Duncan Lewis Secures Urgent Injunction Preventing Mother and Baby Becoming Homeless at Christmas (6 January 2026)

Duncan Lewis Solicitors successfully secured urgent High Court protection to prevent a vulnerable mother and her one-year-old son from being made homeless just days before Christmas.

The client is an asylum seeker and a confirmed victim of trafficking, with a history of serious sexual abuse. She and her young child were facing imminent eviction from their modern-slavery safe-house accommodation after the Home Office failed to put alternative support in place.

Despite a Section 95 asylum support application having been submitted weeks earlier, no decision had been made, leaving the family at immediate risk of street homelessness in the days leading up to the festive period.

Swift Action in Crisis

On the morning of Thursday 18 December 2025, Duncan Lewis was urgently instructed on the matter. Given the severity of the risk to the client and her child, the public law team acted at speed to prepare and issue judicial review proceedings, working intensively across 18 and 19 December.

Late on 19 December, the High Court granted urgent interim relief, issuing a prohibitory injunction preventing the client’s eviction and allowing her and her child to remain safely housed pending further consideration of the case.

In granting the order, Ms Justice Norton recognised the compelling safeguarding concerns and found that, on the face of the papers, the Home Office appeared to have acted unlawfully by failing to respond to the asylum support application. The Court also ordered expedition of the case, underlining the urgency of the situation.

The case was handled by Solicitor Angelo Monni, and caseworkers Nadia Roberts, Shanaya Weerakkody and Freya Wainstein, with Jeremy Ogilvie-Harris of Cornerstone Barristers instructed. Significant pre-action work was undertaken to try to resolve the matter without court intervention, including repeated warnings to the Home Office about the safeguarding risks involved.

Angelo Monni said: “This order was a huge relief for our client, who has been under enormous stress in recent days.

It should never have had to come to this. Despite repeated attempts to resolve matters without litigation and clear warnings about the serious risks involved, we were left with no option but to issue urgent proceedings.

“Sadly, this is not an isolated case. We continue to see vulnerable asylum-seekers placed at serious risk by last-minute decisions or failures to act, requiring emergency court intervention to prevent obvious and avoidable harm.”

The Team

The Public Law team at Duncan Lewis is one of the largest in the UK, specialising in judicial review and civil liberties work. The team regularly acts in high-profile challenges involving immigration detention, asylum support, and human rights, representing some of the most vulnerable individuals in society.

Duncan Lewis Solcitors

We are a multi-award-winning national law firm, committed to access to justice and providing specialist advice and representation in legal aid and privately funded matters. The firm’s dedication to defending the rights of marginalised and at-risk individuals continues to achieve meaningful outcomes and systemic change.