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Sentencing – Careless driving – Failure to report accident. High Court of Justiciary: In an appeal against sentence by an appellant who pled guilty to charges of careless driving and failure to report an accident, the sheriff having found that the two offences were not committed on the same occasion and imposed six penalty points in respect of each charge, discounted in each case to four, the court held, it being accepted that it was incompetent for the sheriff to impose less than five points for the offence of failure to report, that the offences arose on the same occasion and that penalty points should only have been imposed in respect of the charge of failing to report, as that was the offence to which a higher number of penalty points could be attributed: it accordingly allowed the appeal to the extent of quashing the penalty points attributable to the careless driving charge and increasing those attributable to the charge of failing to report to five.
Sentencing – Careless driving – Failure to report accident. High Court of Justiciary: In an appeal against sentence by an appellant who pled guilty to charges of careless driving and failure to report an accident, the sheriff having found that the two offences were not committed on the same occasion and imposed six penalty points in respect of each charge, discounted in each case to four, the court held, it being accepted that it was incompetent for the sheriff to impose less than five points for the offence of failure to report, that the offences arose on the same occasion and that penalty points should only have been imposed in respect of the charge of failing to report, as that was the offence to which a higher number of penalty points could be attributed: it accordingly allowed the appeal to the extent of quashing the penalty points attributable to the careless driving charge and increasing those attributable to the charge of failing to report to five.
The age of criminal responsibility, extreme weather and conflict resolution – plus, new protocol for reporting bullying at the Bar
By David Green
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, examines the forensic science underpinning hair drug testing, its evidential scope and limitations, and why it remains the gold standard for evidencing patterns of drug use in family proceedings
Unlocking your aged debt to fund your tax in one easy step. By Philip N Bristow
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, discusses the upcoming changes to pensions and Inheritance Tax and the potential impact on your financial future
Save the Children UK is the latest charity to benefit from a £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs via the company’s Giving Back initiative
Barrister apprenticeships – shortly to provide the fourth pathway to the Bar – are an ideal opportunity to support local talent and ‘grow your own’, say Tim Coulson and Dr Jane Dennehy
Oliver Lewis spotlights an overlooked yet rapidly evolving area of law – coercive and controlling behaviour within care contexts
Solicitor General Ellie Reeves KC MP discusses her decade as a trade union and employment law barrister, the demands of life as a Law Officer and the number one priority shaping her work. Interview by Anthony Inglese CB
A decade of reviews and research has disrupted accepted thinking in the search for causality. Suicides following abuse have overtaken domestic homicides. Is the law keeping up? Professor Susan Edwards KC (Hon) examines recent cases and the obstacles to successful prosecution
At least not that way, says Richard Paige
