Criminal

HEALTH & SAFETY

A company convicted of corporate manslaughter has been fined 116 per cent of its annual turnover.

Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd (CGH) was fined £385,000 last week at Winchester Crown Court, after becoming the first to be convicted of the new offence under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

Charlotte Bailye discusses the repatriation of victims of forced marriages from Pakistan to the UK. The combined efforts of the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit and the British High Commission in Islamabad are key to success, but the UK Government must do more to assist, she argues. 

In 2008, heightened media sensitivity surrounding the practice of forced marriage helped result in the implementation of the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007. The High Court and county courts now have powers to protect victims of forced marriage through Forced Marriage Protection Orders (“FMPOs”) and can make orders which extend to conduct outside the United Kingdom. 

Does the 2010 Crown Court Benchbook, which moves away from specimen directions to ones specifically tailored to the individual case, help jurors understand the summing up – or is it still like a foreign language to them? Should trial judges abandon legal language in their speeches or are written questions to the jury the answer, asks Daphne Perry

If anyone knows how to talk to a jury, it should be the experienced barristers who now sit as judges. 

David Wurtzel talks to Peter Moffat, the screenwriter of the new BBC series Silk.  

Had he remained at the Bar, Peter Moffat at 48 might now be considering an application for Silk. Instead the BBC is screening his six-part series called Silk, about two 30-something barristers who have reached that turning point in their careers. Moffat is probably the most prolific screenwriter of criminal justice dramas and has two BAFTAs to attest to his success. 

Following WikiLeaks, Shonali Routray examines the position of UK civil servant whistleblowers. Are there safe routes for whistleblowers to raise their concerns rather than having to rely on anonymous leaks, she asks 

The dramatic twists and turns in the story of WikiLeaks and the release of over 250,000 US diplomatic “cables” – secure communications between the US State Department and American embassies around the globe dating back 50 years – raise some fundamental questions about the workings of Government. 

CRIMINAL PRACTICE

Judges sentencing convicted criminals in their courts are struggling under the burden of “impenetrable legislation”, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge has  warned.

An outline of the Bar Council’s strategy 

Contributor
Peter Lodder QC  

A few weeks into the year and the predominant issue remains clear: the challenges of the proposed spending cuts which will have a profound effect on both the Civil and Criminal Justice Systems. 

Marina Cantacuzino explains the work of The Forgiveness Project 

One evening back in 2002, local ITV news reported the story of a three-year-old girl who had died in a London hospital after mistakenly being given the wrong drug. As the parents, lawyers and hospital staff emerged from the coroner’s court the interviewer thrust a microphone under the father’s nose and asked him how he felt about the doctor responsible for his daughter’s death. 

Lord Justice Moses has called for reform of the role of the judge in jury trials. 

Delivering this year’s Law Reform Committee lecture “Summing Down the Summing Up: Re-Forming the Criminal Trial” on 23 November at the Inner Temple, Moses LJ said there was a problem in the function of the judge and his role as guide when summing-up. Instead, he said, the jury should be given a list of questions to answer. 

CBA Chairman raises concerns 

The Criminal Bar Association (“CBA”) has given a lukewarm response to Government proposals to offer defendants who plead guilty at the earliest stage a 50 per cent reduction in their sentence.