Law Weblog

Online database identifies serial employment tribunal litigants

The Law Society Gazette – 18 June 2009 notes that a new website is being set up to record details of serial litigants at employment tribunals.

The site will be at www.serial-­litigants.com (still ‘under construction’ at date of writing – 1 July 2009). It is being set up by solicitor Gordon Turner and barrister Damian McCarthy.

Mr Turner told the Law Society Gazette about:

“………….. a serial litigant who has filed about 50 claims for age discrimination at tribunals throughout the country, including one against a client of mine. The litigant tells me he is earning good money because many employers prefer to settle rather than spend time and money defending the claim. The irony is, the litigant doesn’t even apply for the jobs – he just puts in the claim.”

See also emplaw web-updater of 27th November 2008 “The woman who netted £100,000 by making 22 claims of ageism”.

Sir Brian Kerr appointed last ever Law Lord

Sir Brian Kerr, who took his seat in the House of Lords on Monday, is the last Law Lord to be appointed.

Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, formerly the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, replaces the retiring Lord Carswell as a Law Lord.

From October, the Law Lords will become Justices of the new Supreme Court which will take over the judicial functions of the House of Lords.

The 61-year-old was called to the Bar in Northern Ireland in 1970, to the Bar of England and Wales in 1974 and became a QC in 1983.

He was appointed a High Court Judge in Northern Ireland in 1993, the same year he was knighted, and in 2004 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland.

Judge Gerald Price QC, suspended

A statement from the Office for Judicial Complaints, which is running an inquiry into Judge Price, said: ‘Having considered the allegations against Judge Price, the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor have decided that he should be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation by the Office for Judicial Complaints into his conduct.’

Judge Price is alleged to have behaved inappropriately in his relationship with a rent boy.

Full story in the Mail

The judge, the rent-boy and the News of the World

A 60-year-old Crown Court circuit judge in Wales, Gerald Price QC, is alleged to have been involved with a 25-year-old rent-boy. The News of the World has exposed his private and professional life in today’s paper.
The Office for Judicial Complaints will consider the case.

News of the World story here

No jury in criminal trial

The Court of Appeal has ruled that a criminal trial can take place at Crown Court without a jury for the first time in England and Wales.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, made legal history by agreeing to allow the trial to be heard by a judge alone.

It is the first time the power has been used since it came into force in 2007.

The case concerns four men accused of an armed robbery at Heathrow Airport in 2004. The judge said jury “tampering” was a “very significant” danger.

BBC news report here

“Virtual courts” – a reality

Defendants will lose their right to have a courtroom hearing following successful trials of “virtual courts”.

Virtual court hearings are not held where magistrates decide it is inappropriate, such as where people are mentally vulnerable, youths or mutlple defendants. There are no plans to extend the scheme to include full trials.

At Camberwell Green court last week, one defendant, who admitted drink-driving, was fined and banned from driving only hours after he was arrested without setting foot in a court building. Another suspected drink driver who refused to give a blood sample, was adjourned.

Ministers say that the plan could save £10million a year when extended across England and Wales next year.

Solicitors have expressed concerns about whether the virtual courts will add to delays and increase the number of ineffective hearings and whether they will be at greater risk from violent clients.

Defendants held at Charing Cross police station, which is linked to the Camberwell Green court, currently have the right to refuse to take part in a trial. But the Coroners and Victims Bill now going through Parliament removes that right. If they plead guilty they can be sentenced on the spot.

By September, 14 other police stations in South London and North Kent will be linked to courts, handling an estimated 15,000 cases a year.

Footballer convicted of killing girlfriend in double jeopardy case

This week, Mario Celaire, 31, a former Brentford footballer became the first person to be convicted of a crime for which he had been found not guilty by a jury. He pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to manslaughter of his former girlfriend six years after he was cleared of the crime. He also pleaded guilty to attempted murder of a second woman.

He battered to death his former girlfriend 19 year old Cassandra McDermott in 2001. In 2002 a jury -also at the Old Bailey -acquitted him of murder and manslaughter after deliberating for less than three hours.

The double jeopardy rule that prevents anyone from being tried twice was changed in 2005 for cases where there is new and compelling evidence the Court of Appeal can allow another hearing.

In February 2007 he also tried to kill another girlfriend Kara Hoyt also 19, a part-time model, after she found papers relating to the court case at a flat in Walthamstow, East London. He then flew into a rage and struck her on the head with a hammer. She survived and was eventually able to give evidence against him.

Andrea McDermott, 37, described how Celaire had “haunted” the family over the years by turning up at places where he knew they would be.

He will be sentenced on July 3.

Photo of Cassandra McDermott
held by her mother and two sisters

A similar case of R v Dunlop was the first case where a killer was convicted after being found not guilty at trial, but two juries failed to reach a verdict and Dunlop was cleared by the judge.

E-Transactions Have Arrived

The first mortgage to be signed electronically has been registered by the Land Registry.

The signing of deeds electronically speeds up the transaction and the registration of the charge.  The requirement to sign the mortgage on paper was the last hurdle before moving to an entirely e-based paper-free system of mortgaging; pen and paper have been removed from the process.

E-signature does not use witnesses, which perhaps makes the process more vulnerable to fraud.  The Land Registry has taken steps to create a secure environment using an unique pin number to a unique document and a unique signature number usable only by the registered user to which it applies and for the particular legal charge created.

It is difficult to see how any system could protect against the fraud of identity theft which is afraud that goes well beyond the signing process itself.

Land registry details here

Jack Straw gives up his plan for inquests in secret

Jack Straw last night abandoned Labour’s plans to hold sensitive inquests in secret without juries.

The Justice Secretary admitted the Government had too little support to get the law through Parliament.

Mr Straw’s plans to ban relatives and members of the public from inquests where secret intelligence or delicate diplomatic ties were involved had provoked fierce protests.

They were widely expected to be blocked by the House of Lords next week.

The Labour Government has attacked the jury system relentlessly over 12 years.

News report from the Guardian here

Record-breaking £1bn EU competition fine for Intel

Intel, the world’s biggest microchip maker, was yesterday handed a record-breaking €1.06bn (£950m) fine for anti-competitive behaviour by the European Commission.

The fine is the largest single fine ever handed down by Brussels, topping an €899m fine levied against Microsoft last year for failing to comply with a previous ruling, in which Microsoft was fined €497m.

Intel had abused its dominance of the microchip market to bully its customers into only buying its chips in the hope of squeezing rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) out of the market.

New report in PC Pro magazine, here