Police & Prisons

Articles

Lessons in protocol

The Rent Pre-Action protocol may have limited scope but its application contains valuable lessons for all lawyers involved in possession proceedings, says Robert Jordan

Anonymous and transparent

The Past few days we have heard the sound of screeching brakes being applied to the potential juggernaut of the ability to call witnesses anonymously. The House of Lords, in the case of Davis, has thrown out an ice axe to stop the slide down the slippery slope of having trials without letting the defendant know who it is who is giving evidence against them. In all but the uncontroversial set of circumstances, a timely reminder that this is not what our justice system is all about has just been issued.

Genetic discrimination: the need for legislation

The government should take the opportunity of the Single Equality Bill to introduce legislation pre-empting the possibility of genetic discrimination, says Andrew Thompson

Knife through the stereotypes

ARound about the time I was still doing juvenile court crime – like delinquency, a practice one hopes to grow out of – the fashion was to blame all society's ills on single mothers. As far as the tabloids and government policy ( often indistinguishable, then as now) was concerned, their general fecklessness , indolence and irresponsibility was to blame for everything. Specifically, their pig headed refusal to have truck with the absent heroes who had fathered their children was the root cause of 'Britain's Breakdown'. It was always a surprise to go to court and meet the reality – worried, hard working, committed women trying to keep their families together against the odds. Not all of course – the odorously pissed mama, a stranger to education, employment or indeed soap, who swigged cans of loopy juice while letting rip to her strongly held views about immigration and shouting obscenities at her 11-year-old wasn't a particularly great advert for motherhood, or indeed our species. Her mantra was that Britain was no longer a place for the decent white working class, like her. After an afternoon of this I did mutter 'Well, one out of three ain't bad' but by then she was too drunk to hear it. But I remember her as a glorious exception to the norm – the majority were wilfully misrepresented.

Life in crime

Beware unmeritorious appeals, says Lucy Corrin as she warns that poor legal advice will result in court orders that time served in custody will not count

Pays to be reasonable

Simply agreeing to mediation is no guarantee of protection against costs. Parties must ensure they do not make unrealistic claims, says Tom Collins

Update: sentencing

Barbara Barnes reviews the latest cases on dangerousness, young offenders, concurrent or consecutive sentences, young offenders and child pornography

The Financial Ombudsman will fix it

The Financial Ombudsman Service provides a swift and cost-effective alternative to litigation against financial institutions, says Michael J Wilson