Enhanced court fees: the government response to part 2 of the consultation on reform of court fees – Ministry of Justice

‘The government response to part 2 of the consultation on reform of court fees and further proposals for consultation.’

Full press release

Ministry of Justice, 16th January 2015

Source: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

Government set to hike general civil application fees – Litigation Futures

Posted January 19th, 2015 in budgets, civil justice, consultations, costs, courts, fees, Ministry of Justice, news by sally

‘The government has dropped plans for “enhanced” court fees specifically for commercial cases, but is now targeting increased fees for the hundreds of thousands of general civil applications made each year.’

Full story

Litigation Futures, 19th January 2015

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Court fees: Proposals for reform – Judicial responses – Judiciary of England and Wales

‘Responses of the Lord Chief Justice, senior judiciary and the Civil Justice Council to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Consultation on Court fees – enhanced charging.’

Full text

Judiciary of England and Wales, 16th January 2015

Source: www.judiciary.gov.uk

Recent Statutory Instruments – legislation.gov.uk

Posted January 19th, 2015 in legislation by sally

The Insolvency Proceedings (Monetary Limits) (Amendment) Order 2015

The Local Audit (Health Service Bodies Auditor Panel and Independence) Regulations 2015

The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Order 2015

The Veterinary Surgeons and Veterinary Practitioners (Registration) Regulations Order of Council 2014

Source: www.legislation.gov.uk

BAILII: Recent Decisions

Posted January 19th, 2015 in law reports by sally

Court of Appeal (Civil Division)

Richards, R (on the application of) v Teesside Magistrates’ Court & Anor [2015] EWCA Civ 7 (16 January 2015)

Gilks & Anor v Hodgson & Anor [2015] EWCA Civ 5 (15 January 2015)

Savage, R (on the application of) v Mansfield District Council & Anor [2015] EWCA Civ 4 (15 January 2015)

High Court (Administrative Court)

Ordanduu GmbH & Anor, R (on the application of) v Phonepayplus Ltd [2015] EWHC 50 (Admin) (16 January 2015)

Elashmawy v Court of Brescia, Italy & Ors [2015] EWHC 28 (Admin) (16 January 2015)

Ahmed, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2015] EWHC 23 (Admin) (15 January 2015)

Galaxy Land Ltd, R (on the application of) v Durham County Council [2015] EWHC 16 (Admin) (15 January 2015)

Dilks, R (on the application of) v The Secretary of State for Justice & Anor [2015] EWHC 11 (Admin) (15 January 2015)

High Court (Chancery Division)

Thwaytes v Sotheby’s [2015] EWHC 36 (Ch) (16 January 2015)

The High Commissioner for Pakistan in the United Kingdom v National Westminster Bank Plc & Ors [2015] EWHC 55 (Ch) (16 January 2015)

Plaza BV v The Law Debenture Trust Corporation Plc [2015] EWHC 43 (Ch) (16 January 2015)

Reinhard v Ondra LLP & Ors (Rev 1) [2015] EWHC 26 (Ch) (14 January 2015)

High Court (Commercial Court)

Navig8 Inc v South Vigour Shipping Inc & Ors [2015] EWHC 32 (Comm) (16 January 2015)

Impala Warehousing and Logistics (Shanghai) Co.Ltd v Wanxiang Resources (Singapore) PTE Ltd [2015] EWHC 25 (Comm) (15 January 2015)

Suez Fortune Investments Ltd & Anor v Talbot Underwriting Ltd & Ors Re: M/V Brillante Virtuoso [2015] EWHC 42 (Comm) (15 January 2015)

High Court (Queen’s Bench Division)

ST v Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust [2015] EWHC 51 (QB) (16 January 2015)

High Court (Technology and Construction Court)

Oakrock Ltd v Travelodge Hotels Ltd & Ors [2015] EWHC 30 (TCC) (16 January 2015)

BPC Hotels Ltd & Ors v Brooke North (A Firm) [2015] EWHC 27 (TCC) (16 January 2015)

Savoye And Savoye Ltd v Spicers Ltd [2015] EWHC 33 (TCC) (15 January 2015)

Surce: www.bailii.org

Court of Protection Update (January 2015) – Family Law Week

‘In this update Sally Bradley and Julia Townend, barristers of 4 Paper Buildings, focus on the applicable procedure for cases in which urgent and serious medical treatment is required.’

Full story

Family Law Week, 16th January 2015

Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk

Operation Elveden: Journalists cleared in Sun trial – BBC News

Posted January 19th, 2015 in conspiracy, corruption, media, misfeasance in public office, news, police by sally

‘Four journalists have been cleared of plotting to pay officials while working at the Sun newspaper.’

Full story

BBC News, 16th January 2015

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Connor Barrett party murder youths jailed for life – BBC News

Posted January 19th, 2015 in murder, news, sentencing, young offenders by sally

‘Two teenagers who murdered a man at a 21st birthday party they gatecrashed have been jailed.’

Full story

BBC News, 16th January 2015

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Theresa May’s new FGM reporting rules ‘will stop families seeking help’ – The Guardian

‘Plans by the home secretary, Theresa May, to force health professionals to report cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) to the police are unlikely to lower the extent of abuse and risk dissuading families from seeking medical help, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.’

Full story

The Guardian, 17th January 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Legal aid cuts hit divided families as contact centres close down – The Guardian

Posted January 19th, 2015 in budgets, children, families, legal aid, news by sally

‘Child contact centres, where children meet their separated parents who cannot agree access rights, are disappearing as legal aid cuts take effect.The National Association for Child Contact Centres (NACCC) says 40 centres have closed in the last 18 months across England and Wales – and the pace of closures is accelerating. It says that, because it can no longer obtain legal aid, the number of parents accessing the family courts to resolve their problems has halved. As a result they are not receiving advice from solicitors who are likely to refer them to the centres.’

Full story

The Guardian, 17th January 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Pledge to end locking up mentally ill in police cells – BBC News

Posted January 19th, 2015 in detention, hospitals, mental health, news, police, quality assurance, statistics by sally

‘Authorities in England have pledged to bring an end to the practice of detaining people with mental health problems in police cells. The NHS, councils and police are now set to come up with plans for how they will achieve this, the government said.’

Full story

BBC News, 18th January 2015

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Australian litigation funder plans more mass claims against big UK firms – The Guardian

Posted January 19th, 2015 in bills, class actions, consumer protection, foreign jurisdictions, news by sally

‘The Australian litigation funder coordinating shareholders’ legal action against Tesco is promising to launch more mass claims against large firms in the UK.’

Full story

The Guardian, 18th January 2015

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

DPP to consult on greater assistance to victims giving evidence at court – Crown Prosecution Service

‘Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has today [19 January 2015] published a major consultation on the approach to ensuring victims are properly assisted for the trial process at court and called for an overhaul of the service provided to witnesses to ensure that they are able to give the best possible evidence. The proposals are subject to an eight week public consultation.’

Full consultation

Crown Prosecution Service, 19th January 2015

Source: www.cps.gov.uk

Rape victims will be warned of defence lawyer tactics under new guidelines – Daily Telegraph

‘Director of Public Prosecutions launches controversial new guidelines intended to help victims and witnesses through giving evidence in court.’

Full story

Daily Telegraph, 19th January 2015

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Thank you for your feedback!

Posted January 16th, 2015 in news by sally

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete our mini survey at the end of last year.

We had a great deal of positive feedback and it is gratifying to know how people use and value the Current Awareness blog in view of the time and effort that goes into running this service.

If you didn’t get a chance to respond, you can always email your comments to smclaren@innertemple.org.uk

A handful of comments drew attention to areas where you would like to see some improvement. We have responded to these below:

EXCELLENT, KEEP GOING. YOU COULD ADD SOME OVERSEAS CONTENT, EG ON HONG KONG.

Unfortunately we are unable to expand the Current Awareness blog beyond the focus of England and Wales because of constraints on staff time. However, we do maintain AccessToLaw www.accesstolaw.com which is a website of annotated links, including lists of resources for other jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong.

Great service! However, the box in the top right-hand corner leads to my mobile device (Samsung S5) struggling to adapt to the size of the actual text column on the left-hand side.

We are currently working on a responsive design for the website and will be introducing a new design for the daily email which we hope will improve readability on mobile devices.

It’s an invaluable resource. I would prefer it if the title link in the email took us to the full story rather than to the listing on the main site (I know that there is also a full story link at the bottom of each listing).

I would like the link in the digest to go straight to the news item page, not the page on the blog (then onwards)

We agree that this would make the blog and the mail-out more user friendly. We will be implementing this in the near future.

The recent cases section would be much easier to benefit from if area of law could be attached in some way

We do attach subject categories to cases from the ICLR site which are posted individually, but it is not possible to do the same for BAILII cases; we have to post these as lists since there are so many of them.

Statutory instruments are included in a way that it hard/irritating to read. Otherwise, find the service really accessible and useful – thank you.

We are looking into improving the formatting of lists in order to make them easy to scan but also less intrusive for people who don’t want to see this material.

EVENT: The Law Society – Delay too often defeats justice

Posted January 16th, 2015 in Forthcoming events by sally

‘2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. The values enshrined in the Magna Carta remain as valuable today as they have ever been. Justice, fairness, equality and legitimacy remain central to a strong, democratic legal system. They are lasting values, which will remain as relevant to lawyers today as they will for the next 800 years and beyond.

To celebrate the anniversary, Lord Dyson, the Master of the Rolls will be giving a presentation at the Law Society entitled “Delay too often defeats justice”.’

Date: 22nd April 2015, 6.30-9.00pm

Location: The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL

Charge: Free

More information can be found here.

Stop in the Name of Love! The New EU Regulation 606/2013 on Protection Measures – Family Law Week

Posted January 16th, 2015 in children, confidentiality, EC law, families, harassment, injunctions, news by sally

‘Sarah Lucy Cooper, barrister of Thomas More Chambers, explains the details and effect of this recently implemented EU personal protection law.’

Full story

Family Law Week, 15th January 2015

Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk

Grayling’s legal aid reforms ‘irrational’, Law Society argues – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted January 16th, 2015 in contracts, judicial review, Law Society, legal aid, news, tenders by sally

‘The lord chancellor’s decision to start a tender process for legal aid crime duty contracts is unlawful because it is “irrational”, “disproportionate” and based on a “manifest error”, the Law Society will argue in the High Court.’

Full story

Law Society’s Gazette, 15th January 2015

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

EVENT: IALS – Whistleblowers: Better Off in the UK or Elsewhere in the EU?

Posted January 16th, 2015 in Forthcoming events by sally

‘The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 is currently subject to a Government Consultation. Sections 17-20 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 have introduced a series of changes. Meanwhile, the European Ombudsman has asked “what are the EU Institutions doing to protect whistleblowers?” We ask whether whistleblowing legislation is working here and in Europe and what more needs to be done to encourage, support and protect those who disclose information in the public interest.’

Date: 2nd February 2015, 2.00-6.00pm

Location: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.

Preacher Allan Cundick jailed for child sex attacks – BBC News

Posted January 16th, 2015 in child abuse, news, sentencing, sexual offences by sally

‘A preacher found guilty of indecently assaulting two girls aged between nine and 16 has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.’

Full story

BBC News, 15th January 2015

Source: www.bbc.co.uk