Solicitor sails into the Falklands

A solicitor from Exeter has become the most southerly English practitioner in the world after taking the post of senior magistrate of the Falkland Islands and British Antarctic Territories.Nick Sanders, formerly a founder and partner of Rundle Walker, is the only judge resident on the islands.

It is a two-year appointment, which Mr Sanders saw in the Gazette.'Having grown the business, I thought it was time for a bit of a change,' Mr Sanders said this week, adding that the introduction of criminal contracting was 'a factor in me deciding to go'.Mr Sanders, who is 43, was in the Royal Navy before qualifying as a solicitor and had been to the Falklands three times before, initially in the first set of patrol vessels sent to the South Pacific after the 1982 war.

In addition to his criminal law work - he has full Crown Court sentencing powers - Mr Sanders has jurisdiction for family work, probate, and civil matters.

He doubles as the coroner and inspector of prisons.

Or rather, inspector of five cells.

Mr Sanders said he also hopes to assume control of the legal aid system, which is currently run by the islands' Attorney-General, David Lang QC.

He has expressed concerns about the wrong impression this gives.'It's like the Crown Prosecution Service running the Legal Services Commission,' he said.In general, UK law applies in the Falklands, but there are areas where it has been adapted or excluded and there is a local ordinance.With only 2,500 civilians living on the Falklands, crime is rare and the detection rate almost 100%.

'I haven't been very busy so far,' conceded Mr Sanders, 'but I'm told the work goes in fits and starts.'The Falklands' supreme court only sits in cases of murder, manslaughter, rape, treason and piracy.

It will sit later this year - for the first time since 1995 - when a rape case is brought.

The UK-based chief justice will travel to Port Stanley to hear it.

The Falklands has two firms of solicitors: a branch of Scottish firm Ledingham Chalmers and a Scottish sole practitioner who used to work with the firm.

The government employs four lawyers.Mr Sanders said the islanders are very friendly, and there is a great deal of home hospitality in the evenings.

'It's a very British place, even more so than some places in Britain.'And of the island's fabled beauty, he said: 'Even the most hardened townie can't help but be impressed.'Mr Sanders has just been joined by his wife and two children, aged 14 and 12.

He said his wife was happy to move but his daughter took more convincing, 'because there are no mobile phones here'.Neil Rose