Features

The world has watched over the past several months as Oscar Pistorius has been tried for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Sean Middleton reports.  

Debates have ranged far and wide over Oscar’s innocence or guilt, and whether he should be found guilty of murder or culpable homicide. With the verdict now in hand we all know that it is one of culpable homicide (manslaughter). Much criticism has been levelled against both Counsel and the Bench over the course of the proceedings and there seem to be more critics than legal experts. 

What if Pistorius had been tried in London? - asks Ian Glen QC.  

Bail would have been out of the question. Without bail there would be no photo opportunities before the Court sat and no family embraces. The case would come on for trial at the Old Bailey within about nine months of the offence and the trial would take about three weeks. The trial could not be televised. Sentencing would normally take twenty minutes immediately after the verdict with the jury remaining to watch. Murder by shooting is punished by a mandatory life sentence with 30 years to serve before consideration of parole. Simple. 

Catherine Baksi delves into the debate on having a non-lawyer as Lord Chancellor.  

The bête noire of many in the legal profession, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling, courted controversy last week declaring he saw no “disadvantages” in the former role being held by a non-lawyer. 

Who will pay for off-road vehicle accidents, asks Sarah Crowther.  

In Vnuk v Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d, Case C-162/13 o n 13 August 2007, Mr Vnuk was working in a farmyard, on a ladder, when the ladder was struck by a trailer coupled to a tractor reversing across the yard in order to deliver hay bales to the nearby barn. 

Ray Purdy discusses how a new space detective agency can offer lawyers access to evidence from satellites & drones.  

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and see what was going on at a certain place at a particular time? 

The Criminal Bar is no country for young people.  

In the unlikely event that anyone else ever wished to chronicle my headship of Gutteridge Chambers, it might be noticed during my time that almost all the old truths of life in Chambers had been turned on their heads. 

Job title 

Barrister and Partner, Kobre & Kim LLP 

Kobre & Kim LLP is an international litigation boutique with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Washington DC, Miami, Cayman Islands, and British Virgin Islands. 

David Wurtzel reviews Anna Weiss by Mike Cullen at London E14’s My Space.  

By coincidence, on my way to see AnnaWeiss, Mike Cullen’s 1997 play about a teenager who accuses her father of sexual abuse based on her memory of it as recovered through hypnotherapy, I was reading a recent Court of Appeal decision about a trial in which a teenager accused her father of sexual abuse and the defence was that the complainant’s mental illness and therapy had led her to “remember” that she must have been abused when in fact she had not. 

Going it alone: for the barrister with a book inside them, author Mark McCrum offers a guide to self-publishing.  

I’ve written nine books under my own name, seven under other people’s – all traditionally published. So why did I decide to go it alone and publish my novel Fest myself? 

A new way of calculating the Practising Certificate Fee according to ability to pay is to be introduced. Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive of the Bar Council, explains.  

Addressing a crowd in Worcester, Massachusetts, in autumn 1936, US President Franklin Roosevelt declared: “Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay”. At a time when the legal services market is tough and unforgiving, these words will assuredly resonate beyond those members of the Bar familiar with American history.