Liz Smith is an award winning human rights documentary filmmaker.

She is bringing a claim against The Met Police following her arrest and detention on the basis of an anticipated breach of the peace at the King’s Coronation. She was arrested while filming the arrests of Just Stop Oil protesters. Her claim is for aggravated and exemplary damages, false imprisonment and assault/battery and for breach of her Article 10 Convention rights.

In 2023 Liz began filming for the documentary The Line We Crossed which has subsequently been released in cinemas and community centres across the UK. The film, already screened over 75 times, continues to be shown and is now available to stream online.

She was inspired to begin making this documentary when she heard that climate activists were being told they could not say the word “climate crisis” in court when explaining to the jury why they had taken action and blockaded a road. For 18 months she continued to document the increasing criminalisation of climate activists and she documented the emergence of Defend Our Juries around the Trudi Warner case. During that filming period Just Stop Oil activists had embarked on a campaign of slow marching and protests at cultural events. She began documenting their actions and it was in that capacity she found herself at The Coronation in May 2023. Just days prior, the government had rushed through The New Public Order Act and she anticipated that the police may make arrests of Just Stop Oil activists that day. She knew that the group intended to take part in a silent protest from behind the barriers, during which they would reveal their Just Stop Oil t-shirts and wave orange flags. What she hadn’t anticipated was her own arrest. Hours before the procession was due to pass and before the climate activists had even revealed their t-shirts, a large number of police officers swooped in on the group and began making arrests. Liz was able to film one of the arrests, but after a minute of filming she felt a tug at her arm and was placed under arrest as well. She was told to stop filming and her professional camera equipment was removed from her. She was handcuffed in the backstack position. When she was searched, the police did not find any protest items on her. What they did find was camera equipment and production company release forms which were a further indication that she was there in a professional capacity in a journalistic endeavour. Despite there being no reasonable basis on which to believe there was a real danger that, if released, she would commit a breach of the peace she remained in detention and was handcuffed for some hours.

Later that day she was released with no further action, given that The Coronation procession was over and there was no longer any risk of an imminent breach of the peace.

Soon after the arrest legal firm Hodge Jones & Allen took on her case on a no-win, no-fee basis. They elected to support this case on the basis that there were strong grounds for its success and in keeping with their ethos, as summed up by their mission statement to “use the law as a vehicle to pursue a good cause, fighting for your rights and engineer positive change for people in society”.