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Ghazala is a strategic and tenacious barrister practising in the areas of Family and Criminal law. She is accessible and firmly dedicated to the needs of her clients.
Ghazala practices in all areas of criminal defence, representing clients in both the Magistrates’ and Crown Courts. She is recognised for her methodical approach and skilled courtroom advocacy.
As a criminal practitioner, her experience of cross-examination and witness handling techniques are particularly advantageous in her family law practice, predominantly where there is a crossover in cases involving domestic abuse or sexual violence. With her empathetic manner, she approaches cases with the necessary tact and care to achieve the best outcome for her clients making her a repeat choice counsel.
She also has experience of education law and has represented both schools and parents at Independent Review hearings. With more than 15 years’ experience in educational governance she is familiar with the issues and has a particular handle on educational appeal hearings.
Ghazala is committed to helping the vulnerable and disadvantaged and is routinely involved in pro bono work. She is a volunteer member at Advocate and has previously volunteered for the Citizens Advice Bureau and worked for the Free Representation Unit. She was also part of the Mayor of London’s programme, Here to Stay offering immigration advice to members of the public in light of Brexit. She is involved with various charitable organisations, regularly providing assistance, and has played an integral part in initiatives helping vulnerable members of the community. She also attends schools to offer career talks especially underachieving schools to promote the Bar as a career open to everyone.
Ghazala has a keen interest in human rights particularly the impact of these in her areas of practice. She did a placement at the UN Mechanism for International Residual Mechanism Criminal Tribunal in the Hague assisting Iain Edwards in the case of Prosecutor v Stanišić & Simatović. Ghazala also supported Evolve with a study visit to London of the Sentencing Guidelines Committee of Uganda, and continues to maintain an active interest in the organisation’s work.
Crime
General Crime
Ghazala practices in all areas of criminal law and has gained experience in a range of matters, including violence, public order, fraud, drugs, sexual offences and motoring offences.
She is a passionate, committed advocate and has been noted for her sound judgment under pressure as well as her willingness to go that extra mile to secure a successful outcome. She represents at the Crown Court, Magistrates court and Youth courts.
Ghazala’s experience of dealing with serious and complex criminal matters routes back to her work as a fee earner with specialist terrorism solicitors’ firms, when she worked on the 21/7 London bombing case, the ‘airline liquid bomb’ case to explode airplanes over the Atlantic and most predominately worked on the ‘Dirty Bomb’ case under the supervision of Edward Rees KC and Jo Sidhu KC involving a plot to cause mass terrorist killing. Ghazala maintains an interest in the Terrorism Prevent Strategy and has worked with local councils, schools and the police force in relation to this as well as affected members of the public.
Ghazala has been instructed as a led junior in a complex immigration fraud trial and most recently in a murder trial where the victim’s body was found in a heavily decomposed body.
Motoring Law
Ghazala has a busy practice in motoring law and deals with the whole spectrum of road traffic offences including drink or drug driving, dangerous or careless driving, speeding, driving without insurance. She regularly handles motoring law offences, from first appearances through to trial and, if necessary, sentencing or appeals, deploying various methods in representing those who face such charges.
Ghazala is adept at advancing exceptional hardship and special reasons arguments and has assisted defendants to avoid totting up bans as well as those otherwise at risk of disqualification.
She has a technical understanding of the complex legal provisions and of the relevant requirements of admissibility of evidence which she applies to achieve the results sought by clients. As a qualified CPC holder, Ghazala is also familiar with the requirements for PSV drivers including requirements of tachographs, overloading and other rules governing such vehicles and as such can assist in such regulatory matters.
Ghazala also has experience of regulatory appeals challenging the decision making and policies of local government and TFL. Particularly appeals against licence refusals and revocations concerning London Taxi and Private Hire as well as those concerning regulation and licensing within local government.
Cases
General Crime
- R v H – Led junior, represented defendant charged with the murder of a pensioner done for gain where body was left concealed and discovered in a severely decomposed state.
- R v MC and Others – Led junior, represented the main defendant in a complex fraud involving 5 defendants and offending spanning over 10 years.
- R v RK and Others – Represented defendant involved in a 6-hander conspiracy to defraud Costa coffee through use of ghost workers and dishonest working hours.
- R v YY – Represented defendant charged with causing death by dangerous driving in a village in the Cotswold at speeds in excess of 90mph while heavily intoxicated.
- R v N – Represented prisoner charged with assault on a prison officer highlighting systemic failures to protect vulnerable prisoners on suicide watch.
- R v RL – secured acquittal of defendant accused of throwing a glass bottle at on duty police officers showing the officers unwarranted treatment and prejudice towards black citizens of that particular area.
- R v BW – Successfully argued the defence of reasonable excuse to secure acquittal of a defendant charged with possession of a knife
- R v JA – Persuaded CPS to drop charges against a Christian preacher on the basis of written submissions addressing his human rights
- R v AS and Others – Secured conditional discharge in the widely reported Grimbsy protestors case. To read media coverage of this case, please see here and here.
Motoring Law
- R v KA – Successfully represented defendant of driving without due care and attention by advancing expert argument relating to sounds made by high performance cars.
- R v HE – Driver was found asleep at wheel while intoxicated, argued exceptional hardship to bring disqualification to below statutory minimum.
- R v AM – avoided custodial sentence for driver involved in a police chase who then caused a serious collision and abandoned his vehicle making away on foot.
- R v RL – Driver was charged with drink driving, aggravated by him having been disqualified for drink driving within the last 12 months, secured a sentence at the lower end of the sentencing range through persuasive mitigation.
- R v JH –Avoided personal liability in proceedings bought against the director of construction company in a section 172 offence.
- R v NC – Driver of heavy load vehicle charged with driving while under the influence of drugs, aggravated by a previous period of disqualification. Persuaded the court to disregard previous disqualification period and secured minimum mandatory disqualification.
- R v LW – Avoided disqualification by arguing special reasons for drunken in charge conviction, persuading that there was low likelihood of driving.
- R v IK – charges of speeding and no insurance withdrawn at trial after highlighting of procedural irregularities by the police.
- R v MA – Successfully argued exceptional hardship argument to avoid disqualification on totting offence.
- BC v VC – Successfully argued submission of no case to answer representing proprietor of a private hire company pursuant to her employee driving contrary to licensing regulations.
- R v OS – Highlighted police irregularities in following procedures set out in testing and recording in failing to provide a specimen.
Family
Private Law
Ghazala routinely represents in a broad range of family matters and at all stages of proceedings, including fact-finding and final hearings.
She is familiar with all aspects of private law matters and injunctive proceedings and has extensive experience of section 8 applications including Prohibited Steps Orders, Non-Molestation Orders, as well as Occupation Orders and Child Arrangement Orders, including those made without notice. Her experience includes cases involving vulnerable individuals and allegations of serious domestic abuse including sexual assault, and cases involving drug and alcohol misuse. She has represented in cases featuring parental alienation, intractable contact issues, relocation both internal and external. She has a particular interest in cases involving domestic violence and co-authored an article in the Family Law Journal on Practice Direction 12J.
Financial Remedies
Ghazala has experience of successfully representing clients in financial remedies. She has represented in wide ranging cases, from those involving insufficient matrimonial funds to complex cases with foreign assets, third party interests, cases involving add-back, non-disclosure, non-matrimonial property and significant disputes in relation to high value assets.
She has a meticulous and thorough approach which is key to achieving the results, and is recognised for negotiating early settlements. Prior to joining chambers, she worked on a complex financial case dealing with beneficial ownership of assets in excess of 8 million involving a prominent middle eastern family. She was instructed recently by the wife in financial proceedings following a divorce to an ex-professional footballer.
Public Law
Ghazala also undertakes care and other public law children proceedings. She has represented at ICO’s, IRH’s and final hearings acting on behalf of parents and other family members. This has included cases where there has been serious physical injury to children resulting in criminal proceedings arising out of the same facts as well as allegations of neglect, abuse, non-accidental injury, mental health issues and alcohol and substance abuse.
Forced Marriage
Ghazala has also been instructed in forced marriage cases bought by the police commissioner and has experience of dealing with experts and special advocates whilst confronted with sensitive issues of cultural norms. She has met the challenges posed by the withholding of disclosure in such cases and the individual’s right to a fair trial.
Education
- LLB (first Class Hons)
- BVC
- PGDL
Languages
- Urdu (fluent)
- Punjabi (fluent)
- Hindi (conversational)