CA warns against misuse of judgment clarification procedure – Legal Futures

Posted February 13th, 2024 in appeals, care orders, family courts, judgments, news, reasons by tracey

‘The delivery of a judgment “is not a transactional process” and its contents are “not open to negotiation”, the Court of Appeal has warned, saying the clarification procedure was being misused in family cases.’

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Legal Futures, 12th February 2024

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Transcripts essential, says judge refusing SCPO discharge from Russia – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted February 13th, 2024 in judgments, news, reasons, serious crime prevention orders by tracey

‘Claimants seeking to discharge a serious crime prevention order (SCPO) must have access to transcripts of the judge’s reasons, if necessary from the director of public prosecutions, a High Court judge has said.’

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Law Society's Gazette, 13th February 2024

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Court of Appeal: ‘Very significant obstacles to integration’ is an objective test – EIN Blog

Posted November 28th, 2023 in asylum, deportation, mistake, news, reasons, regulations by tracey

‘NC v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 1379 (22 November 2023). The Court of Appeal has held that the First-tier Tribunal had erred in its application of the “very significant obstacles to integration” test set out in paragraph 276ADE(1)(vi) of the Immigration Rules, as then in force, by failing to turn its attention to any evidence beyond an individual’s subjective fear of violence if they were returned to their home country. On proper analysis, the FTT should have focused on the reality of the individual’s daily life if returned; specifically, what steps she could reasonable take to avoid or mitigate her fear, such as by seeking state protection or asking for help from relatives. The appellant, “NC”, maintained that there was no error of law in the FTT’s determination, that the Upper Tribunal was itself in error in concluding that there was and that the FTT’s determination in her favour should stand. However, the SSHD maintained that the Upper Tribunal was correct to find that the FTT had made an error of law and to set aside the FTT’s determination. The focus of the appeal was on the meaning of “very significant obstacles to … integration” as those words appeared in paragraph 276ADE(1)(vi) at the material time. The appellant “NC” appealed against the Upper Tribunal’s determination that the FTT had made an error of law when it concluded that she should not be returned to St Kitts and Nevis. NC came to the UK in March 2016, aged 28. She claimed asylum in October 2016.’

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EIN Blog, 27th November 2023

Source: www.ein.org.uk

Appeals against Housing Act 2004 decisions as a “rehearing” – Local Government Lawyer

Posted July 3rd, 2023 in appeals, fraud, housing, landlord & tenant, licensing, local government, news, reasons by tracey

‘In a recent case the Court of Appeal has held that when a First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (“the FTT”) hears an appeal against a decision under the Housing Act 2004 as a “rehearing”, the FTT must consider whether the authority’s decision was wrong by reference to facts that existed at the time of its decision, and must also give sufficient deference to the authority’s original decision. Simon Kiely and Francesca Gallagher analyse the ruling.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 30th June 2023

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Wikipedia information “undermining quality of judgments” – Legal Futures

Posted February 9th, 2023 in internet, Ireland, judgments, judiciary, news, reasons by sally

‘The widespread use of online source Wikipedia by senior judges could mean fake information spreading, leading to bad judgments, an update of research first revealed last year has warned.’

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Legal Futures, 8th February 2023

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Reasons and Reasoning: What’s the right level of record keeping of evaluation decisions? – Local Government Lawyer

Posted October 10th, 2022 in local government, news, public procurement, reasons by tracey

‘Laura Wisdom, Patrick Parkin and Lloyd Nail look at key cases concerning record keeping of evaluation decisions, and what these decisions mean in practice.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 7th October 2022

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Did you see? You may have missed… Mr Charles Beresford Davies-Gilbert v Mr Henry James Goacher, Mr Steven Adrian Chester [2022] EWHC 969 – Gatehouse Chambers

‘The Claimant was the owner and/or estate manager of land known as the Gilbert Estate. The Defendants were both freehold owners of land subject to restrictive covenants in favour of land owned by the Claimant. The relevant covenant prohibited any construction without a written licence, “such licence not to be unreasonably withheld.”’

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Gatehouse Chambers, 11th May 2022

Source: gatehouselaw.co.uk

Court of Appeal rejects appeal in homelessness case over level of inquiries made – Local Government Lawyer

Posted November 30th, 2021 in appeals, homelessness, housing, local government, news, reasons by tracey

‘The Court of Appeal has dismissed a claim that a London borough made insufficient inquiries into the reason why an appellant was homeless.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 29th November 2021

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

UK staff to gain right to request flexible working from day one – The Guardian

Posted September 21st, 2021 in consultations, equality, flexible working, news, reasons by sally

‘Employees will have the right to request flexible working from the moment they start a job, with companies obliged to explain their reasons if it is then refused, the government will propose in a consultation document this week.’

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The Guardian, 20th September 2021

Source: www.theguardian.com

Perils of going against officer advice – Law Society’s Gazette

‘Skiing off-piste is dangerous. Reasons include instability of snow, hidden rocks and cliff edges and inaccessibility. Similarly, if local authority planning committee members go ‘off-piste’ in determining an issue against officer recommendations, without giving intelligible and adequate reasons for doing so, their decision risks a fatal crash in the High Court. So on 21 May 2021 Mrs Justice Tipples quashed planning consent given by Cornwall County Council for the development of a detached two-storey agricultural dwelling with garage and parking in the Rame Head area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) against officer recommendations. This was because the council ‘was under a common law duty to give reasons for the grant of planning permission’ and it was ‘a case where the defects in reasons go to the heart of the justification for permission and undermine its validity.’ The case in question was R (Cross) v Cornwall Council [2021] EWHC 1323 (Admin).’

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Law Society's Gazette, 19th July 2021

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Court of Appeal allows appeal by father against abuse findings over insufficient reasoning, failure by judge to take into account material factors – Local Government Lawyer

Posted February 18th, 2021 in child abuse, domestic violence, evidence, judgments, news, reasons by sally

‘The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by a father over a Family Court judge’s finding that he had abused his daughter, with the matter remitted to be reheard by a different judge.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 17th February 2021

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Letters to UK crime victims from CPS ‘unsatisfactory’ – The Guardian

Posted October 22nd, 2020 in Crown Prosecution Service, news, prosecutions, rape, reasons, reports, victims by sally

‘Letters to victims of rape and other crimes sent by the Crown Prosecution Service explaining legal decisions are of poor quality, lack human empathy and are frequently late, according to an official watchdog.’

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The Guardian, 22nd October 2020

Source: www.theguardian.com

Parents win fresh hearing in dispute over school named in EHC plan – Local Government Lawyer

‘The Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber has ordered that a reconstituted panel of the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) should hear a dispute between the London Borough of Croydon and the parents of Child G over which school he should attend.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 26th August 2020

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Judge gives reasons for granting interim injunction prohibiting anti-HS2 protesters from overnight sleeping and other acts on council land next to construction site – Local Government Lawyer

‘A High Court judge has issued his reasons for last month granting Hillingdon Council a limited interim injunction preventing a number of named defendants and persons unknown from doing certain acts on land at Harefield Moor owned by the council and adjoining the site of construction works for part of the HS2 railway line.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 5th August 2020

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Successful Legal Challenge to Leeds Site Allocations Plan – Landmark Chambers

Posted June 16th, 2020 in chambers articles, housing, news, planning, reasons by sally

‘In a successful challenge to the adoption of a development plan, Mrs Justice Lieven has ruled that the large number of Green Belt allocations in the adopted Leeds Site Allocations Plan (SAP) are legally flawed due to inadequate reasons causing prejudice to the Claimant and an error of fact amounting to an error of law. The Council was also found to have breached the Strategic Environment Assessment Regulations by failing to consider and consult upon a ‘reasonable alternative’ to the strategy of continuing with the SAP in materially changed circumstances. However, in relation to that latter point, relief was not granted due to the Court finding that it was an error that would not have made any difference to the outcome.’

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Landmark Chambers, 8th June 2020

Source: www.landmarkchambers.co.uk

Home Office accused of pressuring judiciary over immigration decisions – The Guardian

‘The Home Office has been accused of interfering with the independence of the judiciary after it emerged that judges were asked to provide written explanations for a rise in the number of detainees released from immigration centres during the Covid-19 pandemic.’

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The Guardian, 6th May 2020

Source: www.theguardian.com

Case Comment: Royal Mail Group Ltd v Jhuti [2019] UKSC 55, Part Two – UKSC Blog

‘There are a number of ways in which this judgment opens the door to arguments about its wider impact.’

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UKSC Blog, 17th February 2020

Source: ukscblog.com

Case Comment: Royal Mail Group Ltd v Jhuti [2019] UKSC 55, Part One – UKSC Blog

‘If an employee is dismissed on bogus grounds invented by someone more senior than her in the business, that person’s true reason for acting as they did will be the real reason for the dismissal, even if the decision to dismiss was made by another person acting in good faith in reliance on the bogus grounds.’

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UKSC Blog, 17th February 2020

Source: ukscblog.com

Out of time but not out of mind – Nearly Legal

‘We saw the High Court in this case take an incredibly strict approach to homelessness section 204 appeal timescales (our report), deciding that seeking legal aid representation could not be a good reason for filing an appeal out of time because, well, the substance of any appeal should be obvious to an unrepresented homeless applicant. We expressed considerable doubts about the realism of this decision at the time. Now, as it turns out, the Court of Appeal has had similar doubts.’

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Nearly Legal, 2nd February 2020

Source: nearlylegal.co.uk

Strike out decision sent back over judge’s ‘lack of adequate reasoning’ – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted January 16th, 2020 in employment tribunals, news, reasons, striking out by sally

‘An employment tribunal has been ordered to look again at whether a claim against a law firm should continue, after the judge’s initial decision was found to be inadequately explained.’

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Law Society's Gazette, 15th January 2020

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk