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Other In the Media General news
In the Media
General
| May-18-13 - What do you do after a burglary? »
There has been good news on burglary in recent weeks. Official figures show that break-ins were down 9% in 2012, in part because the fall in electrical prices means there's less stuff that is worth nicking. The Economist last week analysed the "Not so mean streets" of Britain where despite recession and high unemployment, burglary continues its decade-long decline. But this offered little comfort to us after arriving home from the cinema last weekend to find our home ransacked. Computers stolen, watches and jewellery gone, cameras looted, drawers emptied and clothes strewn across the floor. Nothing really prepares you for it. ... [view] |
| May-17-13 - SRA’s popularity slips »
Friday 17 May 2013 by John Hyde Solicitors are less likely to speak positively of the Solicitors Regulation Authority than they were a year ago, a Law Society survey has found. ... [view] |
| May-17-13 - Criminal legal aid cuts double »
Friday 17 May 2013 by Catherine Baksi Ministry of Justice officials have confirmed that £350m could be cut from the criminal legal aid budget - twice as much as the amount stated in the consultation on transforming legal aid. ... [view] |
| May-17-13 - Why are the LulzSec hackers being locked up? | James Ball »
For lawmakers, illicit downloaders and hackers alike, the internet is one of the few bits of frontier territory left in the world: for the "rogues" there's lots more scope to get away with things not possible in more civilised, everyday reality, while for the lawmakers there's an ungovernable mess. ... [view] |
| May-17-13 - LGBT police officers tell young gay people It Gets Better »
For the first time, a collective of 36 lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) police officers and police staff from 16 police forces across the UK tell their stories, providing a message of transformation, hope and encouragement to vulnerable young gay people that It Gets Better. ... [view] |
| May-17-13 - Secret arrest plans in disarray »
Proposals by the Association of Chief Police Officers, (Acpo) sought to end the naming of suspects on arrest, unless there were exceptional circumstances. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Internet access puts jurors at risk »
This week a leading QC predicted the demise of the jury system. Louis Blom-Cooper, QC, said that looked at by outcomes, the system worked well: there was little difference in conviction rates between lay juries and professional tribunals. Why, then, change it? “It works,” he said. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Age of consent must remain at 16 »
When human rights barrister Barbara Hewson described the exposure of the latest sex abuse allegations by Operation Yewtree as “low-level misdemeanours” and called for the age of consent to be lowered to 13, she must have expected some dissent. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Litigation costs almost double in the UK »
Litigation costs have soared by almost 50 per cent in the UK during the economic downturn, research released today reveals. The figures come just days after legislation announced in last week’s Queen’s Speech sparked business fears that US-style class-action law suits could be headed to Britain. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - MoJ plans crackdown on ‘so-called’ experts »
Thursday 16 May 2013 by Catherine Baksi Experts whose evidence is 'not up to scratch' will be driven out of the family courts by reforms announced today by the Ministry of Justice. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Law Society Excellence Awards now open for nomination »
Thursday 16 May 2013 The Law Society is inviting legal professionals from across England and Wales to enter the Excellence Awards 2013. Now in its seventh year, and bigger than ever before, the event showcases some of the brightest minds and most innovative firms. This year, the focus is on individuals and teams across the legal sector who are setting new precedents in the profession. Law Society vice-president Nick Fluck said: 'If you or your team are breaking new ground, if you have shown great innovation, if your work has been outstanding, we want to hear from you. 'Now is not the time for modesty and playing down your achievements. By entering the Excellence Awards, you can build your reputation, achieve the respect of your peers and spend some well-deserved time in the spotlight in return for your hard work. 'This year's expanded event at the Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster is hoping to see first hand the kind of innovation and talent that drives the profession forward.' There are 17 categories in the 2013 Excellence Awards. New awards for this year include Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion, Excellence in Pro Bono, Excellence in Marketing and Communications, Excellence in Business Development and Innovation, and Excellence in Exporting Legal Services. The remaining categories for teams are The Lexcel Award for Excellence in Practice Management, Legal Sector Alliance Award for Excellence in Environmental Responsibility; Excellence in Client Service; Excellence in Learning and Development and the CQS Award for Excellence in Conveyancing Practice. Categories for individuals are: The Law Society Gazette Legal Personality of the Year; Legal Business Woman of the Year; Solicitor Advocate of the Year; Junior Lawyer of the Year; Solicitor of the Year (In-House and Private Practice) and Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations are now open until August 9 2013. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Drugs adviser issues tough warning on 'legal highs' »
Professor Les Iversen, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), expressed fears that the law is struggling to keep up with drug dealers, who are creating potentially deadly new substances at the rate of more than one a week. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Letters: Society's failure over the Oxford sex abuse ring »
The coverage of the Oxford and Rochdale sex abuse rings has raised uncomfortable questions around culture, gender and power within the British-Pakistani community which, thus far, the mainstream press has proved rather squeamish in confronting (Social services failed me, says abuse ring girl, 15 May). Are men of Pakistani origin predisposed to abuse girls? No. Do elements of Pakistani culture help explain why a group of men engaged in a joint venture of abusing dozens of poor, young girls? Perhaps. For a community grappling with forced marriage and so-called honour killings, the cultural backdrop and norms of female disempowerment to these crimes are all too relevant. ... [view] |
| May-16-13 - Conman Kallakis gets four more years in jail »
Achilleas Kallakis, a conman who received a seven-year jail sentence in January, will spend a further four years behind bars after a British government lawyer called on senior judges for a tougher sentence. ... [view] |
| May-15-13 - US business body warns UK about class system »
The British Government risks importing the worst excesses of the American class actions system if it goes ahead with plans to allow consumers to bring wide-ranging claims against companies, the US Chambers of Commerce has warned. ... [view] |
| May-15-13 - Jurors ‘confused’ on new media contempt »
Wednesday 15 May 2013 by Catherine Baksi Groundbreaking research on juries has revealed that most jurors feel they are not given enough guidance on conducting deliberations, while almost a quarter misunderstand the rules on internet use during trials. ... [view] |
| May-15-13 - Probation reform: payment by results can reduce reoffending | Rob Owen »
St Giles Trust believes charities can play a bigger role in future criminal justice services. We welcome justice secretary Chris Grayling's announcement last week that supervision for prisoners sentenced to less than a year will be extended. A snapshot of offending history into 165 very vulnerable women using our resettlement services showed that they had an average of 32 previous convictions each. We employ specially trained, carefully managed, reformed ex-offenders. Their credibility means we can reach the most disengaged individuals who are caught in a vicious cycle of prison, homelessness and reoffending – and help to rebuild their lives in a way that anyone who has not been in prison would struggle to do. ... [view] |
| May-15-13 - G4S guard in dead deportee case shared racist jokes »
The G4S security guard in charge of restraining an Angolan man who died as he was being deported from Britain was told in court to read out a string of racist jokes he received and forwarded using his mobile phone. ... [view] |
| May-15-13 - Theresa May: death by incarceration | Editorial »
Posturing by a previous home secretary over the death of a policeman eventually led to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty for murder. David Maxwell-Fyfe's refusal to pardon Derek Bentley led to an injustice so grave that something had to give, though not before the state had strangled a mentally disabled teen who never fired a shot. Yesterday another home secretary, desperate to make peace with the bobbies who booed her last year, proposed a new mandatory sentence for killing a cop, which might be described as death by incarceration. The idea of automatic life without any possibility of parole brought Theresa May a brief moment of favour at the Police Federation, but as policy it is objectionable in principle and will also prove ineffective in practice. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - I suffered sexual abuse. I refuse to be ashamed any more | Roshi Fernando »
Notably absent from the discussions about the recent abuse cases has been the voices of the victims. There is a reason for this: it is because the "victim" is seen as such. It is a difficult role: identify yourself, and you are immediately associated with a crime of a sexual nature. No one wants this placed on their head. You don't want to be judged by something that happened to your body, sometimes decades ago. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Bar Council picks a former mandarin »
Tuesday 14 May 2013 by Catherine Baksi The Bar Council has appointed former education civil servant Stephen Crowne as its chief executive to fill a post that has been vacant for two years. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Oxford child abuse ring: how police overcame past mistakes to jail the gang »
In the early hours of the morning Detective Chief Inspector Simon Morton stared at a whiteboard covered in the names of scores of men and young girls. Many of the girls had been reported missing, then turned up again in the city, only to be reported missing again. Some of the men were local, others came from Bradford and elsewhere in the UK. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Vicky Pryce's prison memoir could lead to much-needed reforms »
Prison is supposed to be the means by which a convicted criminal pays his or her debt to society. In reality, most of what prison entails is a corrosive, destructive, costly waste of time. Great news, then, that Vicky Pryce is writing a memoir covering the eight weeks she spent behind bars out of her original eight-month sentence for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Her time inside may have been relatively short, but it would have been long enough to give her a strong flavour of what imprisonment means for a woman in modern Britain. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Why I won't be reading Vicky Pryce's prison memoir | Hannah Jane Parkinson »
Within 24 hours of being released from prison, Vicky Pryce has announced she has signed a publishing deal to release a book called Prisonomics, which won't, she says, be a straight memoir, but will instead interweave her own experiences with the economic impact of the prison system and, in particular, how it treats women. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Blaming online images of abuse for Stuart Hazell's horrific acts is simplistic | Ally Fogg »
After months in which our attention was demanded by historic sexual abuse cases, this week has brought grim reminders that the issue remains very much in the here and now. Stuart Hazell has finally confessed to the horrific abuse and murder of Tia Sharp. Prior to the murder he had taken indecent photographs of his victim, and police investigations reveal he had an extensive and expanding collection of sexual images of children. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Litigants in person; oral evidence; and costs management »
Monday 13 May 2013 by Masood Ahmed Sir Alan Ward in Wright v Michael Wright Supplies Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 234, a case which concerned two litigants in person (LIPs), opened his judgment by warning the reader that 'this judgment will make depressing reading'. The case highlighted the difficulties increasingly encountered by the judiciary at all levels when dealing with LIPs. ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Is child grooming and sexual abuse a race issue? »
It is the potentially explosive charge that may gain momentum after the conviction of the latest gang of men to be convicted of grooming underage girls. Is there something about Asian Muslim men that leads to them being disproportionately involved in the grooming and sexual abuse of white girls? ... [view] |
| May-14-13 - Britain's young sheriffs are growing up fast »
Embarrassing expenses revelations, allegations of political cronyism, a high-profile scandal leading to a resignation. It didn't take long, did it? In our Police and Crime Commissioners we have conceived a new and powerful set of politicians, and whichever way you look at it, they have had a difficult birth. The PCCs are six months old today, and in the absence of any major impact on crime, their collective reputation has mainly been characterised by personnel issues, financial irregularities and stupid mistakes. ... [view] |
| May-13-13 - Legal education move by embattled Co-op »
Monday 13 May 2013 by Michael Cross The Co-operative Group's legal services arm is to set up a 'learning academy' later this year to give legal training to aspiring lawyers who cannot afford university. ... [view] |
| May-13-13 - Andrew Moran: is the 'costa del crime' still home to many wanted Brits? »
The spectacular filmed arrest of Andrew Moran at his "luxury villa" in Calpe on the Costa Blanca is a reminder that Spain is still a happy hiding ground for many British criminals. Moran had been on the run for four years after escaping from Burnley crown court where he was convicted in his absence of conspiring to commit armed robbery. ... [view] |
| May-12-13 - Letters: The profound problem of male sexual violence »
The Guardian, like other media, is regularly burdened by stories of men's abuse of women and children, but last Wednesday was an especially heavy day. The front page and an inside spread presented breaking news of the abduction, sequestration and rape of Amanda Berry and two other women in Cleveland, Ohio. A further page was filled by the trial of Mark Bridger in the case of the disappeared five-year-old April Jones and of Stuart Hazell for the alleged murder of his step-granddaughter. There was also a report on the arrest of yet another TV personality for suspected child abuse. ... [view] |
| May-12-13 - Police 'ordered to slant crime data' »
The head of the Police Federation will suggest that a "fear factor" in the wake of the Leveson inquiry is preventing officers from blowing the whistle on how crime statistics are being manipulated. ... [view] |
| May-11-13 - How to spot a murderer's brain »
In 1987, Adrian Raine, who describes himself as a neurocriminologist, moved from Britain to the US. His emigration was prompted by two things. The first was a sense of banging his head against a wall. Raine, who grew up in Darlington and is now a professor at the University of Philadelphia, was a researcher of the biological basis for criminal behaviour, which, with its echoes of Nazi eugenics, was perhaps the most taboo of all academic disciplines. ... [view] |
| May-11-13 - 20 ways to keep your internet identity safe from hackers »
We're high up in the Gherkin in the City of London and Garry Sidaway, director of security strategy at Integralis, a firm which advises government agencies, pharmaceutical and financial services multinationals, is giving my computer a security MOT. "You don't have anti-virus software, I see," he says, a trace of mockery in his voice. "That's your first mistake." ... [view] |
| May-10-13 - Call for solicitors to use British Sign Language »
Monday 13 May 2013 by Jonathan Rayner Research has highlighted the need for solicitors to learn British Sign Language (BSL) so that deaf people have the same access to legal advice as their hearing counterparts. ... [view] |
| May-10-13 - ‘Don’t ditch quality,’ says Desmond Hudson »
Monday 13 May 2013 by John Hyde Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has warned firms to avoid a 'race to the bottom' as they seek to survive and prosper in a tough market. ... [view] |
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