Month: January 2013

21.01.13

supreme Court launches You Tube channel

The supreme Court of the United Kingdom has launched a You Tube channel which archives summaries of judgments handed down by its Justices.  The supreme Court already broadcasts its hearings live online via the sky News website. supreme Court You Tube Channel:- http://www.youtube.com/user/UKsupremeCourt?feature=watch supreme Court/sky News live broadcast channel:- http://news.sky.com/info/supreme-court

Magistrates' Courts unable to change their own verdicts

In DPP v Chajed (2013) a Divisional Court presided over by Laws LJ and Hickinbottom J was asked whether magistrates had been wrong to reconsider and change their verdict of guilty after they had announced it. Mr Chajed had been prosecuted for failing to provide a specimen contrary to section 7(6) of the Road Traffic Act…

20.01.13

Family court jails property tycoon for failing to disclose assets

Property tycoon scot Young has been jailed for six months for failing to provide financial information in ancillary relief proceedings.  When Mr Young separated from his wife in 2006 he had been understood to be worth £400m.  However he claims to have lost his entire fortune overnight in a Russian deal.  The application for committal on 16 January 2013 came as…

The sun, privacy and Rocknroll

Mr Justice Briggs has handed down a written judgment in Rocknroll v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2013] EWHC 24 (Ch) which serves as a helpful reminder of the issues the court will consider in deciding whether the publication of photographs should be prohibited on privacy grounds. In 2010 the Claimant Edward Rocknroll attended a private fancy…

15.01.13

"Insulting" to be removed from section 5 POA 1986

The Government has confirmed that it does not intend to seek to overturn a House of Lords proposed amendment to section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 to remove the word “insulting”. This means that it will no longer be possible to prosecute on the basis of an alleged insult alone hopefully leading to…

13.01.13

Judicial Office publishes guide for litigants in person making interim applications to High Court

A guide for self-represented litigants making applications to the Interim Applications Court of the Queens Bench Division of the High Court has been published online. Applications frequently heard in the Interim Applications Court (‘Court 37’) include urgent applications for non-disclosure injunctions and freezing injunctions.  The guide was written by Mr Justice Foskett with assistance from the Citizens Advice…

First prosecution under Operation Elveden ends with conviction of police officer

DCI April Casburn, a senior police officer in the Metropolitan police, has been convicted of misconduct in a public office following a trial at southwark Crown Court.  It was alleged that she offered to sell information on the phone-hacking inquiry to the News of the World – the newspaper at the centre of the investigation….

8.01.13

Crown Court has jurisdiction to calculate third party interest

In Paula Harriott [2012] EWCA 2294 the issue for the Court of Appeal was whether the Crown Court had power to determine the extent of a beneficial interest in the matrimonial home when the legal title to that property was held by the Appellant. The Crown Court judge had made a confiscation order in the…

Court should have been notified that prosecution to be conducted by private entity

In Zinga and Pillai [2012] EWCA 2357 the Court of Appeal was asked to examine the lawfulness of a search warrant obtained by police in a case that would be privately prosecuted by Virgin Media and its impact on the fairness of the subsequent prosecution. Whilst the police had made the application for the warrant,…

1.01.13

Tanzanian media tycoon loses 'oppressive' libel claim

On 30 November 2012 Mr Justice Bean dismissed Reginald Mengi’s claim for libel after a 10-day trial in the High Court.  Mr Mengi had sued Ms Hermitage over comments she had made on a website accusing him of encouraging a campaign of ‘journalistic terrorism’ in newspapers he controlled. The background to the case was that Ms Hermitage…