Police & Prisons

Articles

17 Jun 2008

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.

10 Jun 2008

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

27 May 2008

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

19 May 2008

Update: sentencing

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

30 Nov 2007

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

23 Nov 2007

Civil litigation brief

Bringing a fatal accident claim as a dependant of a deceased person who settled an earlier personal injury claim can be problematic but not impossible, says Gordon Exall

9 Nov 2007

Corporate manslaughter: the new rules

The Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007 may not be perfect but both organisations and individuals should prepare themselves for its impact, says Gerard Forlin

12 Oct 2007

Life in crime

The rough, tough knockabout cop from the world of tv fiction could make a return if the Home Office reviews the PACE, says Francis FitzGibbon