Month: May 2016

27.05.16

Iain Wilson on Radio 5 Live discussing Twitter trolls

Brett Wilson LLP partner Iain Wilson has been interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Drive Time show.  Mr Wilson was asked to take part in the show to provide an expert’s view on the law relating to offensive and threatening tweets. The interview can be found at the BBC website (2hrs 52m):-  Click here  

25.05.16

G4S 999 call handlers suspended after allegations they made hundreds of ‘test calls’ to meet targets

Our legal and political climate is resplendent with fine talk about the state cracking down on organised fraud and tax evasion, on rooting out international corruption, and even making big companies responsible for the actions of their employees. Just this month, it was confirmed that the Ministry of Justice is consulting on proposals to extending…

Zoo refused gagging injunction against animal cruelty charity

In Heythrop Zoological Gardens Ltd (T/A Amazing Animals) & Anor V Captive Animals Protection Society EWHC/IPEC (20 May 2016), a company that supplies animals to the TV and film industry was refused an interim injunction to prevent an animal protection charity publishing photographs and video clips taken on their premises. The Defendant charity, Captive Animals’…

24.05.16

Legal Services Board recommends civil standard of proof for SDT proceedings

The Legal Services Board report “The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s Regulatory Standards report 2015/16” published this month lends support to the proposition that the civil standard (on a balance of probabilities) as opposed to the current criminal standard (beyond a reasonable doubt) should be used in disciplinary hearings before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT). Rule 7.7…

Polygamous Marriage and Criminal Conspiracy

In Bala and others [2016] EWCA 560 the Court of Appeal was concerned with the question of polygamous marriage in the context of criminal conspiracy. Specifically, whether the husband and wife in a polygamous marriage are protected by section 2(2) Criminal Law Act 1977 which precludes the finding of guilt against them in a criminal…

23.05.16

The ‘Right to be Forgotten': the scope of delisting

It is now just over two years since the Court of Justice of the European Union first ruled that Google was a data processor and that the principles of EU Directive 95/46/EC (‘the Data Protection Directive’), and the various national legislation that implement them, applied to its search results.  The specific right to have search…

22.05.16

Proposed sentencing guidelines for youth offenders target the use of social media in crime

The Sentencing Council for England and Wales has published proposed guidelines for the sentencing of youth offenders.  Currently open to a public consultation, the draft guidelines suggest that the use of technology to document or glorify criminal activity be considered an aggravating factor that judges and magistrates should take into account when sentencing. The proposed guidelines will…

Data protection: NHS Trust fined £180,000 for HIV data leak in breach of medical confidence case

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has been fined £180,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a result of a serious data breach by the 56 Dean Street sexual health clinic in which hundreds of patients’ HIV status were inadvertently disclosed in an emailed newsletter. A number of patients signed up to receive…

19.05.16

Claims for revenge porn: Iain Wilson interviewed by The Mirror

An interview with Brett Wilson LLP partner Iain Wilson features in today’s Mirror. A copy of the article can be found here.   Click here to find out how we can help you if you have been a victim of revenge porn.

Supreme Court rules celebrity threesome privacy injunction to stay in force

In the long-running saga of PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2016] UKSC 26 the Supreme Court has ruled by 4-1 in favour of maintaining a privacy injunction through until trial.  The injunction was originally granted by the Court of Appeal on 22 January 2016.  It prevents the publication of a story concerning an anonymous…