Features

Much has been said about the legal aid cuts but another critical issue is the eternal rejection of claims by the Legal Services Commission and the crippling financial consequences for barristers waiting for payment. Vanora Bennett investigates. 

Legal aid defence barristers, already struggling to adjust to massive cuts in public funding, are being dealt a double blow by a second, more insidious problem – the worsening difficulty of getting any pay at all from the Legal Services Commission (or the LSC). 

Iain Morley QC looks at the Special Tribunal and how it is helping end political assassination in Lebanon.  

On 14 February 2005, at 12.55hrs, in downtown Beirut, the largest-ever bomb in peacetime was detonated as the motorcade of Rafiq Bahaa El Din Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, passed at speed. It killed Hariri, eight members of his convoy, 13 members of the public, and injured 231 others. The explosion was so large it created a 10m crater and an atomic-style mushroom plume. 

Mr Justice Geoffrey Vos looks at the role of the judiciary in the success of the UK Plc

I want to address a subject that I feel very strongly about. It is the question of what can be done to promote the aspects of British business and professional life that are thriving and, in short, often the envy of other countries. We in the UK are very good at self-criticism. But we are not so good at understanding and defining what we are good at, what others respect us for, and making a study of how we can capitalise on some of these (very many) advantages.  

John Cammegh looks at the the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal and asks: Reconciliation - or revenge?  

The development of international criminal tribunals over the last 20 years owes much to the maxim “No Peace Without Justice”. But there can be no peace without a winner: it is the winner’s privilege both to dispense the justice and write the history in the aftermath of any conflict. 

David Pittaway QC, Chair of the Neuberger Monitoring and Implementation Working Group until the end of 2011, reports on the progress that has been made at the Bar in improving access to the profession.  

Last September I took part in a filmed interview for a BBC2 programme on social mobility within the professions. Its working title was “Who stole the best jobs?” later changed to “Who has the best jobs?” The interview lasted 90 minutes and ended up on the cutting room floor. The content was apparently not sufficiently newsworthy. The actual momentum of change did not meet the perception of privilege. The broadcast programme focused on other professions with the Bar coming out of it relatively unscathed. 

There is one relationship that Cupid may need to work hard at this month. Toby Craig and Charles Hale examine the Scottish referendum issue

Cracks in the Union

It’s that time of year again when love is traditionally in the air. Cupid will doubtless be busying himself sharpening the tips of his arrows in anticipation of a busy Valentine’s season. 

January 10, 2012: “I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.” - Mr Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith’s  She Stoops to Conquer.

Anger that the Government is kicking the public Bar when it is already down; and the New Year doesn’t feel happy for long

Regulatory practitioners and those who favour complementary health therapy should be aware of changes in the practice of herbal medicine, writes Melissa Coutinho. 

There cannot be many of us who, despite spam filters, have not been exhorted on a regular basis to purchase a medicinal product that has promised to change our lives. Depending upon whether one wants to improve one’s performance professionally, physically or socially, there appears to be a product marketed directly for such a purpose. 

Do we need protection from data protection? asks David Taylor as he warns barristers of their duties under the Data Protection Act 1988 . 

Barristers and their chambers can no longer be complacent about their duties under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), and fines of up to £500,000 are now within the power of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Worse still: if you fight your corner in court, then unlimited fines and up to five years in prison are added to the armoury. If that weren’t incentive enough to keep your data safe, many breaches of the act are also criminal offences of strict liability. 

What will 2012 hold both here and over the pond?  Toby Craig and Charles Hale look ahead.  

First and foremost, we would like to wish a very happy New Year to all of WW’s readers. Now that the turkey has been digested, and the crackers pulled, we can focus on the year ahead and the job in hand.