Blog
The right against self incrimination for witnesses in Financial Remedy Proceedings
We have all been involved in representing clients who appear to have engaged in some form of criminal conduct during the course of the marriage. In financial remedy proceedings this usually takes the form of tax evasion or cheating the revenue. During the course of the proceedings a party will generally be expected to have […]
Closing the door – Section 91(14) orders
Jennifer Lee sets out the courts’ approach when considering a barring order under section 91(14) of the Children Act 1989. As first featured in the Family Law Journal in November 2015. Section 91(14) of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) empowers the court, when disposing of an application under ChA 1989, to make an order […]
The misuse of section 20
Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 concerns the LA’s duty to provide a child with somewhere to live when he or she has no home, or no safe home. It ensures a child is provided for when no-one holds parental responsibility; or the child has been lost or abandoned; or the person who has […]
Driving at work – does Health & Safety law apply?
More than a quarter of all road traffic incidents may involve somebody who is driving as part of their work at the time according to Department for Transport figures. Health and safety law applies to work activities on the road in the same way as it does to all work activities and employers need to […]
Who is responsible for transport safety?
For anyone involved in transport law, safety is always the first priority and concern of any regulator or court. The Transport Safety Commission has recently published a report ‘UK Transport Safety: Who is responsible?’ The Commission, which is an independent body established in 2013, has the role of inquiring into transport safety matters, in order […]
The curse of CCC
The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Criminal Courts Charge) Regulations 2015 continue to drive judicial despair and resignations from the lay bench. Which charge should apply when a Defendant pleads to a summary-only offence in the Crown Court? My client had been initially charged with one either-way offence (affray) and three summary only offences. At […]
Recent developments in disciplinary law
There have been two recent important cases, Squier and Enemuwe, on the vexed question of the use that professional disciplinary panels are entitled to make of Court of Appeal judgments in related criminal cases. Squier must now be regarded as the leading authority on the issue. The Queen (on the application of Squier) v General […]
From the GMC fitness to practise panel
Rajkumar (June 2015) Providing drug without prescription – vulnerable patient – invitation to patient to collude in malpractice. Facts The Doctor, without formally prescribing it, gave a patient lorazepam on a home visit, and then told her not to inform his secretary of what he had done. At the time the patient was under the […]
Rugby World Cup – how are players disciplined?
The laws of Rugby are notoriously incomprehensible to most spectators, many players and some referees. But if you thought the rules about behaviour in the scrum were murky, spare a thought for the galaxy of rugby loving legal luminaries who administer an equally complex set of disciplinary rules. The game at international level is run […]
NHS staff must declare gifts from drugs companies or face jail
Does the widely disliked “Big Pharma” bribe doctors with free gifts and hospitality? In this country at least, bribery is seldom carried out by anything so obvious as a brown envelope stuffed with used bank notes. Instead, it is made to seem respectable by invitations to conferences in comfortable hotels, where the ostensible purpose of […]
Shining the light on proceedings
Often people will ask me whether the Bar and the Courtroom exchanges are really like it is portrayed on television in programmes like ‘Silk’ or ‘Judge John Deed’ and, for those of you old enough to remember, ‘Crown Court’. Since most episodes have to fit in to a one hour slot, there has to be […]
A (A Child) [2015] EWCA Civ 910
Background on the relevant law S.1 (2A) and (2B) of the Children Act 1989, as amended by the Children and Families Act 2014, states that there is a presumption that involvement (direct or indirect) of a parent in a child’s life will further the welfare of the child. This position is therefore the starting point […]
