Human Rights Act kefuffle is overtaken by Auld news

The Human Rights Act 1998 has finally been overtaken in the press by a new legal hot potato - the 'extensive' Sunday Express (15 October) and 'radical' Observer, (15 October) review of the criminal court system being conducted by Lord Justice Auld.

Although the report is not scheduled for release until the end of the year, The Guardian (16 October) reported it is likely to recommend 'further limits on jury trials', a prospect which it described as provoking 'alarm and despondency'.

The Daily Telegraph (6 October) stirred the waters further by reporting that minor financial offences 'including some frauds' would be decriminalised if Lord Justice Auld had his way.

The jury system provoked headlines on another occasion last week, when the Daily Star and The Independent (both 10 October) carried reports that an 'angry judge' discharged a jury on suspicion of racial prejudice against the three black defendants.

Although the press furore over the Human Rights Act may have temporarily died down, The Sun (13 October) warned that another European Union charter of rights was on its way.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights - agreed in Biarritz last week - would apparently not only mean that 'dozens of British laws could be scrapped by unelected European judges', but also that 'thousands of bogus asylum seekers could be given the green light to enter Britain'.

The Daily Mail (13 October) described this 'ominous' charter as giving workers a 'massive boost to the right to strike' and predicted gloomily that it could be 'intended as an embryo constitution for a European superstate'.

The Mail highlighted another of its old favourites, Britain's 'spiralling compensation culture' (11 October) which is apparently costing the British taxpayer 9 billion a year.

According to the Mail, the main culprits for this 'obsession' with compensation are 'ambulance-chasing lawyers, eager to pursue claims'.

The Independent also described the 'breathtaking growth' in the cost of compensation, and claimed that Britain was 'in the throes of a compensation revolution'.

However, Tom Jones, partner at Thompsons solicitors, put the other side of the story in a letter to the paper (12 October).

Drawing attention to the fact that 'only one in 20 claims succeeds', he argued that 'if more claims are being made by individuals, then could this not be a reflection that social justice is finally being done?'

To end on a heartwarming story, The Independent (10 October) reported that, according to a recent poll, two-thirds of leading lawyers do not mind being described as 'fat cats'.

One anonymous respondent to the survey - carried out by Chambers & Partners - said 'I'm fat, I'm round, I'm worth a million pounds.'

Victoria MacCallum