It’s payback time Boris Johnson is to accelerate moves to limit the powers of campaign groups and individuals to challenge ministers in the courts, reported The Times. The prime minister claimed that judicial reviews were being used to ‘conduct politics by another means’. As the Times put it: ‘It was as a result of a judicial review that Mr Johnson’s prorogation
Struggling to cope The quality of the CPS’s handling of disclosure remained ‘unacceptably low’ with prosecutors failing to identify when police had not disclosed all the relevant evidence in more than half of cases, as reported by the Justice Gap. The new study by HM Chief Inspector Kevin McGinty followed a damning 2017 joint inspection
Weapons-grade shithousery Boris Johnson was accused of plagiarism – not to mention ‘weapons-grade shithousery’ – by the Secret Barrister for having ‘basically copied and pasted my blog post’ (as reported in the Independent). Over the weekend the PM posted a 16 tweet thread on the London Bridge terror case about sentencing which bore an uncanny
Manifesto promises ‘Whatever the intentions of politicians and commentators, this general election is destined to be the narrowest of single-issue campaigns. Brexit will push other issues such as justice to the fringes of debate and those important but perhaps technical issues that typically struggle for airspace (eg, legal aid) won’t have a look in,’ I
Commission on Justice for Wales Wales should have full control of its justice system with powers to run policing, prisons and appoint its own judges, says an independent commission (as reported by BBC News). People in Wales are ‘let down by the system in its current state’, concluded the Commission on Justice for Wales. ‘As
Free SRA training There are a few places left on this FREE SRA Standards and Regulations Reforms course in Birmingham on Monday run by DG Legal. Get your tickets here: lnkd.in/deGRwaj Equal to everything Team Brenda on a fantastic night @UKSupremeCourt. Thank you so much to all our guests for making it such a warm
Justice for the people – ‘not just the privileged few’ A Corbyn government would deliver ‘hundreds of new social welfare lawyers’, as well as set up ‘dozens more law centres in areas that have most suffered from Conservative cuts’. The new law centres would be occupied by 200 lawyers specialising in areas such as benefits,
‘A shadow of its former self’ ‘Happy birthday legal aid,’ wrote Daniel Newman and Faith Gordon for The Conversation. For 70 years, the people of England and Wales have enjoyed the right to be provided legal assistance at public expense if they cannot afford a lawyer, they wrote. ‘Despite the importance of legal aid as
Naima Asif was one of the first barristers to qualify under The Legal Education Foundation’s Justice First Fellowship. After a year as a caseworker at Advocate, the Bar’s pro bono unit, she completed pupillage at Pump Court Chambers in London in October 2018. You can read the rest of the series here. I want to
‘Right to rent’ ruling The government’s controversial ‘Right to Rent’ scheme was causing racial discrimination and violating human rights laws, the High Court has found – according to a report in the Independent this morning. The law, which requires private landlords to check the immigration status of potential tenants, was found to violate the European Convention
