Law Weblog

Carter Review: legal aid procurement

Lord Carter today published his report into legal aid procurement. It will take us some time to digest his rather large report. Simply, it proposes stripping around £100 million each year from the criminal legal aid budget.

Criminal justice – compare and contrast

A story about a recycling bin that is of no particular consequence except that it appeared during the week that the Attorney General declared that the judge in the Sweeney paedophile case had correctly applied the law. It shows the range of behaviours that are “criminal”.

Sweeney kidnapped and indecently assaulted a 3 year old girl and was given a minimum custodial sentence of less than 6 years.

Exeter woman Donna Challice aged 30 wound up in court over the shocking state of her recycling bin which had been contaminated with all manner of inappropriate waste – from cigarette butts to potato peelings; however the prosecution failed to prove that the defendant herself had dumped it there. Anyone could have fouled Ms Challice’s bin, but it was not her. Donna had been warned about the state of her green bin, but it continued to become contaminated with non-recyclable waste, the council offered help to address the issue.

Donna’s case was the first of its kind and the £5,000 legal bill was paid for by Exeter council tax payers. Sweeney’s sentence will not be referred by the Attorney General to the Court of Appeal because it is not unduly lenient. 

Grrrrrr, the “FCUK” Trade Mark is not invalid

The Trade Mark “FCUK” can be registered by French Connection Limited.
It was claimed in an appeal to the Appointed Person that the controversial trade mark was “contrary to … accepted principles of morality” under Section 3(3)(a) of the Trade Marks Act 1994.

It was argued that the acronym caused offence not because it is seen as the swear word “f**k” because of wordplay, mistake or misconstruing of the letters, but because it essentially was the swear word. It was so obviously intended to be the swear word that everyone would interpret it as such and therefore was contrary to “accepted principles of morality”. This line of reasoning was rejected by the Appointed Person, Richard Arnold QC on 27 May 2006.

The mark will continue to offend a section of society but nevertheless French Connection Limited can continue to benefit from it (if people buy their offending products).

This case was distinguished from the “FOOK” case, where it was held that the word “FOOK” could be phonetically identical to the word “f**k” and therefore the application was rejected.

Lord Speaker elected

4 July 2006 The House of Lords ended the 1,400-year-old tradition of having the Lord Chancellor as their speaker when they elected Baroness Helene Hayman (former Labour minister) as the Lord Speaker.
Baroness Hayman will have none of the roles of the Lord Chancellor completing the shift to a completely independent judiciary enshrined in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. The next step in this reform is a supreme court in, perhaps, 2008.

The Lord Chancellor –the oldest office in the land – combined the duties of speaker in the Lords and head of the judiciary. The Lord Speaker is independent of government and elected rather than appointed by the prime minister. She is not a member of the cabinet, nor responsible for a government department. There is no judicial role.

Unlike the Speaker in the Commons, she will not call the house to order or rule on points of order, call members to speak or select amendments. The tradition of the Lord Cancellor handing the speech to the Queen at the state opening of parliament will end as does the tradition of the Lord Speaker wearing a wig, but she will wear either parliamentary robes or ceremonial robes in black with a gold trim on big occasions. The Lord Speaker will still sit on the woolsack which symbolises the source of Britain’s wealth.

St Thomas Becket who was also the archbishop of Canterbury is probably the most famous person to have held the office of Lord Chancellor, he was killed in 1170, others Thomas More and the ambitious Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. 

The Lord Speaker will receive £103,701 and an allowance of £33,990. 

Changes to Magistrates’ Courts legal aid scheme

The Criminal Defence Service (Financial Eligibility) Regulations 2006 set out the criteria relating to financial eligibility which must be satisfied before individuals involved in criminal proceedings in a magistrates’ court may receive publicly funded representation.
From 2nd October 2006 legal aid will automatically be given to individuals who are
on certain benefits e.g. income support, or
those under 16, or
those under 18 and in full-time education.

An individual will have to make contributions towards a Representation Order if his gross income is between £11,590 and £20,740 (after deductions). Those receiving over £20,740 are not eligible for assistance.

Calculations and awards will no longer be made by the Magistrates’ Court but by the Legal Services Commission by virtue of The Criminal Defence Service (Representation Orders and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2006. Very high cost cases may still attract state funding for individuals outside the earnings limit and can be referred to the High Court for its decision.

Juries in complex fraud trials

In Parliament yesterday the government was called upon to look again at legislation scrapping the use of juries in complex fraud trials. The shadow Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, told the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, should stop using collapse of the £25m Jubilee Line trial. the case as justification for the move. Jurors in that case said they perfectly well understood the evidence and it was the lawyers who failed to make progress with the trial.

ADR, compulsory mediation in the Family Court

The Constitutional Affairs select committee in a report published this week says that the Family Resolutions Pilot Project has been a ‘failure’ in diverting parents away from the courts; because mediation is not compulsory. They said that there should be a compulsory preliminary meeting with a mediator. At the moment those seeking legal aid are expected to use mediation but privately funded couples are not.
The committee took evidence from the President, Sir Mark Potter and other senior judges and officials.
Full report here.

The minimum wage

From October the adult minimum wage be increased to £5.35, the rate for 18-21 year- olds to £4.45, and the rate for 16-17 year-olds to £3.30.

Concern over discount for guilty plea

The Lord Chief Justice called together a strong Court of Appeal of 5 judges to hear an appeal by the Attorney General against the unduly lenient sentence of a man who raped and indecently assaulted (and took photographs of the acts) a 12-week-old baby.
Alan Webster 40 from Hatfield had his minimum jail term increased from six to eight years. The sentence of his accomplice, Tanya French, will remain the same. Although Webster can apply for parole his depravity was such that it is possible he will die in jail.
The Lord Chief Justice referred to The Sentencing Guidelines Council the court’s misgivings about the discount available when an offender pleads guilty even though – as in this case – he is caught red-handed. 

With the exams so close we could not resist this news item to raise your spirits

A family in Oregon wants to sue their neighbour for $1.6 million (£850,000) over the death of a dog. They are seeking compensation for the loss of the companionship of their pet, which died after being run over by a neighbour.
News report here