About Maria Martin
Maria joined the Community Care group at Invicta Law in 2019 and is now a Senior Legal Assistant. She studied Law at the University of Hertfordshire, graduating in 2018 receiving her Bachelor of Laws. From 2018 she studied at the University of Law. Maria holds cases in both asylum and adult social care, including judicial review applications, age assessment challenges, Children Act challenges and Court of Protection proceedings. She also has experience in advising on public law child protection proceedings. Maria has provided training to local authority clients in relation to age assessment practice and procedure as well as law and practice when undertaking Human Rights Act assessments.
Currently, Maria is building on her experience to effectively defend pre-action challenges to local authority decisions particularly relating to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Maria has experience of conducting complex legal matters efficiently, including advising the client and instructing counsel in the High Court, the Court of Protection, the Administrative Court and the Upper Tribunal, Immigration and Asylum chamber. Maria has had conduct of a significant number of judicial reviews where the subject of challenge is the determination of the local authority’s age assessment. Maria has settled several of these cases where the claim against the local authority has been withdrawn by consent. In one particular case, permission to judicially review an age decision was refused on the papers and again at renewal.
Maria’s case of MA v KCC (JR/1053/2021) was cited in an article in the Local Government Lawyer newsletter (along with other Invicta Law successful cases); this case found in favour of the local authority’s age decision, paying particular attention to the European documentation disclosure and the differing accounts given by the applicant. Maria has also recently had experience of working with a QC in advising the client in the appeals process to the Court of Appeal, in particular considering and addressing the threshold the client would be required to meet to achieve permission to appeal and whether it is in the best interest of the client to pursue the appeal.
Maria is passionate about providing support to the Community Care client base and applying her academic learning in the workplace, whilst continuing to grow and develop the skills needed to become a Solicitor Advocate.
