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| Monday June 3 2019 |
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By Jonathan Ames
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Good morning.
Two years after it started a row with the lord chief justice that hastened the departure of Liz Truss from the dual role of lord chancellor and justice secretary, a pilot scheme for rape trials comes into effect today. Who knows whether Ms Truss has regrets over the issue — she certainly has not publicly expressed any. But another former lord chancellor has been in contrite mood over demonising “fat cat” legal aid lawyers.
In court actions, defence chiefs have paid out £20,000 for passing details of an adviser’s sex life to prosecutors; The Countdown star Rachel Riley is suing Labour’s complaints chief in the latest Twitter defamation case; a primary school head in an LGBT row is braced for arrests after High Court order; And nowhere near a court is the woman who found she is unable to sue over a tummy tuck in Turkey.
There is a new top solicitor in Scotland — see our Churn column for details. And scroll down to our Blue Bag diary to learn just how much time was wasted over data protection warnings.
All that and more in this morning’s must-read of all things legal, including news, comment and gossip.
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Today
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RAPE VICTIMS CAN RECORD THEIR EVIDENCE IN ADVANCE
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CPS apologises over failure to prosecute after motorcycle death
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Lawyers call for better vetting of prosecution experts
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Judge lifts anonymity of man ducking child maintenance
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Comment: Personal injury lawyers must watch out for dishonest clients
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| Tweet us @timeslaw with your views. |
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Story of the Day
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Rape victims can record their evidence in advance
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Women who claim that they were raped will be allowed to pre-record their cross-examination evidence before trials in a pilot scheme starting in three crown courts today. When Liz Truss, who was justice secretary, announced the scheme two years ago, she said that it would allow judges to more easily stop inappropriate cross-examination of alleged victims in which reference was made to sexual history.
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Read the full story
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Comment
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Personal injury lawyers must watch out for dishonest clients
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Failure to spot fraudulent claims can have costly consequences, warn Steven Baylis and Mark Jackson
Personal injury claimants must be warned of the rising threat of criminal charges being brought after unsuccessful bids for compensation. Likewise, their lawyers must be at the vanguard in deterring dishonest claimants from proceeding.
The recent case of Zurich Insurance v David Romaine, in which the Court of Appeal gave permission to bring committal proceedings against the claimant for contempt of court, shows that defendants may no longer be content with successfully defeating a claim and recovering costs from the claimant.
There may also be a growing appetite for defendant insurance companies to bring cases against claimants suspected of being dishonest.
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Read the full story
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News round-up
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CPS apologises over failure to prosecute after motorcycle death
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Prosecutors have apologised to the family of a dead man after they incorrectly dropped criminal charges against a motorcyclist accused of causing his death. A senior Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) official has admitted that the case should have been prosecuted rather than no evidence offered when it went to court. The decision means that the motorcyclist accused of causing the death of Frazer Golden, 30, cannot be charged again in connection with the collision in Weardale, Co Durham.
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Read the full story
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Crime agency in the dock over standard of expert witnesses
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Poorly qualified prosecution experts regularly appear in complex fraud trials, according to lawyers who have called for a wholesale review after a case collapsed this week. Senior officials at the National Crime Agency are also accused of ignoring warnings over the past decade that the quality and vetting of experts on its database needed improving.
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Read the full story
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Blair was wrong to brand lawyers fat cats, says ally
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One of Tony Blair’s closest confidants has said he regrets that the Labour government demonised “fat cat” lawyers. Lord Falconer of Thoroton shared a flat with Mr Blair when they were called to the bar and became lord chancellor for four years until 2007. He was instrumental in efforts to curb the legal aid budget and Mr Blair’s Labour government named the ten law firms that earned the most from the criminal defence legal aid budget.
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Read the full story
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Family judge names Tinder father of 14
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A man who has fathered 14 children was named by a judge after not providing for a baby born to a woman he met on Tinder. Judge Mark Everall took the unusual step of naming Johnathan Patrick Terry, 43, who runs a hair extension business which is based in Ontario in Canada and Las Vegas but is also registered in the UK.
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Read the full story
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MoD pays £20,000 for sharing details of adviser’s sex life
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The Ministry of Defence has been forced to pay £20,000 to a former political adviser after officials handed secret details of his private life to prosecutors. Richard Holden, then a special adviser to the former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, underwent high-level vetting as part of his job in which he revealed highly personal details of his finances and sexual history. The Sunday Times reported that when he was accused of sexual assault, UK Security Vetting handed his file to the Crown Prosecution Service to use against him if he sought to call character witnesses to defend himself.
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Read the full story
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Countdown star sues Labour complaints chief over tweets
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The Countdown host Rachel Riley has taken the first step in her libel battle with one of Jeremy Corbyn’s top officials. Ms Riley will sue Labour’s complaints chief, Laura Murray, for £50,000 in damages plus legal costs after the pair become involved in an online spat this year, court documents reveal, The Sunday Times reported.
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Read the full story
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Primary school in LGBT row braces for arrests after High Court order
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The head teacher at the centre of protests over LGBT awareness classes is bracing herself for mass arrests outside her school after religious activists promised a wave of demonstrations despite a High Court order banning them from gathering outside the gates. Anderton Park Primary School in Birmingham is the first in the UK to be protected by a legally enforceable exclusion zone, similar to those outside abortion clinics. Protesters plan to challenge the injunction made on Friday.
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Read the full story
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Comment
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Unexplained wealth orders are yet to prove their value
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If such powers are the silver bullet we were promised, why have they only been used twice since their introduction, asks Azir Rahman
Unexplained wealth orders obtained a week ago at the High Court by the National Crime Agency covered three residential properties bought for more than £80 million and held by offshore companies.
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Read the full story
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Blue Bag
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Wasting time over data protection warnings
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What is it about Europe and data protection … In the run-up to implementation of the EU’s general data protection regulation a year ago the legal profession went batty, issuing dire warning notices and hand cut-out-and-keep primers every five minutes.
Now in the run-up and aftermath of the anniversary of implementation, the notices and cut-out-and-keep primers seem to come with even greater frequency. Enough already …
At least Thomson Reuters, itself a data cruncher, has knocked up something vaguely interesting to mark the anniversary — a survey showing that 57 per cent of British multinationals “believe they are failing to comply with their worldwide data privacy compliance obligations”.
That is an increase of 13 per cent in the past two years, which demonstrates clearly what a waste of time all those advance cut-out-and-keep primers were.
“Many businesses say they are still struggling to comply with GDPR,” says Jim Leason, of Thomson Reuters, who has one of the most baffling titles in or affiliated to the legal profession (and that’s saying something): customer proposition lead, legal professionals Europe.
“If that is the case, then the potentially massive fines that could be levied under GDPR are the kind of threat to keep directors up at night.”
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'The secret other half'
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“Stop whinging and start a blog.”
In a moment of candour, the anonymous author of a book about the crumbling criminal justice system in England and Wales, has admitted that the statement was the best piece of advice the lawyer ever received. The Secret Barrister – for it is he, she, it, they – was speaking to The Sunday Times, demonstrating yet again that while secrecy is all well and good, a discreet and low-key profile is no good at all when there’s a paperback edition of a bestselling book to flog.
The SB’s social media and blogging presence all drip with woke-ness (or is that woke-osity? Must check the Urban Dictionary). But in the interview the lawyer demonstrates a charming characteristic straight out of the 1950s patriarchy by repeatedly referring to his, her, its, their “other half”.
And SB’s advice to us? “You will never be the cleverest person in the room, but it is in your power to be the nicest.”
Definitely woke-ology.
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The Churn
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Mulholland takes top slot in Edinburgh
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The music has stopped in Edinburgh and the next occupant of the top chair at the Law Society of Scotland is John Mulholland, a criminal law specialist based in Falkirk.
Mr Mulholland takes over from Alison Atack and will have at his right hand Amanda Millar, a mental health and capacity specialist, who moves into the vice-president slot. Mr Mulholland is a consultant at the firm Marshall Wilson Law Group and Ms Millar is a partner at McCash & Hunter.
Speaking after the appointments were announced, Mr Mulholland said that he would focus his year stint on “modernising regulation to ensure continuing high professional standards and robust consumer protections, further reform around legal aid, the use of technology within the legal sector to enhance services and career and development opportunities”.
South of the border, Withers, the private client specialist practice, unveiled Justine Markovitz as its latest chairwoman. Ms Markovitz is based at the firm’s Geneva office and will take over the top slot from July 1. She will be the firm’s second chairwoman after Diana Parker, who held the role from 1997 to 2006.
Ms Markovitz will join Margaret Robertson, on the Withers top table, giving the firm an all-female senior leadership line up.
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Quote of the day
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“Just as Wimbledon has its Centre Court, and a royal box containing Sir Cliff Richard, David Beckham and John Bercow, the English legal system has Court No 1 at the Old Bailey. This is where the juiciest matches are played, before as many as 200 onlookers including middle-class matrons, star writers, victims’ families, the lord mayor of London (if he wishes) and even sometimes the judge’s memsahib.”
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Quentin Letts reviewing Court Number One: The Old Bailey Trials That Defined Modern Britain by Thomas Grant, QC, of Maitland Chambers.
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