Ben Letham

Speeding his way to jail

Filed under Criminal law, Legal news, March 12, 2013 by , No Comments

Last night Chris Huhne, the former cabinet minister, spent his first night in jail for lying about who was owed the speeding points handed to him in 2003.

It is a dramatic fall from grace for a politician who was once considered one of the most dynamic ministers in the coalition. He only became an MP in 2005, but was energy secretary in the early stages of the coalition before the scandal broke.

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Chubby Checker to sue Hewlett Packard

Filed under Disputes, Legal news, February 19, 2013 by , No Comments

An absolutely stonking story, this one.

Until 2012 an app, the Chubby Checker, was available to download through Hewlett Packard software for their Palm OS software. Now the original Chubby Checker is suing HP and the company that made the app, Magic Apps, for $500m.

‘Chubby’ is slang for an erection, and the app was designed to be an amusing piece of software allowing women to estimate the size of a man’s penis. You can see why they used the name – it’s great.

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Doctors vote to take industrial action over pensions

Filed under Disputes, Employment law, Legal news, May 31, 2012 by , No Comments

For the first time since 1975 doctors who belong to the British Medical Association (BMA), an independent trade union, have voted in a postal ballot regarding industrial action over pensions. The BMA polled its members in various branches of the profession, including GPs and hospital consultants.

Health professionals are permitted by law to strike, unlike the armed services, police and prison officers, but a total withdrawal of labour is unlikely and would be unprecedented.

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New riots response figures released by MoJ

Filed under Criminal law, Legal news, May 4, 2012 by , No Comments

The legal response to last summer’s riots continues and the Ministry of Justice has just released more official figures.

The crown prosecution service, the legal body responsible for bringing criminals to trial, is currently processing 450 more defendants. More are coming in all the time as police sift through hundreds of hours’ worth of CCTV footage.

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New director intends to re-focus ailing Serious Fraud Office

Filed under Criminal law, General legal information, Legal news, May 4, 2012 by , No Comments

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been linked to a series of failed prosecutions in the recent past. One example is the high-profile case earlier this year involving the property tycoon Tchenguiz brothers, who were linked to the collapse of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing in 2008.

However, the SFO now has a new director.
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Coroner finds dead spy was probably murdered

Filed under Bristol, Criminal law, Legal news, May 3, 2012 by , No Comments

The inquest into the death of MI6 cryptologist Gareth Williams has ended in a narrative verdict. The coroner found that there was insufficient evidence to find that he was murdered, but said an open verdict would not have served justice.

Mr Williams was discovered dead in his Bristol flat in 2010. He had been locked into a North Face bag and placed in the bath.

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Court rules The Pirate Bay file-sharing website must be blocked by ISPs

Filed under Commercial law, Legal news, May 3, 2012 by , No Comments

Virgin Media has become the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) to block its customers from access to the Swedish file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay.

The media company is complying with an order granted by the High Court this week. Other providers named by the judge, including TalkTalk, Sky, Everything Everywhere and O2, are expected to take the same action in the near future.
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Government considers compensated no-fault dismissal

Filed under Employment law, Legal news, March 19, 2012 by , No Comments

As part of its ongoing reform of employment law the government has issued a Call for Evidence on its proposed reforms to employment law. This includes a proposal to allow small businesses to terminate their employees’ contracts at any time, provided they provide compensation.

Under the current law, businesses are entitled to terminate contracts up until an employee has had a full year of employment, after which employers must follow adequate processes and be able to demonstrate that the dismissal was fair and reasonable.

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Chris Huhne case highlights seriousness of speeding fines

Filed under Criminal law, Legal news, March 19, 2012 by , 1 Comment

There has been a great deal of publicity surrounding the recent speeding case involving the former energy secretary Chris Huhne. Mr Huhne was accused of encouraging his ex-wife Vicky Pryce to take the points, which should have been added to his driving licence, so that he could avoid a driving ban.

Mr Huhne and his wife appeared at Southwark Crown Court on 2 March 2012, accused of perverting the course of justice. They were granted unconditional bail and were told that the trial, which could take place in October, would not take longer than two weeks.
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Nuclear veterans denied compensation

Filed under Disputes, Legal news, March 16, 2012 by , No Comments

In a knife-edge four-to-three ruling, the Supreme Court has ruled that participants in the United Kingdom’s nuclear testing in the 1950s who may have later developed medical conditions due to exposure to radiation cannot sue the government for compensation.

Limitation period

Under UK personal injury law, cases must be brought within three years of the date of ‘actual knowledge’. Often this will be the accident itself, but in the case of the atomic veterans, it dates to 2007, when they first obtained medical knowledge that their illnesses may have been caused by the ionising radiation of a nuclear blast.

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