Lawyer news

• Letter: Anthony Scrivener obituary

  17-04-2015 18:48
  
  Anthony Scrivener was a very busy lawyer with a deep public conscience. In 1993, after calls for an official inquiry into a series of suicides at Feltham young offender institution, south-west London, were rejected, the Howard League for Penal Reform, of which I was then chair, decided to invite Anthony to lead an investigation. I phoned to ask if he would accept on a pro bono basis. Without hesitation he said: “Thank you. I’ll do it.” Continue reading...
  
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• Operation Elveden was flawed - the CPS should have realised that sooner

  17-04-2015 18:09
  
  It was always wrong for journalists to have been prosecuted for doing their jobs I’m not certain how many times I said that Operation Elveden was flawed. But the Crown Prosecution Service has finally acknowledged the fact by abandoning the prosecutions of nine journalists arrested by the Metropolitan police.But it is still, remarkably, going to pursue three Sun journalists in retrials. Why? Where’s the public interest in doing so? Continue reading...
  
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• Don't blame the CPS for Lord Janner's escape from justice: blame the group-think that backed him from the start

  17-04-2015 17:30
  
  From Westminster to the BBC, abuse can thrive in any institution with an interest in self-preservation. The Janner case demonstrates again that whatever a group’s particular character, their most insidious problems are universalIt’s just more than a year since Sir Lord Janner of Braunstone last voted in the House of Lords. But the 86-year-old peer is now suffering too severely from the Alzheimer’s disease he was diagnosed with in 2009 to be interviewed by the police, let alone st
  
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• Lord Janner child abuse allegations were not passed to me, former DPP says

  17-04-2015 17:02
  
  Lord Macdonald QC criticises local CPS officials for dropping pursuit of charges without consulting headquarters, helping Labour peer escape prosecutionA former director of public prosecutions has criticised Crown Prosecution Service officials for failing to present him with new evidence in 2007 of the Labour peer Lord Janner’s alleged abuse of children.Lord Macdonald QC said that instead of passing on allegations of serious sexual offences against Janner, local CPS officials in Leicestershire
  
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• Formula One reverses human rights stance in runup to Bahrain Grand Prix

  17-04-2015 15:25
  
  Campaigners have persuaded Formula One to create a human rights policy after years of unwillingness to engage with the issueIn a victory for campaigners, the organisation behind Formula One racing has done a 180-degree policy reversal in the runup to the contentious Bahrain Grand Prix and agreed to formulate a human rights policy.
  F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has previously been reluctant to be drawn on human rights issues, saying in 2013: “We don’t go anywhere to judge how a country is run.
  
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• Can the internet be saved without harming democracy?

  17-04-2015 15:24
  
  A new report wants to foster a digital age underpinned by human rights and calls for greater transparency from global giants. But will we ever trust the internet?Citizens of the internet: here is some welcome news. Your downtrodden digital rights might be getting a well-overdue booster shot. But it comes with some warnings.This week in the Hague, a high-level group of 29 internet policymakers and influencers – including prominent ex-US and UK security and intelligence officials Michael Chertof
  
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• Dyson shelves guideline hourly rates reform

  17-04-2015 14:56 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Master of the rolls had previously described an evidence-based revision of the rates as ‘urgent’.
  
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• Operation Elveden: four journalists cleared of paying public officials

  17-04-2015 14:40
  
  The Sun’s Tom Wells, Neil Millard and Brandon Malinsky, and former Daily Mirror reporter Graham Brough were found not guilty of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public officeFour more tabloid journalists have been cleared of paying public officials for stories - including the first from the Daily Mirror to be tried following the controversial Operation Elveden investigation.The Sun’s Tom Wells, Neil Millard and Brandon Malinsky, and the former Daily Mirror reporter Graham Brough were fou
  
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• Teju Cole: Slow violence, cold violence – Teju Cole on East Jerusalem

  17-04-2015 13:00
  
  Why the viciousness of modern Israeli law directed against Palestinians must be taken as seriously as the cruelties of warNot all violence is hot. There’s cold violence too, which takes its time and finally gets its way. Children going to school and coming home are exposed to it. Fathers and mothers listen to politicians on television calling for their extermination. Grandmothers have no expectation that even their aged bodies are safe: any young man may lay a hand on them with no consequence.
  
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• Quindell shareholders agree £637m sale to Slater and Gordon

  17-04-2015 12:26 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Vote comes despite Quindell shareholder saying multi-million-pound Slater deal is ‘undervalued’.
  
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• Digital legal aid system ‘will not be fit for purpose’

  17-04-2015 12:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Resolution chair was speaking at national conference in Brighton this morning.
  
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• Civil libertarians: weakened surveillance reform bill is already 'yesterday's news'

  17-04-2015 12:00
  
  The impending USA Freedom Act seeks to stop NSA phone record collection, leaving Section 215 intact, which activists say will only prolong mass surveillanceWhen the premiere surveillance reform bill of 2014 is reintroduced in the current Congress, it can count on antipathy and even opposition from many of the civil libertarian activists who pushed it to the brink of passage last year.The USA Freedom Act, a bill that aims to stop the National Security Agency (NSA) from its ongoing daily collectio
  
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• Weakened surveillance reform bill is 'yesterday's news', civil libertarians say

  17-04-2015 12:00
  
  The impending USA Freedom Act seeks to stop NSA phone record collection, leaving Section 215 intact, which activists say will only prolong mass surveillanceWhen the premiere surveillance reform bill of 2014 is reintroduced in the current Congress, it can count on antipathy and even opposition from many of the civil libertarian activists who pushed it to the brink of passage last year.The USA Freedom Act, a bill that aims to stop the National Security Agency (NSA) from its daily collection of US
  
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• County law firm top in the UK for charity effort - Worcester News

  17-04-2015 11:55
  
  County law firm top in the UK for charity effort
  Worcester News
  LAW firm Harrison Clark Rickerbys has raised the most in the UK for the Will Aid initiative. Lawyers donate money from Will making to the charity and in the last ten years HCR, which has offices in Worcester, Hereford, Cheltenham and Ross-on-Wye, has ...en meer »
  
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• Neuberger warns of ‘unconscious bias’ among judges

  17-04-2015 11:48 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Judges should be ‘sensitive’ that often they have a more privileged background that many who appear in court.
  
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• Supreme Court hears call to force UK government to meet air quality laws

  17-04-2015 11:03
  
  Green law group pushes for courts to issue a mandatory order requiring the environment department to comply with EU air pollution limits in the shortest timespan possibleThe Supreme Court has been asked to issue a legal order forcing the British government to comply with European air quality limits intended to curb the 29,000 deaths that are caused by pollution every year.A 2015 deadline set by the EU to reduce concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide and particulate matter has
  
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• Respect women's right to weir veil in court, says Britain's most senior judge

  17-04-2015 07:51
  
  Lord Neuberger says fairness requires understanding of different cultures and warns judges’ privileged backgrounds create risk of swaying decisionsJudges must show respect to women who choose to keep their faces covered due to their religious beliefs, the UK’s most senior judge has said.
  Lord Neuberger said judges must have “an understanding of different cultural and social habits” in their bid to show fairness to those involved in trials. Continue reading...
  
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• Respect women's right to wear veil in court, says Britain's most senior judge

  17-04-2015 07:51
  
  Lord Neuberger says fairness requires understanding of different cultures and warns against judges’ privileged perspective being allowed to sway decisionsJudges must show respect to women who choose to keep their faces covered due to their religious beliefs, the UK’s most senior judge has said.
  Lord Neuberger said judges must have “an understanding of different cultural and social habits” in their bid to show fairness to those involved in trials. Continue reading...
  
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• Mexican Congress expands reach of freedom-of-information law - Yahoo News UK

  17-04-2015 06:00
  
  Mexican Congress expands reach of freedom-of-information law
  Yahoo News UK
  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's Congress has approved freedom of information legislation that will allow public access to data from almost any entity that receives government funding. The measure was passed Thursday in the lower house on a 264-68 vote ...en meer »
  
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