Lawyer news

• Prison smoking ban begins in 2016 despite fears of unrest

  29-09-2015 19:01
  
  Smoking ban will be phased in across England and Wales from next year, with complete ban in Welsh prisons taking effect in JanuaryA complete ban on smoking in prisons in England and Wales is to be phased in from January, despite warnings from prison governors that it risked making jails more unstable.The decision follows a seven-year battle by prison unions to include jails within the ban on smoking in public places introduced in 2007. It spells the end of the “tobacco barons” operat
  
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• House Republicans advance bill to undo health law - Yahoo News UK

  29-09-2015 18:29
  Yahoo News UK
  House Republicans advance bill to undo health law
  Yahoo News UK
  WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans advanced legislation Tuesday to dismantle President Barack Obama's health law that could actually reach the president's desk. The House GOP has voted more than 50 times to repeal all or parts of the health law.en meer »
  

• MoJ drops ‘failure to prevent economic crime’ offence plans

  29-09-2015 17:42 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The government has ceased all work on developing a new corporate crime offence, placing justice ministers at odds with the Serious Fraud Office.
  
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• Government drops plan to extend corporate criminal liability

  29-09-2015 17:42 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Work ceases on new offence of 'failure to prevent economic crime', placing ministers at odds with the Serious Fraud Office.
  
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• Ex-Congolese vice-president on trial at ICC for witness-tampering

  29-09-2015 16:26
  
  Jean-Pierre Bemba among five defendants charged with witness tampering in his trial at The Hague over alleged war crimes in Central African Republic A former Congolese vice-president charged with murder and rape has appeared alongside several of his defence lawyers in the international criminal court’s first witness-tampering and bribery trial.Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, 52, is among five defendants said to have paid for people to be coached and encouraged to give false testimony at a war cri
  
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• US supreme court: conservatives set to retake reins after year of liberal wins

  29-09-2015 15:41
  
  After a spate liberal decisions on gay marriage and Obamacare, experts predict the court’s conservative majority will reassert itself ahead of the 2016 electionWith the US political class still reeling from the climax of last season’s finale, the supreme court returns on Monday for a new series of cases, and all indications point to equally dramatic plot twists involving race, class and murder.
  While 2014-15 will be remembered for surprise wins by the liberal wing of the court, parti
  
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• Human error blamed for opening of prisoners’ legal letters

  29-09-2015 15:34 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Prisons and Probation Ombudsman upheld 16 complaints between April 2014 and June 2015.
  
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• Lord Bach: Labour’s legal aid election offering ‘disappointing’

  29-09-2015 14:31 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Former justice minister says party leader Jeremy Corbyn is ‘enthusiastic’ about latest review.
  
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• 77% of UK businesses say EU's new data law is a financial burden - Information Age

  29-09-2015 14:14
  Information Age
  77% of UK businesses say EU's new data law is a financial burden
  Information Age
  More than two thirds (68%) of IT professionals say keeping up to date with changing data protection regulatory requirements is a financial burden on their business, new research has revealed. British businesses feel most strongly about this (77 ...en meer »
  

• How rape became South Africa's enduring nightmare

  29-09-2015 14:00
  
  New crime statistics show a slight drop in sexual offences but experts say true figures are much higher. The Daily Maverick asks if history can cure the crisis
  Most South Africans learn about rape, or the threat of rape, when they are very young – even if they are yet to have the words for it. Sexual abuse has become normalised.Though the country’s annual crime figures, released on Tuesday, saw the number of sexual offences drop by just over 5% to 53 617 between 2014–2015, most
  
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• Civil court fee increases a ‘serious own goal’ – City lawyers

  29-09-2015 13:30 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The Ministry of Justice proposes doubling the maximum court levy to £20,000 to generate an extra £60m in income each year.
  
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• Labyrinth of Lies review – Auschwitz trial drama loses its way

  29-09-2015 13:24
  
  Giulio Ricciarelli’s well-intentioned film about the first ever prosecution of death camp crimes by a German court is borderline inept“You there, what happened at Auschwitz?” So barks a pedantic exposition machine masquerading as a character in Giulio Ricciarelli’s well-meaning but bordering-on-inept historical drama Labyrinth of Lies. The setting is a public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, 1958. A 20-year-old woman shrugs, and even those who recall Auschwitz as a
  
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• Skilled migration curbs would harm legal sector – Law Society

  29-09-2015 12:24 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Chancery Lane tells government that international firms must be able to recruit from outside the European Economic Area. 
  
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• Magistrate resigns after paying destitute asylum seeker's court fine

  29-09-2015 11:58
  
  Nigel Allcoat says he contributed £40 because court was at an impasse due to mounting charges imposed on man who could not work in the UK A senior magistrate who pulled £40 from his own shirt pocket to pay the court fine for a destitute asylum seeker has resigned his position, after being suspended by authorities for the good deed.Professional organist Nigel Allcoat, a magistrate for 15 years, said he was despairing at the mounting fines and costs being accrued by an asylum seeker at
  
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• Quindell facing potential legal claims worth £9m

  29-09-2015 11:13 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Company announces it has received ‘notice of intended claim’ from law firm.
  
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• U.K. Abandons Move to Broaden Its Criminal Laws: Business of Law - Bloomberg

  29-09-2015 07:56
  U.K. Abandons Move to Broaden Its Criminal Laws: Business of Law
  Bloomberg
  The U.K. abandoned a much campaigned-for change to legislation that would have made it easier to prosecute corrupt companies in the latest nod to a new era of deregulation for business under the re-elected Conservatives. In a written answer to a ...en meer »
  

• Refugee law experts urge Malcolm Turnbull to let detention centre staff speak to UN

  29-09-2015 01:25
  
  More than 60 academics write open letter saying workers should be free to report human rights abuses after special rapporteur François Crépeau cancels tripAustralia should allow immigration detention centre workers to report human rights abuses to UN representatives without fear of imprisonment, academics and refugee law experts have argued in an open letter to the prime minister.Related: Open letter on the Border Force Act: 'We challenge the department to prosecute'Related: Manus
  
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• Prisoners' legal letters opened by prison staff, admits ombudsman

  29-09-2015 01:01
  
  Confidential correspondence from inmates to lawyers and the courts found to have been opened in half of cases investigated Prisoners’ confidential legal letters to and from their lawyers and the courts have been wrongly opened by prison staff in half of cases investigated by the prisons ombudsman in the past year.The prisons and probation ombudsman, Nigel Newcomen, carried out 32 official investigations into complaints about the handling of confidential correspondence with prisoners in Eng
  
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