Sparring With a Heavyweight – Criminal Law and Justice Weekly
“Dominic Thomas questions an illustrious barrister’s approach to a case.”
Criminal Law and Justice Weekly, 7th September 2013
Source: www.criminallawandjustice.co.uk
Category: disclosure
‘Hidden’ personal data disclosures in FOI responses results in £70,000 London council fine – OUT-LAW.com
“A local authority in London has been fined £70,000 after mistakenly disclosing sensitive personal information about more than 2,000 people in response to a freedom of information (FOI) request.”
OUT-LAW.com, 26th August 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
Lord Blair: we need laws to stop ‘principled’ leaking of state secrets – The Guardian
“Tougher laws are needed to prevent members of the public from revealing official secrets, former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Blair has said.”
The Guardian, 26th August 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Children: Private Law update (August 2013) – Family Law Week
“Alex Verdan QC of 4 Paper Buildings considers several recent judgments in Children private law proceedings which provide practitioners with helpful guidance.”
Family Law Week, 15th August 2013
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
FOI reforms: dataset information could be disclosed in re-usable format even though copyright restrictions may still apply – OUT-LAW.com
“Public authorities could be required to make copyrighted information contained in datasets available in a re-usable format under changes to freedom of information (FOI) laws even if they are not in a position to sanction re-use.”
OUT-LAW.com, 12th August 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
Employee data sought in connection with potential tribunal cases must generally be handed over, says ICO – OUT-LAW.com
“Businesses cannot refuse to hand over records containing employees’ personal information just because they suspect the information could be used against them in an employment tribunal, the UK’s data protection watchdog has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 9th August 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
Various Claimants v News Group Newspapers Ltd and others – WLR Daily
Various Claimants v News Group Newspapers Ltd and others [2013] EWHC 2119 (Ch); [2013] WLR (D) 314
“The well established requirement for disclosure under Norwich Pharmacal principles for a party from whom disclosure was sought to be “involved” in or to have “facilitated” wrongdoing was too narrow and the court should ask itself whether the party was a mere witness or whether its engagement with the wrongdoing was sufficient to make it more than a mere witness and susceptible to the court’s jurisdiction to order disclosure.”
WLR Daily, 12th July 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Regina (Evans) v Her Majesty’s Attorney General – WLR Daily
Regina (Evans) v Her Majesty’s Attorney General [2013] EWHC 1960 (Admin); [2013] WLR (D) 313
“Section 53(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 required the existence of reasonable grounds before a certificate could be given by an accountable person and if reasonable grounds did not exist the certificate was invalid and of no effect. Further, a certificate under section 53(2) could validly be issued with regard to environmental information.”
WLR Daily, 9th July 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
JK Rowling law firm pays damages over pseudonym leak – BBC News
“Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has accepted a substantial charity donation from the law firm that revealed she was writing under a pseudonym.”
BBC News, 31st July 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Jackson” and committal for contempt in matrimonial cases by David Partington – Sovereign Chambers
“It might be that the sanction of committal for contempt for ignoring orders of the court in respect of providing proper financial information in divorce proceedings may be more likely than before – partly in view of the new climate intended to be fostered by the ‘Jackson’ reforms.”
Sovereign Chambers, 22nd July 2013
Source: www.sovereignchambers.co.uk
Regina (S and others) v Chief Constable of the British Transport Police – WLR Daily
“The Divisional Court gave guidance on the practice to be followed on an application for a search warrant under the special procedure in section 9 of and Schedule 1 to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, and reiterated the information required to be supplied by a constable to the court on such an application, including the need to give full and frank disclosure.”
WLR Daily, 23rd July 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Christopher Forsyth: Principle or Pragmatism: Closed Material Procedure in the Supreme Court
“In Al Rawi & Ors v The Security Service & Ors [2011] UKSC 34; [2012] 1 AC 531 the claimants (respondents in the Supreme Court) were bringing civil claims for damages against the defendants (appellants in the Supreme Court) alleging complicity by the defendants in their mistreatment by foreign powers (including detention at Guantanamo Bay). The defendants as part of their defence wished to place before the court ‘security sensitive material’ – presumably the evidence of intelligence agents, or similar, denying the complicity – which for security reasons could not be disclosed to the claimants. Thus the defendants submitted that the court hold a “closed material procedure”. They envisaged that the evidence would be placed before the courts in closed session, i.e. a session from which the claimants and their representatives (and the public) were excluded. In the closed session the claimants would be represented by “special advocates” appointed by the court who would have access to the evidence but would not be able to take instructions from the claimants. Such procedures are controversial since they threaten the fundamental principles of open justice and natural justice. On the other hand, the national interest would doubtless be impaired, in some cases, if intelligence agents gave evidence and their methods and secrets were exposed in open court.”
UK Constitutional Law Group, 29th July 2013
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
Rape victims let down by CPS, says watchdog – Daily Telegraph
“Rape victims’ human rights are being infringed by the Crown Prosecution Service handing defence lawyers too much information about their injuries and treatment, a watchdog has said.”
Daily Telegraph, 31st July 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Council loses Supreme Court appeal over disclosure of equal pay data – Local Government Lawyer
“The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a council against disclosure of information on equal pay.”
Local Government Lawyer, 29th July 2013
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
May we have our emails back? – Panopticon
“In Fairstar Heavy Transport NV v (1) Philip Jeffrey Adkins (2) Claranet Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 886 the Court of Appeal has considered what right a company has to obtain work-related emails held by its former CEO on his personal computer.”
Panopticon, 26th July 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov (No 10) – WLR Daily
JSC BTA Bank v Ablyazov (No 10) [2013] EWCA Civ 928; [2013] WLR (D) 305
“In determining the meaning of the term ‘assets’ in a freezing order, account should be taken, as part of the background and context of such orders, of their purpose, in the way that anyone construing any document should take account of the background of it. Where the words used clearly and unequivocally led to the conclusion that the term ‘asset’ included that which could not be the subject of execution, effect must be given to the words. Where they did not, the purpose of such orders would be a significant factor in determining the meaning of the term ‘asset’ in that context and a pointer against including the particular right under consideration.”
WLR Daily, 25th July 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Tchenguiz and another v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (Deutsche Bank AG, third party); Rawlinson & Hunter Trustees SA and others v Director of the Serious Fraud Office (Deutsche Bank AG, third party) – WLR Daily
“The Criminal Justice Act 1987 did not prevent the Serious Fraud Office from disclosing, pursuant to a court order in civil proceedings, documents which in the course of an investigation had been provided to it by third parties in response to notices under section 2 of the Act.”
WLR Daily, 18th July 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Head in the cloud – New Law Journal
“Robert Brown examines the implications for eDisclosure when a company’s data has moved into cyberspace.”
New Law Journal, 19th July 2013
Source: www.newlawjournal.co.uk
20 law firms implicated in ‘secret’ phone hacking scandal – Daily Telegraph
“Lawyers were the biggest users of the private investigators behind the ‘secret’ phone-hacking scandal, it has been revealed.”
Daily Telegraph, 26th July 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
