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| Wednesday June 12 2019 |
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By Jonathan Ames
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Good morning.
Britain’s spooks are back in court accused of hoarding information about our telephone calls and website viewing habits. But that’s not nearly as much fun as the divorcée who is asking a judge to force her ex-boyfriend to return a fleet of “supercars”.
Abroad, judges in Botswana have decriminalised homosexuality; and international lawyers have condemned Saudi Arabia’s planned execution of a teenager.
Back in Blighty a military cross recipient and author has become a law firm ambassador — see our Churn column for details. And scroll down to our Blue Bag diary to learn how long the president of the Supreme Court paused when asked about the quality of recent lord chancellors.
All that and more in this morning’s must-read of all things legal, including news, comment and gossip.
Catherine Baksi, a freelance journalist, contributed to today’s bulletin.
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Today
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MI5 'ILLEGALLY HOLDS SENSITIVE DATA ON THOUSANDS'
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Suspending parliament to force no‑deal not illegal, says attorney-general
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Disciplinary hearings rise 40 per cent in five years
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Comment: British bankers would be wise to fear Germany
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| Tweet us @timeslaw with your views. |
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Story of the Day
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MI5 'illegally holds sensitive data on thousands'
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Britain’s domestic spies have illegally retained “deeply sensitive” data concerning potentially thousands of innocent people for years, the High Court was told yesterday.
Lawyers representing civil liberties campaigners told a judicial review of MI5’s activities that the security service had acknowledged internally that it was mishandling data. They claim MI5 identified problems with the storing and analysis of data “as far back as January 2016” but that the prime minister and home secretary were only notified in writing this April.
Documents obtained by Liberty allegedly reveal that an MI5 compliance team was concerned that “data might be being held in ungoverned spaces in contravention of our policies”.
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Read the full story
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Best Law Firms 2020
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We need your views for The Times Best Law Firms 2020
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Last year we asked the legal profession who they rated as the best firms and law professionals in England in a ground-breaking peer to peer survey of the industry. You can read about the results here.
This year's survey will be published later this year and for the first time will include a separate listing for Scotland. If you are a legal professional and would like to give us your views on The Times Best Law Firms 2020 click here to take part in our short survey.
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Comment
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British bankers would be wise to fear Germany
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Action over alleged fraud may be centred in Berlin but prosecutors on the continent have London in their sights, writes Andrew Katzen
As the trial of Deutsche Bank’s former managing director in Frankfurt, Andreas Hauschild, gets under way in London, Britain’s financiers may face a more serious risk of prosecution in Germany rather than Britain.
Perhaps it is the odd name but the so-called cum-ex — with-without in Latin — dividend stripping scandal has not received anywhere near as much attention in the UK as it ought. That may soon change.
It is among the biggest alleged frauds to hit continental Europe in decades — up to €55 billion has allegedly been defrauded from various governments — and criminal investigations are beginning to affect dozens in the City with potentially devastating results.
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Read the full story
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News round-up
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Suspending parliament to force no‑deal Brexit not illegal, says attorney-general
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Suspending parliament to prevent MPs blocking a no-deal Brexit would not be illegal, the attorney-general has said (Kate Devlin writes). Several Conservative Party leadership candidates have refused to rule out closing the Commons to force through Brexit, leading to claims that the Queen could be dragged into the conflict. Geoffrey Cox, QC, the attorney-general, told the cabinet yesterday that proroguing parliament would not be illegal.
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Read the full story
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Disciplinary hearings rise 40 per cent in five years
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Regulators have prosecuted 40 per cent more cases for solicitor misconduct over the past five years, an analysis has found. The annual reports of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) show that the number of cases it has taken before the profession’s disciplinary tribunal rose from 97 in 2013-14 to 134 in 2017-18. An analysis by the law firm Hickman & Rose also showed that the authority was securing more serious punishments.
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Read the full story
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Divorcée claims supercars back from ‘gold-digger’
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A millionaire divorcée has asked a judge to force her former boyfriend to return a collection of sports cars and £20 million in other assets after accusing him of being a gold-digger. Mandy Gray, 50, has claimed that Hamish Hurley, a 46-year-old physical therapist, used her as little more than “a vehicle for his enrichment” while they travelled the world during six years together. She bought him a property in Italy, shares in a New Zealand company and cars including a Ferrari and a Pagani Zonda, an Italian supercar estimated to be worth £1 million.
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Read the full story
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Botswanan judges decriminalise homosexuality
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Senior judges in Botswana have ruled to decriminalise homosexuality in a victory for campaigners fighting for gay rights across Africa. A three-judge bench on the country’s High Court unanimously ruled that the laws, which allow for sentences of up to seven years in prison for people in same-sex relationships, were unconstitutional. Overturning the “discriminatory” law that has been in place since 1965, the judges ruled: “Human dignity is harmed when minority groups are marginalised.”
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Read the full story
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Lawyers condemn Saudi plans to execute teenager
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International lawyers have called on Saudi Arabia to abandon the “horrific” and “uncivilised” planned execution of a teenager. Murtaja Qureiris was 13 when he was arrested in 2014 on charges that he attended the funeral of his brother, who was killed in a protest in 2011, joined a terrorist organisation, threw a Molotov cocktail at a police station, shot at security forces and took part in anti-government protests. He has been held in detention since. Now aged 18, he is said to face execution for the charges, which lawyers said would be in breach of international laws upholding the rights of children.
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Read the full story
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In Brief
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- Mike Ashley starts legal challenge to Debenhams rescue plan – The Guardian
- Ashurst dismisses German partner over conduct “contrary to firm’s values” – The Lawyer
- Lawyers told me I’d never work in the City again, says sexual harassment accuser – The Times
- Complacent law schools are ripe for disruption – Legal Cheek
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Comment
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End the uncertainty caused by long police investigations
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Leaving suspects in the dark for years can destroy lives — our justice system must unite for change, Claire Anderson writes
Waiting for results is stressful, whether it be for medical tests or exams, indeed anything that will have an impact on one’s life and future.
Imagine a serious sexual allegation is made against you — perhaps by a former partner or family member. You are interviewed by police and strenuously deny the allegation. You are told that there will be an investigation. You will be notified “in due course” of the outcome. Weeks, then months roll by. Sometimes years. You remain in limbo. The strain is unbearable, affecting not only you but all those close to you. It is a living hell.
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Read the full story
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Tweet of the day
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| Hello solicitors on the other side. I am female and one person so please stop addressing letters to me as 'Dear Sirs' #ConductingLitigation |
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@FamLawInAction
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Comment
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Love Island stars deserve workplace protection
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The recent death of a reality TV contestant shows that stronger laws are needed to ensure duty of care, writes Mathilde Pavis
The English law doctrine of duty of care is poorly equipped to remedy claims of psychological injury because it was developed to bring relief to cases of physical injury. For this reason courts have struggled to adapt the doctrine to acts of negligence which have damaged individuals’ mental health.
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Read the full story
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Quote of the day
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“All modern governments have regularly and consciously used prorogation to draw a line under private members’ bills and other proceedings still pending at the end of what is normally only a 12-month session.”
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Sir Stephen Laws, KCB, QC (Hon), the First Parliamentary Counsel 2006-12 and now a senior research fellow, Policy Exchange, the think tank, in a letter to the editor of The Times.
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Read the full story
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Blue Bag
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Judicious pause for thought
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Judges have to tread a delicate line in media interviews between appearing too aloof and oversharing.
Baroness Hale of Richmond, president of the Supreme Court, pictured, found herself in a tricky spot talking to the BBC’s Emma Barnett on Radio 5 Live yesterday. Picking up on criticism levelled at recent lord chancellors, including Liz Truss and Chris Grayling, who are not lawyers, Barnett asked Lady Hale whether she thought it would be better if those in the post had a legal background.
The country’s top judge tactfully commended her inquisitor on “an interesting question” and told her that it had not been a requirement since 2005. Lady Hale conceded that it “may help to have some depth of understanding about the justice system, what it’s for and how it works”.
But she stressed: “There have been non-lawyer lord chancellors and they can learn about it and think about it as well as others can.”
When pressed further as to whether it would be preferable to have legal experience, Lady Hale paused for seven seconds before judgment got the better of her and she dodged the question. “I don’t know that I actually want to express a view one way or another about that. I think it’s the character and personality of the individual that matters more than the qualifications, the professional qualifications.”
There might have been even longer pauses had Lady Hale been pressed on the “character and personality” of some of the recent incumbents.
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The Churn
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Forces firm appoints ambassador
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A military cross recipient and bestselling author has joined a specialist forces law firm as an ambassador to lobby on behalf of veterans.
At the age of 23 Brian Wood was thrust into the front line in Iraq, in the infamous Battle of Danny Boy. In his recent memoir, Double Crossed: A Code of Honour, A Complete Betrayal, he tells of the three battles in his life — being ambushed with no cover in Iraq, the mental battle to adjust at home and being falsely accused of war crimes.
His latest role as an ambassador for Hilary Meredith Solicitors, a Cheshire law firm, may be a whole lot less stressful but it may not make such engrossing reading.
Hilary Meredith, the firm’s founder, said: “It is an honour to be working with Brian. During his 16-year military career he led British troops across the full spectrum of battle from training to fighting, from operations in the Balkans to high-intensity combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Brian is a truly inspirational man and we have a shared passion to support service personnel, veterans and their families.”
The firm, which has a record for appointing army veterans, recently recruited the Invictus gold medallist and high-ranking military solicitor Natalie Robinson as head of its armed forces compensation scheme department.
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Closing Statement
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Murdering lawyers
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The decision by the privy council in Layne v Att General of Grenada that it would be rare an applicant for the Bar with a conviction for murder could overcome the requirement that he had to be of good character took me back to the furore in September 2003 over the solicitor Tokunbo Okunola (James Morton writes).
Okunola was convicted of the attempted murder of his estranged wife. He had firebombed the house where she lived before kicking down the door of the home where she was sheltering and stabbing her.
He claimed that he had been under a voodoo curse but received a term of life imprisonment, his second after he received one aged 17 in 1977 after he had stabbed a man in a dance hall.
How could the Law Society, the judge demanded, have allowed such a man on the roll?
The answer was simple. Percy Williams, as he was before he changed his name to Tokunbo Okunola, had been very young at the time and many thought he had been unlucky to go down for murder at all. His prison reports were glowing as were those while he was on licence. The society’s ruling council had two full debates before he had been allowed his chance.
Statistics were on the society’s side. Between 1900 and 2003 only 40 people convicted of murder had gone on to be convicted of the offence a second time. Of course, pre-1964 not all of those convicted had been around to have a second go.
James Morton is a former criminal law solicitor and now author
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