SEMINARS

Paul Kelerher QC will speak at this Saturday seminar hosted by the Forensic Science Society at Kings College, London on Saturday 11 June from 10am - 12.30 pm.

Further information can be obtained from www.forensic-science-society.org.uk 

A practical look at recent developments and what lies ahead.
A breakfast seminar and panel discussion on Wednesday 8 June 2011 0800 to 0930
Venue: The Bingham Room, Gray’s Inn, London WC1R 5ET
Hosted by: Weber Shandwick and 25 Bedford Row
See our News page for further details

Keynote Speaker: Jeremy Dein QC
QCC Offices, Holborn, London EC1 6pm - 8.30pm

Following our successful series of digital forensics briefings, we are pleased to invite you to the next briefing on the evidential usefulness of mobile device data. Most mobile devices (Blackberry, Apple iPhone, Nokia, Samsung, etc) today are capable of sending text, picture, multimedia and e-mail messages. It is not uncommon for mobile telephone handsets to record and play audio, take and store photographs and video as well as browse the Internet and even be used as navigation systems. We will be discussing the reliability and potential vulnerabilities of this type of forensic evidence, along with the legal implications of it. Also attached is a flyer on QCC digital forensics which you might find of interest.
During the briefing, you will hear from 3 specialists in this field: 

John Douglas, QCC forensic laboratory manager, will introduce the subject – defining terms and looking broadly at the reliability and potential vulnerabilities of mobile device analysis.
Jeremy Dein QC - 25 Bedford Row, will speak on the legal challenges that mobile devices present. Jeremy is a criminal defence specialist with extensive trial and appellate experience. His high profile practice includes murder, organised crime, terrorism, drugs, serious sex cases and fraud. He is in the top rank of the leading silks in crime in Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500. Jeremy is a Crown court Recorder and Director of Education for the Criminal Bar Association.
Gurpreet Thathy, QCC mobile devices forensic specialist, will give a technical overview and present various scenarios and case studies.

You will be able to claim 2 hours of CPD credit - please use reference DYM/QCCI.  To book a free place, please send an email to emma@25bedfordrow.com  

Rudi Fortson QC & Aisling Byrnes will be guest speakers at Butterworths live broadcast webinar on 4 April 2011 at 3.30pm. It will cover, amongst other topics, the complexities of sentencing, the dangerousness provisions and correcting mistakes. The webinar will also be available for viewers to download & view at any time chosen after the live broadcast.
For further details, click here.

Members of the public have been contacted via email by a person pretending to be connected with 25 Bedford Row and purporting to be one of our counsel. The fraudster has used the name of John Cooper QC. If you receive an email purporting to have come from 25 Bedford Row, asking for personal or banking details, please delete this. We would never contact members of the public seeking this information. You should also only use our published telephone number (020 7067 1500) and email (clerks@25bedfordrow.com) to contact us if you have any queries. You may also be able to report the matter to your email provider - please check the 'Help' section of your email.

Paul Mendelle QC, Jonathan Mitchell, Sebastian Gardiner, Nathaniel Rudolf and Daniel Chadwick have drafted a detailed response to chapter six of the recent Ministry of Justice Consultation paper, which proposes cuts to the level and structure of fees paid to criminal practitioners.
Our response can be downloaded here.
(A copy of the consultation paper can be read  by clicking here)

On 22 January 2011, the ICDL will hold its 5th annual meeting at the Hotel Intercontinental in Berlin. In addition to David Hooper QC, confirmed speakers include Professor Otto Triffterer, Peter Robinson, Sam Shoamanesh & Fiona McKay. Further information is available from the website www.icdl-germany.org/3.html

Paul Mendelle QC speaks to the BBC Ashes Breakfast programme with Nicky Campbell & Shelagh Fogarty on the topic of drugs law reform. To listen to the interview, please click here.

Salman Butt, the Pakistan cricket captain accused of allegedly "fixing" test matches has instructed Yasin Patel to represent him in the UK proceedings. For the full report, please click here.

"Criminal Cuts - the Legal Aid Debate" will be hosted by the Institute of Ideas on Wednesday 17 November. John Cooper QC will be speaking

For further details, please click here.

John Cooper QC has been awarded the position of Honorary Visiting Professor of Law at Cardiff University. This prestigious position recognises Cooper's influential legal practice in Crime and Human Rights and the acknowledgment that he has become the leading commentator on the law and legal affairs. Earlier this year, John Cooper was appointed Director of Media and Communications for the Halsbury Law Exchange and at the same time undertook a position as Consultant Editor for the Criminal Law and Justice Weekly.

The conference provides an opportunity for serious debate on issues which directly affect the profession. 25 Bedford Row is proud to be a conference sponsor in this the 25th anniversary year of the event.

For the further details please click here.

John Cooper QC has been appointed as Director of Press & Media Relations at Halsbury’s Law Exchange. The Exchange is an independent and politically neutral legal think tank which contributes to the development of law and the legal sector. It aims to communicate ideas on reform or legal direction to decision makers and the legal sector and promote debate through papers, reports, events and media pieces.

Published by Jordan Publishing, this book examines the concept of abuse of process and provides a guide as to how it operates with the criminal justice system.  It deals with the practicalities of how to make applications to stay proceedings on the basis that an abuse of process has occurred.  This new edition covers all recent changes to the law including leading judgments such as Mc E v Prison Service of Northern Ireland [2009] UKHL 15, R v Hamza [2007] Crim LR 320, and Spiers v Ruddy [2007] UKPC D2, as well as a new section on the Inability to Participate. For further information, click here.

As the coalition government began to burn the quangos last week, among the ashes can be found the office of chief coroner. In this article, John Cooper QC looks at the implications of the governments decision to drop the role of Chief Coroner, which was originally outlined in the Coroners & Justice Act 2009.

For the full text, please click here.

John Cooper QC will be discussing the spending review and its impact on justice in a live webcast at 1pm on Friday 22 October 2010. The webcast will look at how & when the axe will fall on civil, criminal & family legal aid. You can listen in to the webcast at www.newlawjournal.co.uk

Rudi Fortson QC spoke today at the CBA Conference on Homicide Reforms under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. The full text of his presentation can be downloaded here.

Mr Cooper takes up his position as consultant editor of the flagship journal from 1 October.

John's practice at the Criminal & Human Rights Bar is well known (www.john-cooper.info) and additionally he writes widely on the law and legal issues, including regular features in The Times, The Observer and The Guardian.

He is also editor of the Criminal Bar Quarterly. John is looking forward to working closely with Lexis Nexis in continuing to make the Criminal Law & Justice Weekly a journal which is highly respected.

John Cooper QC writes in today's issue of The Times. As the legal profession braces itself for the Comprehensive Spending Review next month, barristers' earnings will again be subject to scrutiny, but that scrutiny could reveal a rather unexpected picture of barristers struggling to make ends meet. Already, some barristers working on legal aid cases earn as little as £10,000 a year gross. For the full text of the article, please see page 75 of The Times, 30 September 2010 or online at www.thetimes.co.uk

Chambers UK Guide has nominated 25 Bedford Row for the Chambers Bar Awards 2010 Crime Set of the Year.  The awards honour those sets of chambers, silks and juniors who have particularly excelled in their practice areas over the past 12 months.  The results will be announced at The London Hilton on Park Lane on Thursday, 30th September.

For further details, please click here.

Rudi Fortson QC will be speaking at a one day conference on the Coroners & Justice Act 2009 to be held at Durham Law School.

For further details, please click here.

John Cooper QC discusses the proposals to distinguish between different types of homicide. He comments that the proposals reflect the public's demand for fairness. The DPP made clear this week his support for the introduction of an American-style first & second degree murder regime.

The full article can be read online at www.thetimes.co.uk

Chairman of the League Against Cruel Sports, John Cooper QC, comments on the admissions made by Tony Blair about the hunting ban in his memoirs,

For further details, please click here.

Peter Doyle QC & Dermot Keating represented William Godley, who was sentenced today for his part in a "Ponzi fraud" said to be worth over £180m. Mr Doyle & Mr Keating were instructed as his new legal team after Mr Godley had entered his guilty plea.
In an unusual case, Mr Godley was sentenced over 3 years after pleading guilty and some 8 years after the conclusion of the fraud.

For further details, please click here.

The Court of Appeal today upheld the judgment quashing the control orders against 3 terrorism suspects.

Ali Bajwa represented suspect AE.

For further details, please click here.

Christopher Taylor was sentenced today at Wolverhampton Crown Court by Mrs Justice Macur. 

Taylor along with his co-defendant Kayley Boleyn were sentenced for the murder of 3 year old Ryan. The judge, in sentencing the two, described the cruelty towards the child leading up to his eventual murder as “living in hell”. Taylor received a 15 year sentence and Boleyn 13 years custody.
John Cooper QC, instructed by Smith Dawson solicitors, represented Taylor. For further details, please click here. For further newspaper reports, please click here.

NB - Mr Cooper is also instructed in the Judicial Review of the case of Dr Crippen - please click here for further details.

Osman Osman, formerly of Tooks Chambers, joins 25 Bedford Row from today.
Osman's defence practice ranges from terrorism, fraud, serious organised crime & homicide to violent sexual offences. He also has expertise in asset recovery & confiscation proceeedings at all levels. His extensive experience within the appellate courts and in  judicial review makes him an excellent addition to our team.

John Cooper QC will be chairing a groundbreaking conference, hosted by the League Against Cruel Sports, which takes a fresh look at the issues of dog fighting, terrier work, and fox baiting. It seeks to establish why people get involved in such offending, and how they can be helped away from it.

For the further details please click here.

Paul Mendelle QC speaks to the Today programme on Radio 4 about the government's desire to grant the defendant anonymity in rape trials.

To listen to the broadcast please click here.

Paul Mendelle QC argues that the age of criminal responsibility should be raised to 14 to better protect the "truly young".

For the full text of the article please click here.

Aisling Byrnes writes for Times Online on the topic of questioning children in criminal trials.

For the full article please click here.

Paul Mendelle QC provides a brief analysis of the recent rape trial involving the youngest defendants to be tried for rape at the Old Bailey.

For the full article please click here.

Geoffrey Alderman reviews the highly successful symposium held by 25 Bedford Row last week in which the role of drugs in our society was debated.

For the full article please click here.

John Cooper comments on the growth of state surveillance in the UK.

For the full article please click here.

Senior Clerk Guy Williams was interviewd by Frances Gibb, Legal Editor of The Times. 

For the full article please click here.

Monday’s article by Paul Mendelle responds to Jack Straw’s latest inaccurate release of information about Barristers’ earnings. Jack Straw’s latest sideswipe suggests the incomes of the ten most highly paid barristers are representative of the profession. Mr Mendelle says “There are more than 6,000 barristers practising criminal law and the overwhelming majority have incomes that are nowhere near these figures. A barrister doing ordinary crown court trials typically earns about £60 an hour.”

For the full article please click here.

To read the full article please click here.

Times Online, Thursday 11 March 2010
Today’s article by Paul Mendelle QC illustrates that not only are we sending too many people to prison for too long, we are also sending too many of the wrong people to prison. Figures show that each prisoner costs the state about £41,000 a year and building each prison place costs £100,000.  Mr Mendelle comments “we could spend less and achieve more by diverting resources to prevention, treatment and rehabilitation”.

To read the full article please click here.

25 Bedford Row today responded to the latest Ministry of Justice consultation paper on reforming legal aid. The full response can be read here.

To read the full content of the article, please click here.

Chambers is today celebrating ground breaking success as five barristers achieve the elite rank of QC. The story is reported in today's online issue of The Times.

The five succesful barristers were David Hooper, Rudi Fortson, John Cooper, Tom Price and Paul Hynes.

In this weeks issue of Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, John Cooper  writes that the ability of a Judge to exercise discretion in the sentencing process has diminished over the last decade.

To read the full content of the article, please click here.

In an article published in The Guardian today, Paul Mendelle explains why the jury system is reliable and discusses issues raised by the latest report from the Ministry of Justice.

For the full text of the article, please follow the link: www.guardian.co.uk

John Cooper is quoted as supporting greater use of written instructions, saying “from many years experience I don’t accept that juries have great difficulty understanding judges’ directions”.

For the full text please follow the link:  business.timesonline.co.uk

Jo Sidhu represented Usman Saddique, who was acquitted last week on alleged terrorism charges. In an article published in The Guardian today, he discusses the issues raised by this case.

For the full text of the article, please click here.

25 Bedford Row yesterday responded to the Legal Services Commission Consultation Paper on the future of Very High Cost Cases:

1. The proposed changes at the heart of this consultation paper will have a significant impact on the levels of pay and working practices of those at the independent Bar involved in serious crime cases.  The purpose of a paper is to allow those consulted to respond and had we been able to, we would have done so, but we consider that the actions of the Ministry of Justice have made this impossible.
2. This LSC consultation paper has been expressly linked to the subsequent Ministry of Justice consultation paper proposing reductions in fees for graduated fee cases. It is explicit in the MoJ paper that the reductions are contingent on the way in which we respond to this LSC paper.  In addition, we note that the MoJ paper proposes a further consultation paper, as yet unpublished, concerning a single graduated fee which is intended to produce yet more cuts, as yet un-quantified, by means as yet unspecified.
3. These matters are of such importance and are so inextricably linked that to expect us to respond to this paper, without resolution of or reference to the others, is wholly impracticable and grossly unfair.
4. If there are to be radical changes to both our working practices and levels of pay, then the Bar must be given the opportunity to consider them in the round, and not on a piecemeal basis with the complete uncertainty as to what impact one change will have on another.
5. The Bar council and the CBA requested an extension of time to respond to the LSC paper. This reasonable and sensible request has been refused by the MoJ.  In the circumstances we have concluded that we are not able to provide a response to any of the three options outlined by this consultation paper.
6. We note with dismay that the current consultation paper does not provide the option of the GFS Plus, the scheme specifically devised by the Advocates Sub Group for VHCCs and recognised by the LSC as having “merit”. GFS Plus is in our view the fairest and most sensible scheme for payment in very high cost cases and is the one that, given the option, we would support.
7. We further support the decision of the Bar Council and the CBA to instigate Judicial Review proceedings to challenge the propriety of the consultation process and we urge the LSC and MoJ to reconsider their approach to the consultation process.

Ali Bajwa will be speaking at this important conference, hosted by JUSTICE,  on Thursday 11 March. The past year has seen important developments both in terms of new legislation and case law.

The conference will spotlight the key issues for practitioners and policy makers and Mr Justice Blake will give the keynote speech. Ali Bajwa will be covering terrorism offences and sentencing and examining the important judgments that have been handed down in the last 12 months. His session will also provide a full update on relevant case law and statutory provisions.

To book a place at the conference (or for further details) please contact conferences@sweetandmaxwell.co.uk

In a short interview on Al Jazeera TV, John Cooper, a human rights lawyer, gives his views on Britain's latest public inquiry into the Iraq war.

The interview can be viewed from the following link: www.youtube.com

Usman Saddique, who faced terrorism charges arising out of the transatlantic airline bomb plot, was acquitted today after the trial judge upheld submissions of no case to answer on both counts.

Jo Sidhu, instructed by Tuckers solicitors, acted for the defendant. For further details please see news.bbc.co.uk.

Paul Mendelle QC gave an interview to Frances Gibb, Legal Editor of The Times. Mendelle, Chairman of the CBA, is organising roadshows on the latest proposals on criminal legal aid.  But the battle is far from won. He comments on the LSC’s option of extending graduated fees from 40- to 60-day trials as “impracticable and unworkable”.

Barristers have put forward an alternative scheme that pays a fair fee, controls costs and cuts red tape. “People are very ,very, very angry, they feel they don’t have a free choice”, he adds.

The full article can be found in today’s Times.

Paul Mendelle QC gave an interview to Frances Gibb, Legal Editor of The Times. He warned that a change to the law proposed by the Tory party to allow householders to use "disproportionate" force against burglars is unnecessary and could be a licence to kill.

Paul Mendelle pointed out that allowing disproportionate force could even breach human rights, and may even lead to householders being less safe, as burglars might be more likely to carry and use weapons, if they knew they could be killed.

The shortened version of the article appears in todays Times and the full version will appear in the Law section on Thursday 28th January.

On 18 January, Mr Justice Silber gave judgment in the High Court in a claim for damages by two controlees, AE & AF, in which he held that the control orders were unlawfully imposed and must be quashed from the time they were imposed in 2006. The judgment paves the way for the next stage of the controlees' claim for damages from the Home Secretary for breach of articles 5 & 6 ECHR and false imprisonment.

Mr Justice Silber also declared that the disclosure requirements laid down by the House of Lords in AF (No 3) apply to a claim for damages by controlees arising out of the imposition of control orders upon them and ordered the Home Secretary to pay the entirety of the controlees' costs in the control order proceedings.

Ali Bajwa, instructed by Chambers Solicitors in Bradford, acted for the controlee AE.

BBC
The Guardian
The Times