Posted in Criminal Procedure, Humour, Legal Profession on February 19, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Dear Diary,
A new terror is to be added to life if Lord Falconer gets his way. It is proposed that previous reports of the facts of cases currently being tried should be removed from the internet for the duration. Not to do would be a contempt.
The fear is that jurors go searching for material which [...]
Posted in Criminal Evidence, Criminal Procedure on February 9, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Ruthie is somewhat bemused at the shock and outrage that seems to have broken out at the notion that lawyer’s conversations with their clients are being bugged by the police and security services. Ruthie has never known that her conversations were bugged, in the same way that she doesn’t know that the Earth orbits the [...]
Posted in Criminal Evidence, Criminal Legislation, Criminal Procedure, Events, Human Rights Act, Humbug, Humour, Oppression, Terrorism on November 15, 2007 | 8 Comments »
Dear Diary,
I am struggling with a particular problem. Plainly, no Maiden has ever voted Conservative. The terms of Great-Grandfather’s peerage preclude it and the Maidens are people of their word. Moreover, betraying one’s class is wonderful fun and Grandfather’s friendship with the Stansgates has endured down the generations to this day.
Of course, until recently there has [...]
Posted in Corruption, Criminal Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Events, Legal Profession, Terrorism on October 31, 2007 | No Comments »
Dear Diary,
Those gorgeous rockers got it right when they sang the above. As the Madonna of the Yardwinder sits snugly in PC Clod’s safe, there are wheels within wheels.
It will be remembered that Mr Calum Jones, solicitor, of HBJ Gateley Waring had an “interesting but benign” explanation of how he came to be involved. The [...]
Posted in Criminal Procedure, Human Rights Act on October 17, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Dear Diary,
The House of Lords has decided that trial before a jury containing serving police officers or CPS lawyers cannot be be said to be fair. The judgement is fascinating. Their Lordships record that after the Auld review it was decided that almost all jurors present a risk of prejudice and that whether a particular risk [...]
Posted in Criminal Procedure, Legal Profession on September 23, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Dear Diary,
How some Circuits do ‘ave ‘em. After Petey’s negotiations with Addleshaws were played out in public it appeared that Manchester had contributed the most spectacularly bizzarre judicial moment of the century thus far. However, only a few months on, Sheffield has come up with its own contender.
His Honour Judge Roger Keen QC has been smacked [...]
Posted in Criminal Procedure, Legal Profession, Terrorism on September 17, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Dear Diary,
A young man, brought up in Scotland with all the advantages (apart, obviously, from being a Scot) has been convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act. Well, these things happen. This particular wannabe suicide bomber had thousands of pages of information on his computer: a great many were dedicated to ways of maiming and [...]
Posted in Criminal Procedure on September 12, 2007 | 13 Comments »
Ruthie has no more idea than the editor of a tabloid newspaper whether the McCanns murdered their daughter, but unlike the editor of a newpaper she has no intention of trying to speculate based of scraps of information.
Remember when people were tried according to the evidence? Portugal’s derided legal system does have a number of [...]
Posted in Criminal Procedure, Legal Profession on September 8, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Due to various miscalculations, lack of internet access and alien abductions on her US trip, Ruthie is finally checking in from Detroit airport during an 8 hour stopover.
Ruthie finds that airtravel is conducive to deep thought, given there is little else to do for eight hours crushed into a space the size of a badger’s latrine and about [...]
Posted in Criminal Procedure on July 29, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Mistress Ruthie has returned from a weekend playing rugby, (since she does enjoy rough games), to discover that she has been called for jury service. Mistress Ruthie, will naturally be forewoman; VM will do what she is told, and the whole process will be oiled by regular supplies of champers into the jury room arranged [...]
