Connor Barrett party murder youths jailed for life – BBC News
‘Two teenagers who murdered a man at a 21st birthday party they gatecrashed have been jailed.’
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.’
The Guardian, 17th January 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Legal aid cuts hit divided families as contact centres close down – The Guardian
‘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.’
The Guardian, 17th January 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Pledge to end locking up mentally ill in police cells – BBC News
‘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.’
BBC News, 18th January 2015
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Australian litigation funder plans more mass claims against big UK firms – The Guardian
‘The Australian litigation funder coordinating shareholders’ legal action against Tesco is promising to launch more mass claims against large firms in the UK.’
The Guardian, 18th January 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Thank you for your feedback!
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
‘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
‘Sarah Lucy Cooper, barrister of Thomas More Chambers, explains the details and effect of this recently implemented EU personal protection law.’
Family Law Week, 15th January 2015
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
Grayling’s legal aid reforms ‘irrational’, Law Society argues – Law Society’s Gazette
‘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.’
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?
‘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
‘A preacher found guilty of indecently assaulting two girls aged between nine and 16 has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.’
BBC News, 15th January 2015
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Law Society wins groundbreaking injunction against struck-off solicitor – Legal Futures
‘The Law Society has obtained a groundbreaking injunction that prevents a struck-off solicitor from holding himself out as a solicitor or being involved in a law firm without its approval.’
Legal Futures, 16th January 2015
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
Website operators can prohibit ‘screen scraping’ of unprotected data via terms and conditions, says EU court in Ryanair case – OUT-LAW.com
‘Online aggregators that engage in ‘screen scraping’ face a threat to their business models following a ruling by the EU’s highest court, an expert has said.’
OUT-LAW.com, 15th January 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
How to apply the DPA – Panopticon
‘Section 40 of FOIA is where the Freedom of Information Act (mantra: disclose, please) intersects with the Data Protection Act 1998 (mantra: be careful how you process/disclose, please).’
Panopticon, 15th January 2015
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
Is there a maximum award for general damages arising under contract? – NearlyLegal
‘The case of Rendlesham Estates Plc v Barr Ltd [2014] EWHC 3968 (TCC) is a bit off the housing law beaten track and as a result I have only recently got round to reading it properly. It concerned s.1, Defective Premises Act 1974, which is the statutory provision that enables any person with an interest in a dwelling to sue the person responsible for building the dwelling, or carrying out any work in connection with the dwelling, where the dwelling is not fit for human habitation when the work is completed.’
NearlyLegal, 15th January 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
EVENT: IALS – The (I)legitimacy of the Duty of Loyalty for Corporate Boards
‘The reformulated duty of loyalty now found in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 has generated debate about what is the best reading of the duty, the most fundamental aspect of which is whether this behavioural standard obliges a narrow focus on financial capital or a broader notion of well-being and inclusiveness amongst non-shareholder interests. This research argues that the law as a privileged and constitutive way of society-making can only be understood within a broader conceptual framework rather than the more traditional expository analysis of law. The context in which such an analysis takes place is that of the anti-collectivist, market-based political project of neoliberalsm. When viewed through this explanatory lens we see very clearly that English legal doctrine entrenches a relationship between managers and shareholders. In doing so the research shows that the extraction of private benefits of control by shareholders is not an inevitable occurrence, but a decades-long, human created, and contingent phenomena. While non-shareholder language is introduced into the duty, this precatory element is merely a potential source of legitimacy to the ideology of the company as a private, exclusively shareholder-oriented enterprise.’
Date: 19th February 2015, 12.30-1.30pm
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.
Criminal Acts and Compensation – Zenith PI Blog
‘The recent case of AB v Chief Constable of X Constabulary provided the High Court with an opportunity to review the doctrine of ex turpi causa and its application in personal injury cases.’
Zenith PI Blog, 15th January 2015
Source: www.zenithpi.wordpress.com
