All articles by James Morton – Page 8
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NewsEvidence? Then spill the beans
The quarrel over non-disclosure, particularly in rape cases, rumbles on. I see that austerity is now being blamed for the failure of the police and Crown Prosecution Service to realise that, in some cases, complainants are not being wholly frank. I also see a suggestion that bobbies are to be ...
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NewsName game to blame for crime
James Morton ponders the link between names and criminal behaviour.
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NewsTough questions over hard cases
The very disparate cases of John Worboys, Jon Venables and Ben Stokes (pictured) highlight some of the topical problems of the criminal justice process. James Morton Taking Stokes’ case first, last week the England cricketer was charged with affray over an alleged incident outside a nightclub in ...
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NewsHow lit funders fought rail giant
Litigation funding is nothing new. At one time it was known as maintenance and champerty, and was a felony designed to stop robber barons hijacking litigation for their own ends. But 130 years ago the public rallied to help fight the barons in the form of the railway – and ...
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NewsJury out on no-show excuses
I forget who it was who asked, ‘Who would want to be tried by 12 people who were so stupid they could not get off a jury?’. They have a point. There again – forget all that rubbish about civic duty – who would want to be tried by 12 ...
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NewsReceiving end of a real wigging
It is always dangerous for old fogies to dive in on today’s quarrels, so I will merely dip a toe. The subject is rude judges who undermine young advocates’ confidence to the extent they are reduced to tears and carry the memory with them for days or weeks. First, just ...
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NewsCooking lunch at her convenience
Whatever misdemeanours are revealed in the next report of the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, our judiciary is non-league compared with premier league-standard Las Vegas family court judge Elizabeth Halverson. She qualified in 1992 and in 1995 became a clerk to the 8th Judicial District before setting up her own practice. ...
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NewsDeath becomes her at Old Bailey
Florence Earengey sat in on the Beatrice Pace murder trial when her husband was junior counsel to Norman Birkett, but the first woman to lead in a murder case at the Old Bailey was Venetia Stephenson. She defended William Holmyard, charged with the December 1928 murder of his 72-year-old grandfather. ...
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NewsOur new moral entrepreneurs
I wonder if the demonstrations over the Charlie Gard case, the opposition to Martin Moore-Bick in the Grenfell Tower inquiry and the general attack on the judiciary over the Brexit hearings are the start of what sociologists call a ‘symbolic’ crusade – complete with ‘moral entrepreneurs’. In a symbolic crusade ...
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NewsSolicitor hangs after forgery
In 1789, Shropshire solicitor Thomas Phipps, his son Thomas Jnr and their clerk, 16-year-old William Thomas, went on trial at Shrewsbury Assizes for the capital offence of forgery. The victim was a Richard Coleman, once an excise officer and now an Oswestry publican. Phipps senior had leased two parcels of ...
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NewsJailed financier's bolt for freedom
James Morton recalls De Courcy’s brief escape from custody.
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NewsExotic flowers in the jury box
First women to sit on juries faced expected and unexpected challenges.
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NewsWindies legend bowls 'em over
I can’t think in my pantheon of sporting lawyers how I came to omit the great West Indian cricketer Sir Learie Constantine. Mea culpa. He played for the Windies from 1923 until 1939, during which time he also played in Lancashire League cricket. Morton landscape Wisden described ...
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NewsDestroyer of Victorian vice
Sometimes I worry about solicitors becoming too involved in their cases. A case in point, admittedly a century ago, is that of C H Collette, solicitor for the Society of the Suppression of Vice.
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NewsThe great days of conference
Confession. I miss the style of conferences the Law Society used to hold. I know I railed against them in the past, claiming they were a waste of money, but I miss them.
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NewsRearranging the flowers
Recently there was a reminder of when two women were wrongly convicted of stealing teddy bears from Princess Diana tributes.
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NewsA trial that may never end
The case of convicted murderer Mark Lundy fails to leave the headlines.