All articles by James Morton – Page 10
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You’ll have had your tea
Last month, I received a certificate congratulating me on 50 years of loyal service to the profession. It was something I considered ironic since I spent much of those 50 years unsuccessfully devising ways to give up the law. Of my admission ceremony I can ...
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The case for the defence
Law-makers have been thinking about abolishing the marital coercion defence since the early 1920s, so suggestions that it will be abolished in some imminent legislation cannot be said to be a knee-jerk reaction to the Vicky Pryce case.
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Arresting development
In the bad old days – which, for the purposes of argument, may be deemed to be the 1950s to the 1970s – justice may not have been certain but it was certainly swift. If he put his mind to it, an individual might appear and ...
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Delivering the verdict
The mess in which the first Vicky Pryce jury found itself really doesn’t match up to the jury that, not so many years ago, used a Ouija board to reach a verdict in a late-night session in a Brighton hotel, writes James Morton. Nevertheless, it ...
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Handing it to the bar
At last I have discovered why, back in the 1950s, barristers did not shake hands with their instructing solicitors. But then they didn’t have lunch with them either. That was known as ‘hugging the attorney’ and was a disciplinary offence.
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Food for thought
The news that supermarkets have put withdrawn hamburgers back on the shelves reminds me of the days very early in my career when I did a bit of prosecuting for a small chain of supermarkets.
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Not so great escapes
David Miller of Kidd Rapinet Solicitors has reminded me of the safe breaker Alfie Hinds’ escape from the Law Courts in June 1957, which must be one of a kind, writes James Morton.
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Figuring out my future
The wheel has turned full circle. Well, at least it is turning toward the suggestion that a degree might no longer be necessary as an entry into the profession. And what help, one might ask, is a degree in macrame anyway? Thank goodness that back in the bad old days ...
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Turn-up for the books
Thinking of people or cases that changed the law reminded me of the master escaper and burglar Alfie Hinds. He was convicted of a 1953 robbery mainly on the bitterly contested evidence of chief superintendent Herbert Sparks, who claimed to have found dust in Hinds’ trouser ...
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Where there is another will
Looking again at Colonel Wintle’s problems over the will drawn by solicitor Nye (30 August), I thought of one from the end of the 19th century when one of the more outrageous frauds was attempted by a Liverpool solicitor, John Hollis Yates. It concerned the estate of Helen Blake, née ...
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Secret of my success
Such success as I had as a criminal defence lawyer can be attributed to my inspired decision to instruct Wilfrid Fordham. Before then, my principal, Simpson, had relied for criminal cases on John Averill, a small, curly haired man who became increasingly eccentric and involved ...
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Cell safety
Recent controversy about the safety of solicitors in police stations took me back to my years of being trapped with clients when the gaoler (seemingly wilfully) refused to answer the cell bell. There was no point in complaining. It only meant a longer wait the next ...
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Chocolate smudges
It comes to something when all that seems to be worth watching on television, now the Olympics are finished, are reruns of the Sweeney. But last night I did learn something when Regan says to Carter: ‘He fooled the chocolate.’ I couldn’t work out what he meant. Rhyming slang drops ...
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Fingerprints sometimes lie
It still surprises me that when you say you were a defence lawyer (nb never a criminal lawyer) how many people ask how you could defend people you knew were guilty. The great thing about defending professional criminals was that in the teeth of the evidence – caught on camera, ...
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March of time
Government proposals to speed up criminal justice have had a mixed reception. However, wearing the hat of a retired old fogey, as well as of a concerned layman, I wonder if the criminal justice system is really working today.
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Hit and myth
Years ago a north London solicitor told me a story which I have come to believe could be classified as a legal urban myth.
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Form guide
If ever there is a case for triple checking (what we sociologists call ‘triangulation’) what a client tells you, it is over the question of his criminal convictions, writes James Morton.
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Stolen memories
The news that a fraudster tried to steal the papers from the judge’s desk during an adjournment reminds me of a number of incidents. Not least that of one of my clients, accused of passing a worthless cheque, who seized and ate it. There was also the somewhat seedy solicitor ...
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Bigamy and high stakes
The report that devotees may be photographed shaking Bill Clinton’s hand for $1,000 a time reminded me of the great 19th century dancer and courtesan Rosanna James, who ennobled herself as Maria Dolores de Porres y Montes. Better known as Lola Montez (pictured), she was reputed to charge Bostonians a ...
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The Shulman defence
The story of the man who left his wife his collection of (valuable) Dinky toys took me back to a tale of nude photographs. Property dealer Clive Raphael apparently bequeathed his wife, the model Penny Brahms, a shilling and some revealing shots of her. It came ...