Features

Charles Hale on electioneering, acting and performances  

It’s strange, isn’t it? The airwaves are buzzing with talk of how this general election could be the first genuine internet election, with the main parties taking their lead from Obama’s celebrated use of online communication to help secure his victory. Apparently the latest political brainwave involves identifying hot news topics that will generate multiple searches and buying appropriately linked domain names. For example, if you want to know more about David Beckham’s Achilles tendon injury, you might Google “Beckham’s operation” – only to discover that this exact phrase has just been purchased by the Liberal Democrats. So, instead of learning about the England star’s dashed World Cup dreams, you find yourself reading Nick Clegg’s views on a hung Parliament. I can’t imagine that the man on the Clapham omnibus will welcome such blatant interference into his browsing habits, but maybe I just don’t understand as I’m not a politician. 

Tim Kevan takes a break from the Bar to go surfing and write a novel 

One of the joys of being a barrister is that you are self-employed and therefore get a lot more freedom over your own destiny than many might otherwise have in an employed position. Well, that’s in theory at least and I accept that it might sometimes appear illusory when there’s a backlog of papers sitting on your shelf and court days stacked to the horizon. For my part, I practised as a barrister for over ten years at the common law Bar at 1 Temple Gardens (now Temple Garden Chambers) in London and I had been able to use this flexibility to take breaks by the coast to catch the odd wave when the surfing conditions were right. It also meant that I’d had the chance to indulge another hobby—writing—as well as starting a couple of businesses. But as each of these things started to take more time, I eventually decided to make the jump and take a full-time break from the Bar for a while. 

Book review 

Gary Slapper
Wildy, Simmonds and Hill (Dec 2009), £9.99, ISBN 0854900616 

Courts often find themselves confronted with the most unusual aspects of human life. Gary Slapper’s compendium of “weird cases” describes cases drawn from around the globe that stand out from the rest. 

Name: Alan Austin
Position: Senior Clerk 

Chambers: 9 Stone Buildings 

David Wurtzel begins his introduction of the lay members of the Bar Standards Board 

Because they are not elected—although they are appointed in accordance with Nolan principles—the lay members of the Bar Standards Broad (“BSB”) have tended to be remote from ordinary barristers both in terms of what they do and of who they are. Counsel therefore decided to begin to introduce the lay members to its readership. There are seven lay members (including the Chair, Baroness Ruth Deech) on the BSB who are (in alphabetical order): Mrs Sarah Brown; Dr John Carrier; Ms Paula Diggle; Dr Vicki Harris; Professor Peter Hutton; and Richard Thompson OBE. David Wurtzel, Counsel’s Consultant Editor, met three of them in January and February 2010. 

Dedicated drug courts are being established to combat drug abuse.  Elizabeth Forrester reflects on how the Drug Court in Jamaica and the Family Drug and Alcohol Court in London are tackling this worldwide issue 

The worldwide disease that is drug abuse has traditionally been attacked from two sides: the Ministry of Defence, customs, the police and the criminal justice system are used to strike at the supply of drugs; and the Ministry of Health, State welfare, charities, NGOs and social workers tackle the demand for them. When drug addicts commit crimes, they are punished accordingly; when drug addicts cannot care for their children, the State removes them. Still, despite all the sentencing guidelines and educational efforts, it is painfully clear that these measures do not stop this disease from progressing. Addicts sent to prison, or even given unpaid work requirements, fuel their habits more easily than before, and are just as likely to reoffend upon release. Desperate, addicted mothers who have children removed into the care system become more desperate—they often have more babies with withdrawal symptoms which are removed from them again. 

New diversity statistics show that of 624 lawyers applying for 36 posts as fee paid employment tribunal judges between April and September 2009, 40 per cent of applicants and 54 per cent of those selected were women, while 13 per cent of applicants and 6 per cent of those selected were from a BME background. Solicitors made up 72 per cent of applicants and three-quarters of appointees, and disabled people accounted for six per cent of applicants and appointees.  

Name: Chris Owen 

Position: CEO 

Chambers: St Philips 

David Ormerod, The Right Honourable Lord Justice Hooper
OUP, October 2009, £221.74 978-0-19-557423-0 

This work is now in its 20th edition since its re-incarnation by HHJ Peter Murphy, who has now stood down as Emeritus Editor. Criminal practitioners, and his publishers, owe him a great debt of gratitude. The teams of contributors and editors are immensely strong, providing as near a guarantee as is possible of an accurate, erudite work which combines practical guidance with excellent analysis. 

What do candidates sitting the Crown Court Recordership Competition think of the qualifying tests? How to you assess whether someone will be a good Recorder? How do you conduct the first cull in a process where there have been 1,000 applicants for only 128 positions?  

The Judicial Appointments Commission (“JAC”), facing this problem, has since 2008 required candidates in the Crown Court recordership competition to sit a test in which he or she gives their decisions and reasons in respect of various matters which arise in a trial in which they apply a given, fictional body of law.