Proportionality, the Margin of Appreciation and our Human Rights – in Plain English – Rights Info

Posted December 8th, 2017 in homosexuality, human rights, news, obscenity, privacy, proportionality by sally

‘This week marks the 41st anniversary of the judgment in Handyside v UK. This was a milestone judgment as it introduced a crucial concept for decision-making in human rights cases, the margin of appreciation.’

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Rights Info, 7th December 2017

Source: rightsinfo.org

The New POCA Frontier: Bitcoin and Electronic Currency, Shaping Asset Recovery in the 21st Century – Drystone Chambers

‘The question of whether the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) can be used to deal with Bitcoins¹ and electronic currencies has been the subject of some speculation by specialist practitioners recently. In my view it can be utilised, but it is not ideal. I will not deal with the technical difficulties in finding bitcoin accounts; what I will concentrate on in this article is finding the correct legal tools to recover the assets and what other options are available when it does not work.’

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Drystone Chambers, 23rd October 2017

Source: drystone.com

High Court: proportionality is about more than ‘damages v costs’ – Litigation Futures

Posted November 14th, 2017 in case management, costs, damages, news, proportionality by tracey

‘Proportionality involves more than simply comparing budgets with the size of the damages claimed, a High Court judge has made clear in deciding that costs management should be applied in a case worth £350m.’

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Litigation Futures, 14th November 2017

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Appeal court orders proportionality test case revisit – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted November 8th, 2017 in appeals, civil procedure rules, costs, interpretation, judges, news, proportionality by tracey

‘The Court of Appeal has asked a costs judge to look again at the application of proportionality after ruling the new test was incorrectly applied. In the long-awaited appeal in BNM v MGN, master of the rolls Sir Terence Etherton held that senior costs judge Gordon-Saker had been wrong in principle to subject recoverable base cost and additional liabilities to the new proportionality rule.’

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Law Society's Gazette, 7th November 2017

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

Chris Ferguson discusses; Proportionality and Integrity – Park Square Barristers

Posted October 20th, 2017 in care orders, children, fostering, grandparents, news, placement orders, proportionality by sally

‘Not long ago I represented a pair of maternal grandparents in a case in Teesside. They had been closely involved with the family over a period of years, although the mother of the two girls at the heart of the case had moved away (not far) during recent times. The mother had various problems and the father barely featured in the proceedings. A few years back the grandparents had actually taken the older girl under their wing for a while (prior to the birth of her sister) and the girls’ older brother was living with them full time under a court order.’

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Park Square Barristers, 6th October 2017

Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk

Fining property manager £5k “completely disproportionate”: tribunal judge – Local Government Lawyer

Posted October 6th, 2017 in agency, compensation, fines, landlord & tenant, news, proportionality by tracey

‘A council’s imposition of a £5,000 fine on a property management business for failing to be a member of a redress scheme for three weeks was “unreasonable in the circumstances and completely disproportionate”, a tribunal judge has said.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 5th October 2017

Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Supreme Court to hear appeal against defective service ruling in law firm negligence case – Litigation Futures

‘The Supreme Court will hear an appeal in November by a litigant in person over the defective service of a negligence claim against a Midlands law firm, it has been confirmed.’

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Litigation Futures, 29th September 2017

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Harrison v. University Hospitals – Hailsham Chambers

Posted July 5th, 2017 in appeals, budgets, costs, news, proportionality, reasons by sally

‘In a decision handed down yesterday, the Court of Appeal in Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 791 determined important issues in costs budgeting. They are of relevance to all practitioners.’

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Hailsham Chambers, 22nd June 2017

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Supreme Court rules against the Home Secretary on ‘Deport First, Appeal Later’ – No. 5 Chambers

‘The Supreme Court has allowed appeals in R (Kiarie) and R (Byndloss) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] UKSC 42 by persons whom the Home Secretary wished to deport even before they had had a chance to appeal to a tribunal on human rights grounds against the deportation decision. It has concluded that the very system of appealing from abroad in such cases simply does not provide an effective right of appeal.’

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No. 5 Chambers, 14th June 2017

Source: www.no5.com

“No value in making general comment on incurred costs” says chief master – Litigation Futures

Posted July 5th, 2017 in budgets, costs, news, proportionality by sally

‘The chief master of the Chancery Division has outlined considerable reservations about making a comment on incurred costs as part of the budgeting process, saying there is “little or no value” in recording a general comment such as that they are “too high”.’

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Litigation Futures, 4th July 2017

Source: www.litigationfutures.com

Costs: Appeal court backs Merrix stance on budget status – Law Society’s Gazette

Posted June 22nd, 2017 in budgets, civil procedure rules, costs, news, proportionality by tracey

‘An approved budget cannot be re-opened by a costs judge at detailed assessment unless there is “good reason” to do so, the Court of Appeal held today in a much-awaited ruling in Harrison v University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust.’

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Law Society's Gazette, 21st June 2017

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

R (C) v Islington LBC – Arden Chambers

‘The Administrative Court has held that priority within a housing allocation scheme providing that existing social housing tenants are to be preferred over other applicants, such as the homeless and women fleeing domestic violence, for certain local lettings of eg new and refurbished accommodation was justified and accordingly had not been unlawfully discriminatory for the purposes of art.14 and ss.19, 29 Equality Act 2010; the introduction of the local lettings policies had complied with s.149 Equality Act 2010 and s.11 Children Act 2004; but the operation of a system of direct offers, used particularly to allocate accommodation to homeless applicants, had not been sufficiently set out in the scheme and was accordingly unlawful.’

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Arden Chambers, 31st May 2017

Source: www.ardenchambers.com

Making it up as you go – Nearly Legal

‘C was accepted for the full housing duty by Islington, with her 3 children, as a result of domestic violence. C is profoundly deaf. She had been living in Southwark, but following the DV, was in refuge in Islington and applied as homeless there. She was, eventually, given 3 bed temporary accommodation in Islington.’

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Nearly Legal, 6th June 2017

Source: nearlylegal.co.uk

Court criticises party for ‘completely unrealistic’ view of other side’s costs – OUT-LAW.com

Posted May 19th, 2017 in budgets, case management, costs, news, proportionality by tracey

‘A High Court judge has accused costs lawyers of “abuse of the cost budgeting process” following an “unjustifiably low” estimate of the other side’s costs.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 18th May 2017

Source: www.out-law.com

BBC attacks Sir Cliff Richard’s ‘grossly unreasonable’ spending on lawyers in his fight for damages against them – Daily Telegraph

Posted May 5th, 2017 in BBC, costs, damages, defamation, news, proportionality by tracey

‘BBC bosses say Sir Cliff Richard has spent “grossly unreasonable” amounts on lawyers after complaining about reports naming him as a suspected sex offender and taking legal action.’

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Daily Telegraph, 4th May 2017

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

SRA attacks “disproportionate and unnecessary” money laundering regulations – Legal Futures

‘New anti-money laundering (AML) regulations planned by the Treasury would impose “disproportionate and unnecessary” burdens on law firms, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned.’

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Legal Futures, 20th April 2017

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

Judge says his sacking for posting abusive comments was unfair – The Guardian

Posted April 18th, 2017 in complaints, internet, judges, news, proportionality, unfair dismissal by sally

‘A judge who was sacked for posting abusive comments on news articles about cases he had heard has admitted he was “reckless” but complained that the sanction was “wholly disproportionate and completely unfair”.’

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The Guardian, 13th April 2017

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Lady Hale on indirect discrimination: Essop and Naeem – Law & Religion UK

‘In Essop & Ors v Home Office (UK Border Agency) [2017] UKSC 27, there were two conjoined cases: Essop and Naeem v Secretary of State for Justice. The Supreme Court gave a unanimous judgment on both.’

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Law & Religion UK, 7th April 2017

Source: www.lawandreligionuk.com

28-day limit on police bail comes into force in the UK – The Guardian

Posted April 3rd, 2017 in bail, human rights, news, police, proportionality, time limits by sally

‘Police will face new curbs on their use of bail from Monday after coming under severe criticism for leaving people in legal limbo for months or even years.’

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The Guardian, 3rd April 2017

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Canals and Article 8 – again – UK Human Rights Blog

‘In recent years, the Courts have come up with a pragmatic resolution to the clash of property and Article 8 rights which typically occur in housing cases. Where the tenant is trying to use Art.8 to fend off a possession order, because he is in breach of some term of the tenancy, then the Courts, here and in Strasbourg, have resolved the issue in the favour of the local authority, save in exceptional circumstances.’

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UK Human Rights Blog, 10th March 2017

Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com