Legal Updates

Since the new Conservative government was elected, there have been announcements that significant changes will be made to the strike laws which are currently in place. When these changes come into effect, any strike which will affect the public services will need to have the support of 40% of the eligible voting union members. As it stands, a strike can be carried out if it has the support of the majority of those who vote.

Unions have responded to the announcement by saying that the new legislative measures will make legal strikes almost impossible. The new percentage will not be calculated from the number of people who vote, but from the total number of union members who are eligible to vote and therefore could have voted.

The partnership between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the police is vital to the prosecution process in the United Kingdom. In order for a prosecution to proceed against a person, company or institution, the police must first gather all the information and evidence necessary to support a criminal investigation, and the CPS will then use this information to decide whether or not the prosecution should go ahead.

If the case is taken forward, the police will also be largely responsible for the smooth running of the prosecution process at a basic level. They will be the ones to warn witnesses that they need to attend court. They will also be in charge of recording witness statements, of keeping the victims up to date as the case progresses, and of finding, securing and storing crucial evidence whilst the prosecution is underway.

As part of your studies on ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course, you have considered the topic of land law. This month, we are reviewing proposals to change rights over land. These changes affect public rights of way and were part of the government’s Deregulation Bill 2013 – 2014.

You may recall from your studies that a right of way is an easement. The land that is subject to such an easement means that the landowner must permit someone to pass over their land. Public rights of way allow members of the general public to pass over land, and these rights of way were designed to allow people to access the countryside. These types of easements are protected by law. If you are the owner of land that is subject to a public right of way, it is your responsibility to keep the right of way clear of obstructions.

Online resources for legal research can often be hard to navigate. If you are searching for a specific case summary or information on one particular act, you may find yourself looking for a very small needle in a very big haystack. The recently relaunched Emplaw website, however, seeks to change that by offering a clean, easy-to-use interface and focusing on one area of law rather than all of them.

The Emplaw service offers a vast repository of employment law data, including thousands of searchable case summaries and law cards. While the service is subscription only, there is a lot of useful information available for non-subscribers. Non-subscribers can read summaries of all content, which on its own is quite a useful feature.

Spring is officially upon us, and we can therefore reflect on how the winter has affected legal services to clients. Winter is the most common time for personal injury accidents to happen due to ice and snow. The first question on some people’s mind would be ‘Whom can I sue?’ Whilst a civil litigation personal injury claim may be considered, one must not forget that there are also other aspects of private law which could be considered, including Occupiers’ Liability.

Unfortunately Britain is not always equipped to deal with adverse weather conditions. The weather is down to ‘Mother Nature’, and when weather warnings are put in place stating ‘Only go out when necessary’, they should be adhered to and it is up to the individual to decide whether to take the risk. Therefore, in many cases, any injury you incur will not be claimable as it is simply an accident.

Most consumer law was written about thirty years ago and does not clearly cover all types of modern contracts such as those dealing with digital content like music, software or games. New measures to enhance consumer rights and make them easier to understand were unveiled by consumer minister Jo Swinson in early 2014.

The proposals, outlined in the draft Consumer Rights bill, streamline overlapping and complicated areas from eight pieces of legislation into a single consumer bill. They also introduce new rights for both consumers and businesses. This government bill was introduced in the Commons on 23 January 2014. It had its second reading on 28 January 2014. A carry-over motion was agreed on 28 January 2014 which allowed consideration of the bill to be resumed in the 2014-15 session.   

Over the past year or so, the government has been trying to introduce cuts to the legal aid budget which could have a drastic impact on the number of people entitled to legal aid and the amount of support to which they have access.

The Law Society launched a sustained campaign against these cuts, determined to protect the most vulnerable from cuts to a vital support line for victims. On 11 March 2015, it was officially announced that the Court of Appeal had failed to pass the cuts which the government had proposed in relation to legal aid.

The cuts would threaten those who are unable to pay for their own legal representation. They could leave vulnerable people at risk by denying them access to legal representation following criminal accusations.

On the evening of 4 March 2015, the House of Lords discussed and approved the amendment to the Civil Proceedings and Family Proceedings Fees Order.

This has brought about several changes to the court fees incurred by different claims. As of 9 March 2015, these are the fees which claimants will be obliged to pay in order to receive the money won in court:

•           Any claim of a sum of money between £10,000 and £200,000 will be subject to a fee of 5% of the total amount claimed. Claimants will be able to benefit from a small discount on this amount if they issue through Secure Data Transfer (SDT) or Money Claims Online (MCOL).

•           Any claims worth a total amount over £200,000 will incur a fixed fee of £10,000.

This year marks a monumental milestone in the political development of the United Kingdom. A document which was first drawn up to appease an unruly bunch of rebel barons and a very unpopular monarch marks its 800th birthday. Eight centuries after the Archbishop of Canterbury drafted the Magna Carta, we still use it as the basis for the unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom.

New powers have recently been handed over to a number of different local authorities – including the police, landlords of social housing, and town and district councils – to provide a new approach to anti-social behaviour. These new regulations have been introduced to try to empower victims and to make communities safer.