Anya Blog

Soon the new English Premiership season will be under way. The vast majority of players will have come from abroad to play for mainly foreign owned clubs. The national team has looked abroad not only for its manager but also for most of his assistants. Sometimes it seems that the major English contribution to the whole circus is to pay through the nose at the turnstiles.

Even the England cricket team now has a South African skipper. Michael Vaughan may have made a lachrymose departure but the last time England had a South African skipper it also ended in tears when Tony Greig fell for Kerry Packer’s wealth and took half the test side with him to World Cricket. Kevin Pieterson has made no secret of his determination to dip his bread in the IPL 20/20 riches, so perhaps history will repeat itself.

And so to the Judiciary. The appropriately named Sir Igor Judge will become Lord Chief Justice when Lord Phillips stands down in October. Sir Igor was born in Malta. Truly Britain is a land of opportunity.

The Road Safety Act 2006 (Commencement No. 4) Order 2008 brings into force from 18th August 2008 the following major provisions of the Road Safety Act 2006:-

Causing death by careless, or inconsiderate, driving
A person who causes the death of another person by driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place, is guilty of an offence.

Enabling Provision: s.2B Road Traffic Act 1988, inserted by s.20 Road Safety Act 2006
Triable Status: Either way
Max. Sentence on Indictment: 5 years or a fine or both
Max. Sentence Summary: 12 months or statutory maximum fine or both
Both ways: Obligatory disqualification; obligatory endorsement; 3-11 penalty points.

Causing death by driving: unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured drivers
A person is guilty of an offence under this section if he causes the death of another person by driving a motor vehicle on a road and, at the time when he is driving, the circumstances are such that he is committing an offence under—
(a) section 87(1) of this Act (driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence),
(b) section 103(1)(b) of this Act (driving while disqualified), or
(c) section 143 of this Act (using motor vehicle while uninsured or unsecured against third party risks).

Enabling Provision: s.3ZB Road Traffic Act 1988, inserted by s.21 Road Safety Act 2006
Triable Status: Either way
Max. Sentence on Indictment: 2 years or a fine or both
Max. Sentence Summary: 12 months or statutory maximum fine or both
Both ways: Obligatory disqualification; obligatory endorsement; 3-11 penalty points.

(See Criminal Offences Handbook, 4th edition, pp 329/330 (available from Anya Designs Ltd))

The Legal Services Commission has issued a press release to all Crime Contract holders regarding the recording of travel time in Police Station and Magistrates Court cases.

• From 1st July 2008, providers do not need to record travel time in police station cases unless those cases are classed as exceptional.
• From 1st July 2008, providers do not need to record travel time in magistrates court cases in the 16 main urban areas as this is already allowed for in the fee.

However...

1. Given that you don’t always know when a police station case is going exceptional and
2. You need to be watching all the costs of providing legal aid work very closely

we would advise iLaw users not to ditch the recording of this time just yet.

One of the most important things that iLaw can give you is a complete understanding of how much it costs your firm to provide legal aid work under contract. It helps you now with issues like forecasting cash flow / work in progress and forward planning and in the future when it comes to competitive tendering. All of this help needs good data from your team in the form of accurate time recording so hiding any costs will skew the quality of the information iLaw can give you. The most successful firms are those who are recording and monitoring the cost of everything as it enables them to make good business decisions in time. So use iLaw to its maximum and keep recording your time well.

Anya Support Team
support@anyadesigns.co.uk

According to ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, 42 is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything. But for the Government, 42 is more a problem than an answer.

Given that the number of days a suspect spends in detention before trial is a not a scientific exercise but an uneasy compromise, how can it be that 42 has achieved the status of a threat to the leadership of the government? While there has been much agonising , soul searching and almost daily concessions to get the provisions through Parliament, the actual number itself seems to be sacrosanct. All this for a proposed law which may be needed one day in the future, may never be used at all, and would affect very few people.

The police have apparently provided examples of circumstances which would justify the 42 days, but even they have not claimed that any terrorist has escaped justice because 28 days was not enough. The Security Services don’t want it, former senior Law Officers have spoken against it – even those who supported the Government in the previous 90 day vote - and almost all others in the know (but not on the Government payroll) agree that there is no evidence backing 42 days. The current level of 28 days is more than other members of the European Union consider necessary, despite being equal targets for terrorism. Their criticism of the British proposals has been robust and concerted.

Writing in the ‘Guardian’, Marcel Berlins says 42 is symbolic. “It represents all the government's excessive anti-terrorist legislation; detention without charge or trial; the steady erosion of the rule of law; and the nibbling away of civil liberties. The resistance of the Labour rebels is not based on a calculation of how many weeks is appropriate. It is a statement encompassing the whole of Labour's anti-terrorist policy. Enough is enough.”

Come back Douglas Adams. Your country needs you.

The Ministry of Justice has announced that the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill received Royal Assent on 8 May. The first provisions (in relation to dangerous offenders) are expected to come in to force in July.

The Act will:

• introduce a new criminal offence of incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation
• clarify the law on self defence, articulating the state's responsibility to stand by those acting in good faith when using force in self defence
• introduce new civil penalties for serious breaches of data protection principles
• abolish the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel
• reinstate the statutory ban on industrial action by prison officers
• introduce a minimum tariff of two years for prisoners serving indeterminate public protection sentences
• end automatic discounts for offenders given an indeterminate sentence after the initial sentencing decision has been judged unduly lenient
• give powers for courts to make dangerous offenders given a discretionary life sentence serve a higher proportion of their tariff before being eligible for parole
• create a presumption that trials in magistrates' courts will proceed in the event the accused fails to appear
• introduce a new offence of possession of extreme pornographic images
• extend existing crack house closure powers to tackle premises at the centre of serious and persistent disorder or nuisance, regardless of tenure
• create a new offence of causing a nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises
• provide for non-dangerous offenders who breach the terms of their licence to be recalled to prison for a fixed 28 day period
• create a Youth Rehabilitation Order - a generic community sentence for children and young offenders, this will target the causes of offending behaviour and will simplify the current sentencing framework
• create the Youth Conditional Caution for young offenders
• bring compensation for those wrongly convicted broadly into line with compensation for victims of crime
• provide for special immigration status for terrorists and serious criminals who cannot currently be removed from the UK for legal reasons.