The District Attorney in Utah announced he plans to seek the death penalty for the young man who shot Charlie Kirk. This has been greeted with widespread approval in the UK with words like “I wish we could do the same here”. Of course, we want to punish evil men on conviction, but the risk of wrongful conviction still lurks and hangs over British justice. There have been many, many cases of wrongful convictions over the years and people in jail now wrongfully convicted. If there was a death penalty, it would be too late, and they would be dead.…
A lawyer has a legal and ethical duty to do the very best for his client. Supposing an experienced lawyer drafts an important letter for a client, dealing with an issue such as that client’s liberty, marriage, children or business. He gives it close attention and produces an excellent draft. Should he run that through AI before sending it to the client for approval? He is experienced, he looks at it, it is a good letter, even an excellent letter. Why bother? The answer is that AI might improve it. Not will, but certainly might. Experience now shows that AI…
The Bell Hotel, Epping is the subject of High Court decisions and appeals. The issue is whether allowing illegal immigrants to live there, turns it, for planning purposes, from a hotel into a hostel. It is mind-boggling, to consider how incompetent the Home Office were in not seeking planning permission before filling the hotels with immigrants. So mind-boggling it will not be true. The real reason is clear. Had they done so, the local residents and indeed Local Authority would have had huge objections. So they did it, without permission in the stealth of night and have got caught out…
Labour (not the party usually associated with toughness on crime) is mooting some very interesting ideas. On conviction they propose this could happen: 1. A driving ban (for non-driving offences). 2. A travel ban (no longer allowed abroad). 3. Ban on football matches or going to pubs or clubs. Many a middle class citizen who enjoys his or her weekly cocaine, might this twice if being caught means that he could not take the family to Antigua or travel on business to New York. Many a young man who likes to party on a Friday might think twice about getting…
A group of trainee lawyers have called upon the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to make the qualification exams easier. This is justified they say because there is a higher pass rate amongst middle class men, than women, working class or minority candidates. The result of the current system is that more white men than (say) black women qualify as solicitors. Therefore, they argue that the exam should be made easier. Many find this utter rubbish. The public are looking for, in their solicitor, somebody who is clever with a good brain and able to advise on the rough and tumble…
‘Needs’ are what determine most financial divorce cases. What does a person “need”? Where the other party has funded an opulent lifestyle, needs can differ. For example, many ladies say they “need” Botox and a huge fashion allowance. Simon Entwistle married heiress Geri Halliwell, and she funded an extravagant lifestyle with a villa in Dubai. On their divorce, he said he needed £26,000 a year (£500 a week) for meals because he could not cook. “I cannot even cook an omelette”, he told Mr Justice Francis. That cut no ice with the judge who told him to learn. Simon had…
Noel Philo is one of the country’s oldest barristers and has practised law for 50 years. There is also a chap out there of 93. How would you feel if a 90 year old turned up at court to represent you? You might be dismayed, when such an old boy or girl turned up, but there is no substitute for experience. Lawyers with that experience, (of whom I am one although I am not here to blow my own trumpet), have an incredible advantage over other lawyers. They have seen it all. They know what is likely to happen in…
When an employee makes a claim of harassment, discrimination or sexual misconduct, employers often make an out of court settlement and payment conditional upon the employee signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The government is proposing to outlaw that. That means that employers will be far less likely to make an out of court settlement and that the employee (the victim in most cases) will lose the privacy and anonymity that they want after a gruelling experience. Victims will be less inclined to make complaints. This unintended consequence of a ban on a NDA is exactly the sort of reason, why…
COVID 19 saw a backlog of 65,000 cases in the family courts. This was still at over 47,000 in December 2024. In 2024, the average time for a child case from filing the application to a decision was 41 weeks, but there are regional variations with some in London taking 70 weeks. This is an agonising wait for a court ruling on matters that effects the lives of children, their parents and others, all their lives. No more taxpayers money is available and there is an acute shortage of judges. Many cases are adjourned because there is no judge available,…
When Sarah Forey, a barrister of Bolt Chambers,, was briefed to appear at the High Court before Mr Justice Ritchie, she wanted to do the best possible job. She therefore used AI to check all relevant previous cases. She submitted them to the judge in her arguments. The judge scratched his head (no doubt under his wig). No judge knows every case but there were several he had not heard of. He examined the submission to find that five cases were “fake” and never happened. Sarah had failed to check AI and she was responsible. An investigation as to what…
