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News, analysis, comment and updates from ICLR's case law and UK legislation platform
A weekly roundup of topical legal news This week’s stories deal largely with issues of representation: its quality (if you can get it) and what happens if you can’t. Operation Cotton Over the past week, there’s been a lot of commentary on the collapse of a major fraud trial, owing to the lack of suitable… Continue reading
The news that an experienced criminal barrister and part-time judge, Constance Briscoe, has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for three offences of perverting the course of justice has prompted widespread comment and, in some quarters, indignation. It brings a promising career to an abrupt end and, for a once inspiring role model, it is also a sad fall from grace.… Continue reading
“The law reports are replete with examples of important judicial law-making in diverse areas affecting many aspects of our national life.” So said the Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson in a recent speech. But for how much longer can this continue? King Henry II (1133 – 1189): his legal reforms laid the basis for… Continue reading
In an earlier post, The Curious Case of The Court, The Commentators, The Woman, and Her Baby, we considered the story, widely and hysterically covered in the media, and more rationally by legal bloggers, of a pregnant Italian woman who had visited the UK in the summer 2012 only to be “sectioned” under the Mental… Continue reading
Privatised civil justice – how it might look Artist’s impressions A shadowy and mysterious legal think tank known as the Seven Stars Symposium has recently announced proposals for the privatisation of the litigation services currently provided by the High Court of England and Wales and the County Courts. In a press release issued on 1… Continue reading
By Tim Thomas, 1 Pump Court In his speech to Justice on 3rd March 2014 Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd CJ addressed what he sees as the challenge of ensuring the quality of justice is not diminished by the cuts to Legal Aid when those cuts are likely, he suggested, to remain permanent. Putting aside any challenge… Continue reading
A Silken slur about fatcat barristers, a ban on sending books to prisoners and the controversy over the role of religion in law: check out the latest legal issues to surface in the blogosphere. Books for prisoners Twitter was pretty lively over the weekend about a ban imposed by the Secretary of State for Justice… Continue reading
In his latest Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has handed out something of a goodie bag for pensioners and those saving for their retirement. Given its likely effect on voting intentions, you could even call it a party bag. As a corrective it is certainly welcome, after the beating pensions and savings have taken… Continue reading
How does a prime time TV series about the law satisfy both the public curiosity about the legal profession and its practices, and the respect of practitioners themselves who would like to see a mirror held up to their nature? And just how true-to-life can the characters get when one of them steps out of… Continue reading
The Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) recently proposed an investigation into the so-called “professional” McKenzie Friend market amid concerns that consumers (litigants in person) are being exploited and abused. Perhaps surprisingly, given how obsessively the legal professions are currently regulated, these self-appointed in-court helpers are not subject to any code of practice, let alone formal… Continue reading
