Law Weblog
Barrister aged 84 retires
Friday 12 February 2010 at 7:37 pm | In News | Post Comment
At the Old Bailey in London, Michael Worsley QC took part in his last case when he applied to fix the date of a murder trial.
Mr Worsley was also famous for wearing his “comfortable” sandals around the court, which were not visible in court.
English language tests for aspiring barristers
Friday 12 February 2010 at 7:18 am | In News | 1 Comment
The pilot exams – aimed at preventing applicants with mediocre linguistic abilities from winning a place – will be introduced this month.
They have been launched following complaints that many students on the respected £15,000 course are unable to express themselves coherently, a major handicap in a profession so reliant on public speaking.
Dr Valerie Shrimplin, from the Bar Standards Board, said it wanted to encourage a diverse range of students but they needed to be proficient in English.
She said much of the course revolved around role-play to re-create a court room scene which meant those who struggled with the language hampered others.
“Language has been a problem,” she said. “Language is a key skill, it is not as if students are on a computer course – for this course it is crucial.
“We like to think that everybody should look at the Bar of England and Wales as the gold standard.”
The pilot exams follow a 2008 survey in which many trainee barristers claimed that a number of their fellow students would never succeed in the courtroom because of their poor language skills.
All candidates, enrolling on the BVC since 2009, for whom English or Welsh is not their first language must demonstrate that they have attained a minimum 7.5 IELTS standard in all sections of the test.
Reported in FT here
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
Friday 12 February 2010 at 7:08 am | In News | Post Comment
SIs – 11/02/2010
This Order brings into force on 15th February 2010 Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 s.10 (power to order conviction etc to be publicised).
It also provides that section 10 has no effect in relation to an offence under that Act committed before that date.
The Lord Chief Justice criticises use of out of court penalties
Thursday 4 February 2010 at 9:20 pm | In News | Post Comment
In his first report since becoming head of the judiciary, The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, said he was ‘troubled’ by the growing use of out of court penalties.
Lord Judge became the latest high profile figure to express concern over the use of on-the-spot fines and cautions and said he was “troubled” by their increased use. He said some cases should have been brought before the courts.
It echoes comments from Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and magistrates but, as the country’s most senior judge, Lord Judge’s comments will be seen by many as the most significant yet.
In his first report since becoming head of the judiciary, Lord Judge said:
“For some time I have been troubled by the increased use of fixed penalty notices, cautions and conditional cautions in cases that should have been brought before the courts.
I have said publicly that any assault which causes injury should be dealt with by a court.
Telegraph report here
The Criminal Procedure Rules 2010
Wednesday 3 February 2010 at 3:27 pm | In News | Post Comment
Info here
Relatives of murder victims to get one-to-one support
Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 2:51 am | In News | Post Comment
The service, funded with £8m of Ministry of Justice money, is being run with Victim Support and other specialist victims’ organisations.
Jack Straw
“The system was geared squarely towards offenders. We have worked hard over the last 13 years to change this – successfully cutting crime and cutting reoffending but also focusing the justice system on the needs of victims and of the communities who live with the consequences of crime when it does occur.”
The launch follows a study by the government’s victims’ champion, Sara Payne.
Competence of witnesses, a 4-year-old
Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 2:46 am | In News | Post Comment
The competence of a 4 year old child to give evidence was not in question.
The question of competence is now entirely “witness specific” and must be taken on an ad hoc basis. In the event that a child could not provide intelligible answers to questions in cross-examination or it was impossible to conduct a meaningful cross-examination, the evidence could reasonably be excluded under section 78 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
There was no basis to justify interfering with the judge’s conclusion in this appeal that the competence of the child as a witness was established and remained established after her evidence was concluded. Appeal dismissed.
New offence of encouraing or assisting suicide, hearsay rules amended and bail in murder cases limited to crown court
Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 2:40 am | In News | Post Comment
Section 59 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 amends section 2 of the Suicide Act so as to replace the substantive offence of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring suicide and the separate offence of attempting to commit the section 2 offence with a single offence cast in modernised language. The Criminal Attempts Act 1981 therefore no longer applies to section 2 of the 1961 Act. However, the scope of the law remains the same so these changes do not make liable to prosecution anyone who was not liable before.
Admissibility of evidence of previous complaints
Section 120 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 is part of the code on hearsay evidence (that is, evidence not given orally by a witness during the trial) set out in that Act. It provides for the admission as evidence in criminal proceedings of certain previous statements of witnesses.
The requirement that the complaint was made as soon as could reasonably be expected after the alleged conduct, is removed, and a complaint or complaints will be admissible regardless of when they were made.
The purpose of the change is to help improve successful prosecution of sexual offences while ensuring that the defendant’s right to a fair trial is not undermined, although the change applies to all offences, not just sexual offences.
Bail and Risk of committing an offence causing injury – murder
The Bail Act 1976 is amended to provide that a defendant who is charged with murder may not be granted bail unless the court is of the opinion that there is no significant risk that, if released on bail, the defendant would commit an offence that would be likely to cause physical or mental injury to another person.
Bail decisions in murder cases to be made by Crown Court judge
This section provides that a defendant who is charged with murder (including one charged with murder and other offences) may not be granted bail except by a judge of the Crown Court. The power of magistrates to consider bail in murder cases is thus removed.
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