act and on all aspects relating to the treatment and detention of mentally ill people. She regularly undertakes complex Court of Protection work.
Julia also has experience of regulatory matters involving the CQC. She advises on local authority/PCT funding disputes, various issues in respect of care homes law, public law and judicial review.
Julia is regularly involved in clinical negligence litigation and has experience of high value catastrophic cases, particularly spinal and brain injuries, as well as an established profile for class action work.
Experience
Julia’s caseload has involved:
- Acting for a health authority in an action brought by a 22 year old claimant concerning retrolental fibroplasia. A case involving complex causation issues as to the claimant’s condition. Experts for the defendant included those experts involved in the case of Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority 1986 3ALLER 801 (a leading case in causation in clinical negligence litigation and also involving retrolental fibroplasia)
- Representation of a health authority in the RAGE litigation
- Acting for health authorities and trusts in emergency applications involving consent issues and obstetric intervention. In particular, obtaining injunctive relief to enable the hospital to carry out caesarean section procedures on pregnant patients
- Representation of healthcare providers at inquests in the Coroner’s Court
- Class actions – advising one of four steering committee group firms coordinating the class action for victims (over 5,000 claimants) of sofa dermatitis caused by the chemical Dimethyl Fumarate (DMF). This is the largest consumer group litigation in UK legal history. In a settlement package approved by the Court, more than 2,000 claimants received a £20m compensation payment from the retailer’s insurers. Publicity surrounding the litigation has resulted in research being undertaken by the European Commission via the Department of EU Consumer Affairs and this has subsequently led to the ban in the use of DMF in many European countries
Julia’s specialist knowledge and expertise means that her opinion is often required by the media and she has made regular appearances on national radio and TV.
- Next steps for Liberty Protection Safeguards
21 April 2021 | Healthcare - Discharging Covid-positive patients from hospital to care homes
23 March 2021 | Care homes | Healthcare - Sleep ins. The Supreme Court speaks
19 March 2021 | Care homes | Employment | Healthcare - Witness Statements – sticking to the facts
19 February 2021 | Healthcare | Litigation and dispute resolution - Major Reform of the Mental Health Act
13 January 2021 | Care homes | Healthcare | Mental health law - Visiting care homes in lockdown
7 January 2021 | Care homes | Healthcare - Use of electronic forms under the Mental Health Act accelerated by the pandemic
13 October 2020 | Healthcare | Mental health law - DNACPR and planning for Covid-19
7 October 2020 | Healthcare - New Caldicott principles to inform decisions and discussion about data sharing in the wake of the pandemic
4 August 2020 | Data Protection | Healthcare - What does the future hold for care homes and providers?
14 July 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - Briefing – Does the death of a vulnerable care home resident require an Article 2 inquest?
6 July 2020 | Healthcare - Covid-19 – Workplace Testing and Monitoring
24 June 2020 | Data Protection | Employment | Healthcare - CQC Inspections update
24 June 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare | Healthcare Professionals - Steps to take following the death of a person working in social care
22 June 2020 | Healthcare - CQC Briefing: Is your service a closed culture?
22 June 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - New process to investigate Covid-19 deaths among health and care workers
5 June 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - Coroner’s Inquests and investigations into Covid-19 deaths in the workplace.
20 May 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare | Healthcare Professionals - Covid-19 – Care Act easements and suspension of local duties
12 May 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - Hospital bed possession during Covid-19
5 May 2020 | Healthcare | Mental health law - Sexual Safety through empowerment 2 – Guidance for Providers
23 April 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - Covid-19 – visiting care homes at end of life
17 April 2020 | Care homes - Learning Disability and Autism services – recommendations for change
8 April 2020 | Healthcare - Court of Protection Practice in light of Covid-19
26 March 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare | Healthcare Professionals - Ethical principles to underpin decisions in adult social care
25 March 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare | Healthcare Professionals | Mental health law - The Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020
25 March 2020 | Healthcare - COVID-19 guidance for residential care providers
24 March 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - Shielding the most vulnerable living in care homes during the coronavirus outbreak
24 March 2020 | Care homes | Healthcare - Care homes fee update
27 February 2020 | Care homes - Key changes to CQC Factual Accuracy Check Guidance
9 September 2019 | Care homes - CQC Prosecutions in Prison Healthcare
11 July 2019 | Care homes | Healthcare | Mental health law - Care Homes Briefing 194 – Care Home Prosecution Fines Update
4 June 2019 | Care homes | Healthcare | Mental health law - Mental health law briefing 258 – Restraint and restrictive practices
1 May 2019 | Healthcare | Mental health law | Primary care - Mental health law briefing 257 – Community Treatment Orders and Deprivation of Liberty
12 March 2019 | Healthcare | Mental health law - Mental health law briefing 256 – DoLS guidance / Conditional discharge
12 March 2019 | Healthcare | Mental health law | Primary care - Care home briefing 186 – Care homes told to act now
27 November 2018 | Care homes | Healthcare - Care homes briefing 183 – Competitions and Markets Authority advice on charging fees after death
23 October 2018 | Care homes - Care home briefing 182 – Refused: An application to increase the number of places for people with learning disabilities
3 September 2018 | Care homes - Mental Health Law Briefing 251: Deprivation of liberty safeguard reforms – publication of bill
4 July 2018 | Mental health law - Healthcare briefing – Assisted dying: The final choice
9 May 2018 | Healthcare - Novichok nerve agent – Skripal and the Court of Protection
3 April 2018 | Healthcare - Mental health law briefing 249 – Powers and limitations of the First Tier Tribunal (Health Education and Social Care Chamber)
3 April 2018 | Mental health law - Healthcare briefing – Healthcare professional regulatory reform
31 January 2018 | Healthcare | Primary care - Mental health law briefing 247 – A matter of belief: Assessment of evidence in the Mental Health Tribunal
25 January 2018 | Mental health law - Healthcare briefing – Guidance on CANH withdrawal: Court of Protection
16 January 2018 | Healthcare | Mental health law - Healthcare briefing – Damages for breach of Article 8 rights
29 November 2017 | Family | Healthcare - Mental health law briefing 245 – Teen Bournewood: All change
27 November 2017 | Care homes | Healthcare | Mental health law - Requirement to hold an inquest: DoLS no longer classified as state detention from 3 April 2017
31 March 2017 | Care homes | Healthcare | Mental health law - Law Commission report: Mental capacity and deprivation of liberty
23 March 2017 | Care homes | Healthcare | Mental health law - An employer’s guide to right to work checks
13 July 2016 | Care homes | Immigration | Primary care - Increased protection of vulnerable people’s estates during legal battles
5 April 2016 | Healthcare - Care home briefing 153 – Crackdown on illegal immigration in the care sector
3 February 2016 | Care homes | Healthcare | Immigration - Mental health law briefing 226 – Crackdown on illegal immigration and employment in the care sector
3 February 2016 | Mental health law - Mental health law briefing 219 – Rejection of Local Authority claim that a 93 year old woman was ‘deprived of her liberty’
8 May 2015 | Mental health law - Mental health law briefing 208 – Streamlined process for Deprivation of Liberty cases
8 August 2014 | Mental health law - Care home briefing 130 – Continence waste
23 December 2013 | Care homes - Mental health law briefing 196 – Using restraint
1 July 2013 | Mental health law