Archive for February, 2012
New Blog series – ‘How to get back to work’
Many visitors come to the blog looking for employment law advice. In the current straining financial climate numerous employees are concerned that their job is in jeopardy and that their skills are out-of-date. If you have been dismissed and your employer followed all the right procedures then the next crucial step will be to get [...]
Filed under Employment law, February 29th, 2012HSBC pays large bonus to chief executive, despite poor performance
Large bonuses paid to executives of loss-making banks are headline news in the UK. The public is up in arms because banks are seen as the most blameworthy institutions in the current financial crisis, while the press regularly reports that banking executives are ‘paying themselves’ large bonuses, despite banking job cuts and a continuing decline [...]
Filed under Commercial law, February 29th, 2012Are divorces too easy to obtain?
A solicitor firm advertising partnership-dissolution services on a billboard is being accused of exploiting vulnerable individuals and encouraging divorce. The firm’s advertisement has given fuel to the debate on whether it should be more difficult to obtain a divorce. Divorce rates are rising, which has led many to argue that it is too simple to [...]
Filed under Family law, February 28th, 2012Former M&S boss defends Coalition’s controversial Workfare scheme
In the past months Tesco and Burger King have pulled out of the colloquially-named ‘work-for-benefits’ scheme. Apart from disparaging press reports, there is a burgeoning campaign throughout social media against this plan to discourage long-term unemployment amongst young people, including the ubiquitous e-petition. However, Sir Stuart Rose, the former executive chairman of M&S, has defended [...]
Filed under Employment law, February 28th, 2012Charity raises awareness of male rape
Amid Government figures indicating an increase in the number of men being victims of rape, a charity has for the first time launched an advertising campaign to increase awareness of the issue. The campaign involves adverts which feature on the London underground as the Six Nations rugby tournament is taking place. The adverts show a [...]
Filed under Criminal law, February 27th, 2012Government to tackle adoption proceedings delays
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, is actively seeking to tackle the delays in adoption proceedings. Last year the Prime Minister urged social workers to not take a negative view on interracial adoptions and ensure that more white adopting parents take on children from other ethnic backgrounds. Currently black children in care are significantly less likely [...]
Filed under Family law, February 27th, 2012Family law arbitration drive launched in UK
This week saw the launch of family law arbitration in England and Wales following a drive by the Government to attempt to resolve more divorce cases through alternative dispute resolution. It is hoped that the move will result in faster and more amicable settlements in divorce cases, and will ease the burden on overworked family [...]
Filed under Family law, February 24th, 2012Occupy London lose legal fight over St Paul’s
The anti-capitalist protesters who have lived in a tented city outside St Paul’s Cathedral for several months have lost their legal battle against their eviction. Yesterday, three judges sitting in the Court of Appeal turned down their application for a review of the High court decision, effectively ending the four-month long protest. Defeat yesterday is [...]
Filed under Disputes,Human Rights, February 23rd, 2012Human rights committee urges abolishment of surgical castration for sex offenders in Europe
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) is urging Germany and the Czech Republic to abolish surgical castration of sex offenders as the practice might be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The countries are the only two in Europe which still occasionally resort to such practices. According to the [...]
Filed under Criminal law,Human Rights, February 22nd, 2012High court judge uses Facebook to serve claim
Last week a judge at the high court made the rare decision to use the social networking site Facebook to serve a claim. Lower courts have previously resorted to the use of social networking sites to serve suits but such methods have thus far not been resorted to by the higher courts. British courts may [...]
Filed under Commercial law, February 22nd, 2012Pirate Bay may be made unavailable for UK internet users
The future of the file-sharing website Pirate Bay is looking increasingly gloomy after Mr Justice Arnold, sitting at the high court, ruled that the site and its users are violating copyright laws. Legal representatives for the website argued that the site did not itself host any material and, as such, it worked in a similar [...]
Filed under Intellectual property law, February 21st, 2012Government accused of war crimes by not securing prisoner’s release
Last year lawyers for Yunus Rahmatullah succeeded in convincing a UK court to grant a writ of habeas corpus, which called for their client to be put on trial or be released. Rahmatullah is currently held at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, where he has been detained since 2004 when he was seized by British forces [...]
Filed under Human Rights, February 21st, 2012Home Office guilty of classifying asylum-seeking children as adults
At the end of last week it was revealed that a group legal action against the Home Office, brought by 40 child-asylum seekers who had wrongly been detained as adults, resulted in a legal bill of £2m for the Office. The cases were troubling as the children had been deemed to be underaged by social [...]
Filed under Immigration, February 20th, 2012Government cost-saving scheme delays court proceedings
The Ministry of Justice’s plan to save money by entering into a contract with Applied Language Solutions (ALS) has caused delays and cancellations of many proceedings after interpreters have failed to show up. Two weeks after the £300m private contract was launched, which was to provide interpreters to all courts in England and Wales, the [...]
Filed under General legal information, February 20th, 2012Concern over increased use of force at young-offender institution
Ashfield, a privately run young offender institution, is being heavily criticised after a yearly inspection discovered that there has been a significant increase of instances in which staff used force on inmates. The prison inspectors found that in many cases staff used force after inmates’ “failure to obey staff instructions”. The Chief Inspector of Prisons, [...]
Filed under Criminal law, February 17th, 2012Mixed reaction to proposal to extend closed material procedures
This week the Cabinet Office published the Justice and Security Green Paper online, which concerns extending the use of ‘closed material procedures’ (CMP) in civil law cases. Under the proposals, evidence against the Government would not be disclosed to claimants in court proceedings if the Secretary of State deemed the material to be of a [...]
Filed under Human Rights, February 17th, 2012Court of Appeal considers quashing abused woman’s conviction
A 29-year-old mother is looking to have her conviction for perverting the course of justice quashed by the Court of Appeal. The woman accused her husband of having raped her several times but subsequently retracted her allegations and was accused of having made a false complaint. Niall Quinn QC, representing the woman, told the court [...]
Filed under Criminal law,Family law, February 16th, 2012Family law solicitors concerned over rising number of care applications
Last week the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service reported that the number of care applications for children from local authorities has significantly increased. The jump in applications has been continuous since the trial of the death of Baby P in 2008. The high number of care applications is having consequences for law [...]
Filed under Family law, February 16th, 2012Tweets put young Saudi journalist’s life at risk
Last week a young Saudi journalist, Hamza Kashgari, was deported from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia after the latter requested his extradition. Kashgari was wanted by Saudi authorities to face charges of blasphemy after he tweeted a conversation he imagined having with Prophet Muhammad. As part of his imaginary conversation Kashgari tweeted, “I have loved things [...]
Filed under Human Rights, February 15th, 2012Youth offenders’ incarceration “seldom serves their rehabilitation needs”
Research by the charity User Voice shows that incarceration, which offers few rehabilitation opportunities, may deteriorate young offenders’ wellbeing. According to the charity many youth offenders come from a turbulent background and have suffered abuse, experienced significant bereavement or had contact with mental health services. Reoffending rates amongst young offenders are high, with around 70% [...]
Filed under General legal information, February 15th, 2012