‘From 6 April 2021, a new regime for witness statements in the Business and Property Courts will come into force. Practice Direction 57AC will introduce significantly tighter requirements that will apply to all trial witness statements signed on or after 6 April 2021, including those in claims that have already been issued.’
3 Hare Court, February 2021
‘Alexandra Wilson provides an update on the latest Encrochat position following the judgment in A, B, D & C v Regina [2021] EWCA Crim 128.’
5SAH, 18th February 2021
Source: www.5sah.co.uk
‘A local resident has successfully challenged the Secretary of State’s development consent order (“DCO”) for one of the world’s largest offshore wind projects on the grounds that the cumulative landscape and visual impacts of both this Vanguard project and its “sister” Boreas project (for which a DCO decision is expected in April 2021) were not take into account.’
4-5 Gray's Inn Square, 22nd February 2021
Source: www.4-5.co.uk
‘As we start to consider the possibility of lockdown lifting and our thoughts recklessly stray to the idea of getting away from it all, I thought I would dampen the exuberance by reminding us all of the perils of using leasehold property for holiday lets (Airbnb or otherwise).’
Becket Chambers, 24th February 2021
Source: becket-chambers.co.uk
‘This hearing before MacDonald J was part of a wider private law dispute between parents regarding the children (P aged 6 and T aged 4) spending time with their father. A finding of fact hearing had already taken place, with a final hearing listed to commence on 21 December 2020. The original application from the father included a specific issue order, initially on MMR vaccination. This was then amended to vaccination in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule.’
Parklane Plowden Chambers, 24th February 2021
Source: www.parklaneplowden.co.uk
‘Master Dagnall gave judgment in the case of Corp of Trinity House of Deptford Strond v (1) Dequincy Prescott (2) Clodagh Byrne on 11 February 2021 [2021] EWHC 283 (QB) which considered several issues regarding the pandemic and possession proceedings which are worthy of note as the stay on evictions has again been extended.’
St Ives Chambers, February 2021
Source: www.stiveschambers.co.uk
‘James Wood QC discusses recent sentence appeals on minimum terms in discretionary life sentences. He assesses the likely impact of the recent statutory changes increasing the minimum term to be served by some prisoners serving determinate sentences from ½ to 2/3. He identifies prosecutorial appeals to increase minimum terms in discretionary life sentences by the Attorney General, and warns that the judicial and statutory drift appears to be towards a similar lengthening from ½ to 2/3 of the minimum term to be served by those sentenced to discretionary life sentences on grounds of dangerousness.’
Doughty Street Chambers, 24th February 2021
Source: insights.doughtystreet.co.uk
‘This is the first in a series of procurement law judicial review (JR) cases relating to Covid-19 brought by the Good Law Project (GLP) to have reached the judgment stage. The case concerned the (non)publication of contract award notices (CANs) within 30 days under regulation 50 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and of other contract notices and materials within 20 or 90 days under relevant transparency policies.’
Monckton Chambers, 19th February 2021
Source: www.monckton.com
‘As anyone immersed in, or interested in, the Criminal Justice System will know, when the first lockdown was announced back in March 2020, in person attendance at court buildings almost ground to a halt. This inevitably meant that all jury trials were suspended, and serious thought had to be given as to how they could safely resume in the future. Social distancing rules and the concern of causing covid outbreaks meant that the reintroduction of jury trials was slow, but by July 2020 and through the introduction of Perspex screens in between jurors and the relaxation of some of the lockdown restrictions, they slowly started to return to barristers’ diaries across the country.’
KCH Garden Square, 18th February 2021
Source: kchgardensquare.co.uk
‘The FII Group Litigation (‘FII’) was established by an Order made on 8 October 2003 with the purpose of determining common or related questions of law arising out of the tax treatment of dividends received by UK resident companies from non-resident subsidiaries. The Test Claimants’ basic allegation was that their tax treatment (under domestic legislation long-since repealed), as compared to that of wholly-resident UK companies, breached TFEU provisions on freedom of establishment and free movement of capital. The Test Claimants therefore sought repayment of tax paid insofar as it was unlawful under EU law; in some cases, dating back to the UK’s accession in 1973.’
Hardwicke Chambers, 24th February 2021
Source: hardwicke.co.uk
‘In a landmark judgment which will have wide-ranging implications for workers and employers in the gig economy, the Supreme Court has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that Uber drivers were workers and therefore entitled to the minimum wage, statutory annual leave and protection from detriment under the Employment Rights Act 1996.’
Old Square Chambers, 19th February 2021
Source: oldsquare.co.uk
‘In the year ending March 2019, an estimated 2.4 million adults aged 16 to 74 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year (1.6 million women and 786,000 men). The government was elected with a manifesto commitment to pass the Domestic Abuse Bill, which passed the House of Commons in July 2020, and is set to become law once it has passed through the House of Lords.’
Garden Court Chambers, 24th February 2021
Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
‘The United Kingdom has in recent years been blighted by a compensation culture generated by health and safety legislation and human rights laws and promoted by well-paid legal aid lawyers and credulous judges. We know these to be facts because newspapers and electronic media have exposed them fearlessly. David Cameron, when he was prime minister, was so concerned about the situation that he appointed the veteran Tory politician and entrepreneur Lord Young to report on the state of health and safety legislation and “the rise of the compensation culture over the last decade”. Young reported that the problem, fuelled as it was by media stories, was “one of perception rather than reality”. Nothing daunted, the prime minister wrote in his foreword to the report: “A damaging compensation culture has arisen …”‘
London Review of Books, 4th March 2021
Source: www.lrb.co.uk
‘A major charity working with victims of domestic abuse says calls to their 24-hour helpline increased by more than 50 per cent in the year of the pandemic.’
BBC News, 24th February 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Today [23 February], the Freshwater Five case is in front of the court of appeal after the disclosure of new evidence that the defence says points to the men’s conviction being unsafe. Why has it taken a decade to get to this point?’
The Guardian, 23rd February 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Upper Tribunal did not have the power to make a costs order in a dispute over a certificate of appropriate alternative development (CAAD), the Court of Appeal has found.’
Local Government Lawyer, 25th February 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A police officer has been found guilty of battery after he struck a child who was in custody in the face.’
BBC News, 24th February 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The Administrative Court has ruled that a man was entitled to refuse to give his name and address to a police officer who wanted to issue a fixed penalty notice for breach of lockdown regulations.’
Local Government Lawyer, 24th February 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The failure of successive governments to enact part of the Equality Act, which would have imposed a duty to address socio-economic disadvantage, has exacerbated inequalities in England during the coronavirus pandemic, a thinktank has claimed.’
The Guardian, 24th February 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
© Inner Temple Library 2021