By Felicity Gerry, Barrister
In April 2011 the BBC reported that experts have expressed concern that convictions for historic offending could be unsafe due to memory errors. Frank Joynson, whose case was discussed in File on 4, BBC Radio 4 on 29 March at 2000 told of his experiences of being convicted of historic sexual allegations where the Court of Appeal eventually held that the long delay in starting proceedings meant that a fair trial had not been possible, no jury direction could compensate him for the prejudice caused by the delay and his conviction should be quashed (R v Joynson (Frank) (2008) EWCA Crim 3049).
Steven Murrell, a Litigation solicitor with Macfarlanes LLP, and John Williams, a Chartered Surveyor and Expert Witness with Maple Leaf, discuss the impact of the loss of immunity for Expert Witnesses.
Anthony Pearlgood, commercial director of PHS Datashred and chairman of the information destruction section of the BSIA, discusses how irritating office habits can affect the security of your organisation.
Guy Hewetson writes that chambers need to target overseas markets and base themselves in the fast-growing jurisdictions both to capitalise on new opportunities and to hedge against a domestic downturn
Vicki Helyar-Cardwell, Director of the Criminal Justice Alliance
The Court of Appeal’s decision in October 2011 to uphold the majority of sentences for the rioters reflected the fact that the context of public disorder was considered a hugely aggravating factor. Lord Judge defended the decision stating that the level of lawlessness required severe sentences “to provide both punishment and deterrence”. He went on to differentiate between the approach taken towards these young adults (the majority were aged between 18 and 25) and the approach adopted for juveniles, “none of these appeals involves children or young offenders (where different sentencing considerations arise).....the actions were deliberate, and each knew exactly what he (and in one case, she) was doing.”
Peter Hungerford-Welch is Assistant Dean (Professional Programmes) City Law
The drive for speedy summary justice means that magistrates’ courts are expected to be increasingly reluctant to grant adjournments. For example, in Balogun v DPP [2010] EWHC 799 (Admin), the court reiterated that requests for adjournments should be submitted to ‘rigorous scrutiny’
By Catherine Bailey, Managing Director, Bar Marketing Limited
It is a simple fact that a £4bn profit legal market is bound to be attractive to new entrants with low cost operating structures. These new entrants bring with them existing large loyal customer bases. The questions we should be asking ourselves are how do we react? Do we work in co-operation? Do we compete head on? Do we adopt a mixture of both? Or do we firmly stick our collective heads in the sand and hope it all goes away?
Jodie Blackstock Director of Criminal and EU Justice Policy
The European Union is currently engaged in considering how procedural safeguards for suspects in criminal proceedings can be enhanced. It is a long time coming
