“One of the most contentious proposals in the Consultation Paper on the transforming legal aid is the removal of client choice in criminal cases. Under the proposals contracts for the provision of legal aid will be awarded to a limited number of firms in an area. The areas are similar to the existing CPS areas. The Green Paper anticipates that there will be four or five such providers in each area. Thus the county of Kent, for example, will have four or five providers in an area currently served by fifty or so legal aid firms. Each area will have a limited number providers that will offer it is argued economies of scale.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 16th May 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“The issue of identifying mental impairment in relation to a defendant is one which requires careful thought, skill and tact from the criminal practitioner. Practical examples of the way in which these conditions may manifest themselves are useful. A purely academic approach may not be sufficient when dealing with the vulnerable clients that might be encountered.”
One Inner Temple Lane, 8th May 2013
Source: www.1itl.com
“The first UK trial concerning the alleged fraudulent manipulation of Libor rates has been delayed until next year after Barclays won the right to challenge aspects of the high court case.”
The Guardian, 29th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“‘We will amend at trial’ was one of the most common phrases in legal parlance. No more. It is evident on several fronts that the days of belated change, even well before trial, are over. I would go so far as to say that a practitioner failing to act at the earliest possible opportunity is now looking at a potential negligence claim. The robust new attitude demonstrated by Lord Justice Jackson and his cohorts has been applied to pleadings, experts and joinder.”
New Law Journal, 18th April 2013
Source: www.newlawjournal.co.uk
“Lord McAlpine has won the first stage of his libel battle against Sally Bercow, the Commons speaker’s wife, after a high court judge ruled that the trial should be split into two stages.”
The Guardian, 16th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Frances Andrade’s experience in the witness box left her feeling violated. Within days she had killed herself. Is it time we changed the way we prosecute sexual assault?”
The Guardian, 13th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The involvement of solicitors and barristers in crafting witness statements in big-ticket litigation has neutered the current regime and it should be replaced by a system of witness summaries and live evidence-in-chief, a Bar Council working party has recommended.”
Litigation Futures, 26th March 2013
Source: www.litigationfutures.co.uk
“Public inquiries should avoid the atmosphere of a ‘mock trial’ in order to improve dialogue among participants, according to a study.”
The Guardian, 21st March 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“In his monthly column, James Bickford Smith considers two judgments that illustrate the hazards of the commoditised litigation that will be transformed, for better or worse, by the Jackson reforms.”
Full story (PDF)
Littleton Chambers, 6th March 2013
Source: www.littletonchambers.com
“The man accused of the abduction and murder of missing five-year-old April Jones is due to stand trial.”
BBC News, 25th February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“John Cooper QC and Kirsty Brimelow QC discuss whether trial by jury is the best option.”
BBC News, 21st February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The recent suicide of Frances Andrade has sparked debate once again on the treatment of victims by the court system. Mrs Andrade had, days earlier, testified at the trial of her former music teacher, accused of rape and sexual abuse of her over a period of years during her teens. She took her own life whilst the trial was still continuing, but this information was subject to a reporting injunction until the trial had concluded.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 20th February 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“A charity for adults who were abused in childhood has said the way prosecutions are brought must change after a victim took her own life during a trial.”
BBC News, 9th February 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“The trial of a man accused of murdering two female police officers is expected to get under way today amid one of the tightest security operations ever mounted for a British court case.”
Daily Telegraph, 7th February 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“‘Trial by Google’ threatens to undermine the integrity of the British jury system and ‘offends the principle of open justice’, according to the attorney general, Dominic Grieve QC.”
The Guardian, 6th February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The privatisation of court interpreting services has been ‘shambolic’, MPs warn saying it has caused more trials to collapse and suspects to be remanded unnecessarily in custody.”
The Guardian, 6th February 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Radu (Case C-396/11); [2013] WLR (D) 28
“According to the provisions of Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between member states, as amended by Council Framework Decision 2009/299/JHA of 26 February 2009, the executing judicial authorities of a member state could not avoid their duty pursuant to article 1(2) of the Framework Decision to execute a European arrest warrant issued for the purposes of conducting a criminal prosecution, on the ground that the requested person had not been heard in the issuing member state before that arrest warrant was issued.”
WLR Daily, 29th January 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“The Commercial Court has resisted an application to anonymise those individuals at Barclays involved in the LIBOR scandal.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 30th January 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
