We’re here for you if police come calling
The news that two police detectives have been disciplined after a 17-year-old boy, Sean Wall, was plied with cider before being questioned about a series of burglaries shows how important it is to have a legal representative with you when you are dealing with the police.
Although the majority of police behave entirely properly, you still need the guidance of a skillful and expert criminal defence solicitor to ensure that you understand the process, are being represented fairly and understand the implications of any answers you give and the questions being asked of you.
Sean Wall admitted involvement in the raids even though he could not possibly have committed some of them because he was in custody at the time. Both officers admitted Wall had consumed alcohol in their company.
Wall’s solicitor, Nadeem Majid, told the Guardian the detectives collected Wall from Parc young offenders’ institution in Bridgend, where he was being held awaiting sentence on other matters. Majid said he was picked up at 9am, driven around Cardiff and given two bottles of “strong cider” as the officers pointed out locations where burglaries had been carried out.
They then took Wall to Cardiff Bay police station and allegedly encouraged him to confess to the raids, telling him that admitting the crimes would not increase his sentence when he appeared before a crown court judge.
If you are required to appear at a police station, give us a call and we will make sure one of our experienced criminal defence team are sitting beside you and are acting on your behalf. We can attend police stations 24/7 and there is no charge to you for this service. Call us 0800 0274 274 for more information.
Top 5 Tips for Surviving Divorce
High profile couples splitting up over Christmas have dominated the headlines over the last week with announcements from pop star Katy Perry and comedian Russell Brand that they are to divorce after just 14 months of marriage and opera star Katherine Jenkins and TV presenter Gethin Jones taking to twitter to reveal that they have broken off their engagement.
Announcements such as these are seen as more shocking at Christmas, a time when people are traditionally meant to enjoy happy family time but anyone involved in family law will confirm that this time of year is when discord and unhappiness in marriages and family life can often come to the surface.
Statistics show that Christmas is a key time when many couples decide to separate, with calls to solicitors to begin divorce proceedings peaking during the first working week of the New Year. Divorce is seen as a daunting process but with the help, advice and support of an experienced and qualified family law solicitor, it can be a process that puts in place a foundation for happier times ahead for all parties.
Here are our family department’s top five tips to help make the process less stressful:
1. Information is key. Difficult as seeking advice about divorce can seem, information can be your ally, helping you make the necessary decisions ahead and helping you see more clearly if divorce is really the next step for your relationship or whether mediation or counselling could help.
2. Be patient with yourself and the other party. At this time emotions are likely to be running high on both sides. Guilt, anger and blame are very common in all stages of this process and clear decision-making can be quite difficult. This is a time when an experienced family law practioner, can offer some clarity and focus.
3. Should the children know what’s going on? Generally we would suggest that at this time children should only be aware that the family’s arrangements are changing and that you are both trying to sort things out.
4. Avoiding the legal details. At such a difficult time, you may feel that you simply can’t face coping with legal details. Unfortunately, daunting as dealing with the legal system may seem, it is necessary and vital that you understand the process you will need to go through. A good solicitor will understand that this is a difficult and highly emotional time for you and your family and will help guide you through the details at a pace which suits you and your situation.
5. Take only qualified advice. Ignorance and misinformation about the legal system and your rights can make you feel even more insecure and vulnerable and it’s easy in the situation to listen to the wrong advice. Misinformation can come from well-meaning friends comparing your situation to others. Expectations can therefore be easily distorted or fears increased.
Our highly experienced and qualified family law solicitors offer a free initial consultation and can advise you on a host of different family situations. Give them a call on our freephone number 0800 0 274 274 .
All calls will be dealt with in confidence.
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Police named in summer riots research
Research conducted on the summer rioters has recently been released showing that widespread anger and frustration at the way police engage with communities was a significant cause of the summer riots in every major city where disorder took place.
Hundreds of interviews with people who took part in the disturbances which spread across England in August revealed troubling deep-seated antipathy towards police.
The research project gave an unprecedented insight into what drove people to participate in the summer riots, England’s most serious unrest in twenty years. Rioters revealed that a complex mix of grievances brought them on to the streets but analysts appointed by the London School of Economics identified distrust and antipathy toward police as a key driving force.
Although rioters expressed a mix of opinions about the disorder, many of those involved said they felt like they were participating in explicitly anti-police riots. They cited “policing” as the most significant cause of the riots.
Although the North East cities did not suffer the same sort of disturbances, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the same triggers don’t exist for people, especially young people.
At TFG our criminal law team often deals with clients who feel dissatisfied by their treatment at the hands of the Police. Unfortunately, although many police are professional when dealing with the general public, like any other large organisation sometimes situations can arise which are not dealt with as well as they should be.
This is where competent representation at a police station can make a real difference if you or any of your family have dealings with the police. Our solicitors not only attend police stations 24 hours a day seven days a week but also attend court with our clients. Make sure you have representation as soon as you can, it can make a real difference at a time when you are often stressed and in need of expert advice.
Areas we can advise on include;
• Advice at Police Stations on arrest 24/7.
• Advice and Representation at Magistrates Court and Crown Court.
• Advice on arrest in customs investigations/breaches/social security law
• Advice and representation in road traffic matters.
• Advice on ASBO proceedings
• Advice and representation on extradition/drug trafficking/confiscation orders/human rights issues
The young losers in legal aid cut?
Legal aid cut that will hit the young is seen as a false economy, said a report in The Guardian.
The paper says that this point has been repeatedly made by the “access to justice” lobby as ministers contemplate reorganising the legal aid system by removing £350m from the £2.2bn scheme. The campaigners say there are likely to be knock-on costs to other government departments, the taxpayer and ultimately to society.
The lobby claims that it will be the social welfare law that bears the brunt of the cuts. Of the £350m to be cut, £280m comes from civil matters, which will affect advice on welfare benefits, employment, debt, immigration, plus most housing (except where there is homelessness) and divorce (unless there has been clear domestic violence).
According to JustRights, a coalition including the Law Centres Federation, Youth Access, the Howard League for Penal Reform and Children’s Rights Alliance for England, legal aid cuts will “fuel youth crime and leave young victims of crime unprotected”.
As a result of those cuts, say JustRights, some 69,000 young people aged between 18 and 24 and 6,000 children will no longer receive publicly funded legal help. That covers 9,040 debt cases (£2.1m); 1,990 employment cases (£500,000); 5,680 housing cases (£1.4m); and 9,130 benefits cases (£1.8m).
The campaigners say that many of those same vulnerable youngsters are likely to come into contact with the wrong side of the law. The study reveals that 55% of young people who had recently been arrested, and 63% of young victims of crime, had also experienced a civil justice problem, often relating to poor housing, falling into debt and problems claiming benefits.
Under the present system, it is reported, it costs the taxpayer under £6m a year to provide advice to those 25,840 young people who will be cut out of the social welfare legal aid scheme. It is a cost that, JustRights says, is the equivalent to “imprisoning just 42 young offenders”. It would cost the Ministry of Justice more than that (relatively speaking) modest sum if just one in every 445 of those youngsters denied legal aid ended up in prison, they say.
Cutting legal aid was a false economy that would hurt the vulnerable and socially excluded, warned the Commission of Inquiry into Legal Aid earlier this year in Unequal before the Law, the paper reports. When coupled with the human cost to the vulnerable and socially excluded of reducing legal aid, we find these increased economic costs are unacceptable,” the Commission wrote.
It was a point made most forcibly by Citizens Advice. They believe that for every £1 of legal aid spent on housing advice, the state saves £2.34 in knock-on costs and for every £1 spent on benefits advice a whopping £8.80 is saved. Knock-on costs from £350m cuts will fuel youth crime and leave victims unprotected, say campaigners.
This article definitely gave us cause for thought at TFG. There’s no doubt savings have to be made in the legal system just as savings need to be found everywhere at the moment, but if the most vulnerable people in our society are left unprotected and the potential effects are not carefully taken into consideration, then it’s time to take another look.
Courts and smartphones don’t mix
One of the major stories hitting the news this week is that report in The Times that a judge has jailed a teenager for two months for contempt within 75 minutes of him taking a photograph on his mobile phone inside a court.
Paul Thompson, 19, was sitting in the public gallery of Luton Crown Court to watch a friend being sentenced for robbing an off-duty police officer when he took a snap of the courtroom on his BlackBerry in response to a message from a girl asking where he was. Sitting in front of him was the victim and other officers involved in the case, one of whom spotted what he had done.
The phone was seized and Thompson was arrested. He was taken down to the cells of the court at 2.30pm on Friday and an hour later, he was brought back into the dock, where he admitted a charge of contempt of court in front of Judge Barbara Mensah.
His barrister, John Livingston, said later: “He did not notice any signs forbidding this behaviour. This has been a very big shock for him.” But the judge said: “There are notices all around the court building about not taking photographs in court. This is a serious offence and the message must go out that people cannot take photos.”
This comes a few months after juror Joanne Fraill was jailed after contacting defendant Jamie Sewart, 34, on facebook. Fraill admitted she had made online contact with Sewart and discussed the case with her while the jury’s deliberations were continuing. She also admitted revealing details of the jury’s deliberations during that online conversation – contrary to Contempt of Court Act 1981 - and conducting internet research into a defendant whose case she was trying as a juror during the trial.
Clearly they are two very different cases and the Thompson case suggests a moment of stupidity rather than a calculating action threatened the case itself unlike Joanne Frail but it does flag up issues with a court system that has traditions based in another century clashing with 21st century social media habits and lifestyle.
Texting, uploading photos, updating your location, chatting on the go on msn, bm, twitter or facebook are now considered the norm by a large section of our population. To many people, it wouldn’t occur to them that to do any of these actions in court could mean contempt of court and a jail sentence.
At TFG we think the court system needs to rethink how it communicates what is and isn’t acceptable to people more clearly and make them more aware of what the consequences could be if they disobey.
Signage needs to be simple and effective. Some media commentators have suggested pictures of mobiles with big red crosses across them which sounds like a good start to us but in the meantime, don’t use your phone in court and make sure you understand what you can and can’t do while a court is sitting, even if you’re in the public gallery, your freedom may depend on it.
Previous owners planning mistakes could come back to haunt you
Thought solicitors were just the people who dealt with the paperwork of buying and selling houses? Think again. The need for an experienced firm of solicitors has been flagged up by the furore over a little known piece of legislation that could have significant implications for homebuyers and which many are not even aware of.
Did you know that if you previously bought a property where the previous owner had breached the planning laws and concealed this, that you might be liable?
Fortunately the Government has now amended the Localism Bill, following Law Society warnings that this provision could have caused uncertainty in the property market.
The provision proposed strengthening local authorities’ powers to tackle abuses of the planning system where there had been a breach of planning control through ‘concealment by inactivity’ – essentially meaning a failure to report it.
This would have allowed local authorities to pursue an enforcement order even where the limitation period has expired, and property owners would be required to remedy the breach.
Solicitors had argued that this provision of the bill would make purchasers liable where the breach had been concealed not by themselves, but by the vendor or anyone else. The Law Society was concerned that this could have a serious effect on the property market with purchasers less willing to buy and lenders less willing to lend.
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has now formally accepted the Law Society’s arguments and amended the provision regarding ‘concealment by inactivity’.
However, the bill will still allow local authorities to enforce orders outside the limitation period where a breach of planning rules has been concealed by any means other than inactivity.
Law Society President John Wotton said: “We are very pleased that the DCLG has listened to our concerns, but the innocent purchaser is still at risk.
“If there has been concealment in the past, the local authority can still restart the clock and enforce outside the normal time limits.
“The Society’s preference was the deletion of the clause. It maintains its view that the provision is unnecessary and will be pressing for amendments it has already proposed to protect innocent purchasers.”
We totally agree and think the sooner the clause is deleted the better. However, awareness is the next best thing so when buying your property, make sure you deal with a solicitor who can make you aware of potential issues and flag up little known pieces of legislation and its implications for you.
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Insuring high standards in PI
Car insurance companies should stop selling motorists’ details to personal injury lawyers without permission, former Justice Secretary Jack Straw has warned. This practice is fuelling a rise in premiums, he said.
The politician stated that insurance firms which engage in this practice should be subject to tighter rules because the victims of this practice are law-abiding motorists who are forced to part with more money for cover.
In an article for The Times, Mr Straw revealed that the companies are getting paid for referring clients’ details to personal injury lawyers. He said that executives at two of the country’s largest insurers admitted to the practice, saying it was the motor insurance industry’s ‘dirty secret’.
He wrote: “This is not a system. It’s a racket. The quicker it’s ended, the better it will be for the law abiding motorist.
”Motor insurers themselves are amongst the major traders in personal information about those involved in accidents, in return for which they receive referral fees. This information is then used as a platform for claims against the self-same insurance companies.”
We at TFG agree with Mr Straw’s comments. It is not right that on the one hand insurers complain long and hard about ‘the compensation culture’, and yet on the other hand seem to be quite happy to make money on the back of it from customers who have no idea what is going on behind the scenes.
We have conducted thousands of claims for those unfortunate enough to have been injured but like to think that we do so in an ethical and transparent manner, complying with the stringent rules of our governing body the Law Society. We certainly do not approve of any company selling clients or customers personal details to the highest bidder without their informed consent.
Have you been trading with an enemy lately?
Our favourite story of the week is this report from the Press Association which reports that the Government is to scrap a raft of “ridiculous” business regulations including alcohol licences to sell chocolate liqueurs and age limits on buying Christmas crackers.
Redundant legislation such as the war-time Trading With The Enemy Act and rules around the safety of pencils and prams will also be abolished.
Shops will no longer need a licence to sell chocolate liqueurs, while the age limit for buying Christmas crackers will be reduced from 16 to the European minimum of 12.
Business Secretary Vince Cable announced that 130 out of the 257 regulations covering retail firms will be scrapped, and a further 30 will be simplified as part of the Government’s “red tape challenge” which will eventually study more than 20,000 regulations across British industry.
Mr Cable said: “We have struck a balance between keeping regulations necessary to protect consumers, the workforce and the environment, while rolling back the number of rules and regulations our businesses have to deal with. We have heard these promises by successive governments before, but these first proposals from the red tape challenge show that we’re serious and we are making real progress.”
Expert will writing doesn’t have to mean expensive bills
Thousands of people are being let down by companies providing unregulated services such as will writing, claims the first Legal Ombudsman Adam Sampson.
The BBC and other national media reported on the Legal Chief Ombudsman’s comments this week. He said the complaints were mostly about conveyancing, family law and wills.
“One service which crops up a lot is Will writing, he said. It’s a service carried out often by will-writing firms who aren’t regulated.”
At TFG we hear a lot of stories where people just haven’t been given the right advice and believe it’s totally unacceptable. The worst thing is that customers then have to deal with the fall out from badly written wills and other documents when they are already struggling to deal with grief and stress.
And as Adam Sampson points out, the companies are unregulated so they have no insurance, don’t have a compensation fund and aren’t covered by the Legal Ombudsman’s scheme for consumer redress so there’s little people can do.
Wills, probate and inheritance tax planning requires expertise and experience. It doesn’t have to be more expensive to go to a qualified solicitor and it means that when the worst happens, you have one less thing to worry about.
We feel so strongly about this issue that we have introduced a special offer until the end of August. Single Wills are just £50 and Mirrror Wills £75 plus we give a free legal consultation initially so you can be sure we’re the right solicitor for you before you have to pay anything.
For more information call us on 0191 490 0108
