Benjamin Croft

Benjamin has a background working in the field of human rights in India and the Balkans. On qualification he practised as a commercial litigator before joining the Refugee Legal Centre (latterly Refugee and Migrant Justice) where he specialised in preparing and conducting appeals before the asylum tribunal.

His final role at RMJ was as a strategic litigation solicitor bringing appeals and judicial review challenges on behalf of migrants in the UK. Benjamin subsequently worked at Birnberg Peirce & Partners in the field of human rights and national security, advising clients subjected to anti-terrorism measures such as control orders, deportation, exclusion, deprivation of citizenship and extradition. Benjamin has experience of pursuing public law claims at all levels including the Supreme Court.

Legal expertise

Benjamin has had conduct of the following cases previously:

• AH Iraq [2009] EWCA Civ 620 (Iraq ‘Country Guidance’);
• Matovu v SSHD [2010] EWHC 357 (appeal against deportation);
• FA Iraq [2011] UKSC 22 (on the question of whether applicants for humanitarian protection were entitled to a right of appeal on a refusal)
• U1, S1, T1 and V1 v SSHD [2011] UKSIAC 106/2011 (deprivation of citizenship)
• XX v SSHD [2011] EWCA Civ 860 (appeal against deportation on the grounds of national security);
• G1 v SSHD CO/9760/2010 (deprivation of citizenship);
• CE v SSHD [2011] EWHC 3159 (Control Order appeal).

Benjamin specialises in business and human rights claims and civil claims against the state, and particularly in claims involving Closed Material Procedures. Since joining Leigh Day, he has worked on a number of cases including:

• The Iraqi Civilian Litigation against the MOD, representing a number of Iraqi citizens bringing claims against the British Ministry of Defence for alleged torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, unlawful assaults and negligence;
• A judicial review of the Home Secretary’s decision  not to allow entry to the UK for a number of refugees and asylum seekers who had been stranded on an MoD base in Cyprus since 1998 (Bashir & Ors v SSHD (Defendant) and Sovereign Base Area Authority (SBAA) [2016] EWHC 954);
• Claims on behalf of the family of Nadheem Abdullah, an Iraqi civilian who was found to have died following the use of “excessive force” by British soldiers in Iraqi by Sir George Newman’s Iraq Fatality Investigation;
• The Zimmer group product liability litigation in respect of allegedly defective metal on metal hips.

Benjamin was the lead associate in the case of Vilca and Others v Xstrata Limited and Compania Minera Antapaccay SA, a group personal injury and human rights claim against a British mining company brought on behalf of group of 22 Peruvian citizens who allegedly suffered significant harm during a public protest regarding the impact of the mine on their local community. There were a number of reported judgments in the claim relating to the scope of e-disclosure; the Court’s power to order a re-review; disclosure of previous expert reports; late amendments to statements of case; and the effect of amendments under CPR 17.4 in Rome II cases. The case was described by the Lawyer as one of the top 20 cases in 2016. 

More recently, he was the lead associate in the case of HTF and ZMS v the Ministry of Defence, which involved claims by Iraqi civilians detained by British forces in Iraq and then handed over to US Forces who, they claim, subjected them to various abuses including hooding, excessive sensory and sleep deprivation, loud noise, solitary confinement, sexual and physical assaults by male and female US officers.  

Benjamin is currently advising in relation to Leigh Day's equal pay claims against Tesco.