All News articles – Page 1535
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Human rights
Right to a fair hearing - Employment proceedings Home Office v Tariq: Supreme Court (Lords Phillips P, Hope DP, Rodger, Brown, Mance, Kerr, Clarke, Dyson and Lady Hale): 13 July 2011 ...
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Hurting tenants
The recent Benchmarks article by Richard Pates exposes the fact that the Court of Appeal has driven a coach and horses through the tenant deposit scheme inserted into the Housing Act 2004, which protects tenants against the widespread abuse by landlords of the rental deposit system. ...
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Onus on UK to investigate Iraq torture
by Phil Shiner, a solicitor at Public Interest Lawyers The invasion of Iraq by the UK and US in March 2003 led to hundreds of thousands of egregious human rights violations by the UK: unlawful deaths, acts of torture or arbitrary detention without charge. The UK ...
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J-Lo or J-law
Obiter must confess to occasional musings over what might have been if only things had turned out slightly differently. Be honest – who doesn’t?
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Norway’s ministry of justice had the right policies in place
The details that have emerged from Norway of the events on the island of Utoeya are horrific, and would lead any society to ask what could have prevented events unfolding as they did.
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National security
Closed material - Claimants subject of detention by foreign states - Claimants bringing action for damages Al Rawi and others v Security Service and others: Supreme Court (Lady Hale, Lords Phillips P, Hope DP, Rodger, Brown, Mance, Kerr, Clarke ...
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Romeo on trial
Romeo found himself in the dock this week as a group of lawyers joined the Shakespeare Schools Festival to perform The Trial of Romeo at Gray’s Inn. The performance began with young actors performing Romeo and Juliet up to the crucial moment of Tybalt’s death, ...
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Lay judges agree draft charter for European decision-making
Lay judges from across Europe have agreed a draft charter and a declaration seeking to protect and extend lay involvement in judicial decision-making across the continent. At a meeting of the European Lay Judges Forum held over the weekend, 50 lay judges signed the London Declaration, ...
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Lord Judge announces senior appointments
The Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge (pictured) has today announced two senior judicial appointments. Lady Justice Hallett has been appointed vice president of the High Court Queen's Bench Division for a period of four years from 3 October 2011. Her appointment follows ...
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Supreme Court rules on arbitration
The Supreme Court has ruled that arbitrators are not employees for the purposes of employment equality legislation. Handing down judgment in the case of Hashwani v Jivraj, the court reversed the Court of Appeal’s landmark decision, which held that an arbitration agreement that required all arbitrators ...
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MoJ concession on immigration domestic violence cases
Lawyers have welcomed the justice minister’s concession to put some immigration domestic violence cases back within the scope of legal aid. Jonathan Djanogly told the public bill committee that the government would table an amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to ...
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Innovation in the profession
Lawyers speak in dramatic, almost biblical terms, of threats currently visited on the profession in England and Wales. Momentous change. The changes in regulation and potential ownership are dramatic and will have a significant impact, not on all firms and practitioners at one time ...
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Committee to examine Ministry of Justice
The House of Commons’ justice committee is to undertake an inquiry into the structure and budget of the Ministry of Justice and its associated public bodies. The inquiry will focus on the potential contribution of further structural changes to future efficiency savings and improved performance. ...
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The Co-operative is gearing up to become an ABS
The Solicitors Regulation Authority expressed its disappointment last week that the constraints of the parliamentary timetable mean it will not be able to begin licensing alternative business structures on 6 October, when the final provisions of the Legal Services Act 2007 come into force. But the regulator is not the ...
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Reserved activities come under scrutiny
It’s summertime. But for lawyers, the livin’ ain’t easy (to misquote George Gershwin). Just when it seems that 'one of these mornings, you're going to rise up singing, then you'll spread your wings, and you'll take to the sky' - in other words, go on holiday - word reaches us ...
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Boris Johnson criticises legal aid proposals on domestic violence
The mayor of London has warned that the majority of women who have suffered domestic violence will find it ‘impossible’ to get legal aid to help divorce their abusive partners, because of the ‘restrictive’ evidence required to prove it. In written evidence to the public bill ...
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LSA changes ‘flying under the radar’ of law firms
Provisions of the Legal Services Act permitting law firms to take on external investment are ‘flying under the radar’ of most small and medium-sized firms, research has suggested. A survey of 75 firms with turnover between £5m and £25m by accountants HW Fisher & Company found ...
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Did ‘no win, no fee’ topple the News of the World
I don’t suppose too many lawyers will be mourning the demise of the News of the World. It was often the scourge of the legal profession and the much maligned 'no win, no fee' arrangements which, heaven forbid, gave the less well-off a chance of getting ...
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Solicitors from Hell founder ordered to pay £10,000 damages
The founder of the Solicitors from Hell website has been ordered to pay damages of £10,000 after publishing defamatory claims that a solicitor was dishonest. Rick Kordowski’s site published a complaint in March made by Tim Smee about Marlow firm Gabbitas Robins. ...