Law in Practice

BRINGING JUSTICE HOME

Kate Aubrey-Johnson provides an overview of civil mediation today 

In the past year, mediation was attempted in nearly 12,000 small claims and an estimated 8,000 fast and multi track cases with settlement rates of 68-90% (Small Claims Mediation Service Annual Report, HMCTS, 2011/12; CDER Fifth Mediation Audit May 2012). This is in addition to the many potential civil disputes being resolved using community mediation and mediation schemes. Members of the public and businesses, organisations and public bodies who may otherwise turn to the courts to protect and enforce their rights are discovering that mediation can offer an alternative process which is both empowering for clients and reaches creative solutions not achievable through a contested court hearing. 

What’s In a Name?

Hassan Khan and Claire Fox argue the case for same sex marriage 

The government’s proposals

In March 2012 the government published its consultation paper on equal civil marriage. The proposal is simple: same sex couples will, like opposite sex couples, be allowed to marry one another in a civil ceremony. Marriages solemnised through religious ceremony and on religious premises will only be legal between a man and a woman. The government is committed to these reforms and seeks views on how equal civil marriage should be implemented. The government’s response to the consultation is expected towards the end of 2012. 

Jacqueline Kinghan, Director of Clinical Legal Education at UCL Faculty of Laws, examines the continuing role of the undergraduate law degree in the light of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR). 

The Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) recently published a discussion paper with suggestions for simplifying the structure of legal education and ensuring it is fit for purpose. The proposals – including whether to abolish the qualifying law degree – have re-ignited the all too familiar skills versus scholarship debate in legal education. Several leading academics have criticised the LLB as a poor combination of a liberal arts programme with arbitrarily-selected technical legal skills. In some camps, a graduate programme or Bar Exam like that in the US has been a suggested preferred course. Rebecca Huxley-Binns at NTU appears to favour the retention of the degree but proposes that the core subjects be taught around ‘intellectual professional legal skills’ such as drafting, writing, reasoning and commercial awareness. 

Jo Delahunty QC and Kate Purkiss, leading and junior counsel for the first respondent and mother Chana Al Alas in the “Vitamin D and Rickets” case, examine the vital role played by expert witnesses and question moves to restrict their use in care proceedings 

On 25 July 2009, Jayden Al Alas Wray died whilst a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).  He was four months old. His parents were not with him because two days earlier they had been arrested at his bedside on suspicion of inflicting grievous bodily harm on him and they were prohibited from seeing him. The evidence of the parents’ alleged wrongdoing came from doctors at University College London Hospital (UCLH) and GOSH where he had been treated, and both hospitals attributed all his injuries to non-accidental causes. 

Caroline Wigin provides a practical approach to the evidence of children 

On the 26th February 2010, Child Q was put to bed around 8.00 p.m. At that time he was happy and healthy. In the household were the child and two adults, his mother and his mother’s cohabitee, R. At 9.00 a.m. on the 27th February 2010, an ambulance was called and at 10.00 a.m. he was received into A&E. He had extensive bruising to the groin, back, face and leg. 

Raffia Arshad considers the law, case law and guidance surrounding Oaths and Affirmations 

To an experienced courtroom advocate, a witness swearing the oath to tell the truth is the means to an end. However, sometimes the process itself can throw up complications. Can a judge compel a practising Muslim to swear on the Quran if he or she instead chooses to affirm? Some recent decisions show that both the bench and the Bar can get it wrong. 

As the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) receives Royal Assent, Harriet Deane reflects on why making laws is never a pretty business 
“I am sorry to say that the product of the Minister’s hard work and the process followed by the Government on the Bill do not reflect well on this Government’s reputation. They have damaged access to justice, a fundamental constitutional principle.”  

Legal professional privilege

The continued use of state powers to erode legal professional privilege must be stopped, as Nicholas Griffin QC and Gordon Nardell QC explain 

The state has the power secretly to listen in to the meetings you hold with your clients in chambers, at a solicitors’ firm or elsewhere. This surprising situation – and the troubling cases that have brought it to light – have led the Bar Council’s Law Reform Committee to consider state powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and have prompted the Bar Council to campaign for a change to the law. 

Michael Beloff QC outlines the duties and challenges awaiting Court of Arbitration for Sport panel members during London 2012 

As London 2012, so long in the gestation is finally brought to birth, a cohort of 12 accomplished lawyers, representing every major continent, will enjoy – if precedent is anything to go by – freedom of the Olympic lanes with personally allotted drivers while Mr and Mrs Public make do with a metropolitan transport system under maximum strain. 

Is rape sentencing unduly lenient? Felicity Gerry and Catarina Sjölin report 

A quick click of the Attorney General’s website gives instant access to statistics for unduly lenient sentences up to and including 2010. During 2010, there were nine rape and attempted rape referrals among the total of 78 cases which went to the Court of Appeal. Of those nine, seven sentences were increased and two remained the same. To give an idea of the other offences referred there were 12 sentences involving robbery (of which 10 were increased, two remained the same) and 18 sentences involved non-fatal offences against the person (of which 12 were increased, two remained the same and one had the conviction quashed).