Despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stating that whole-life prison tariffs are a breach of a prisoner’s human rights, the Court of Appeal has elected to go against this judgment and decide that such terms could still be handed down to the criminals responsible for the most heinous crimes in our society. In this article we will take a look at what the ECHR suggested we do in order to remain lawful with our sentencing.
This month we are looking at some of the latest developments in the world of wills and probate.
The Law Society Wills and Inheritance Protocol
A new protocol published in July 2013 was linked to the Law Society’s Wills and Inheritance Quality Scheme. The protocol is not currently compulsory for Solicitors unless they are members of the Quality Scheme.
The protocol sets out the ‘preferred practice’ for will drafting, probate and estate administration and covers areas of practice that commonly give rise to risks and errors. The protocol is intended to form the policy that a legal practice should follow to help it meet the high-quality service standards that clients expect. A few examples of key points that are covered on will drafting include these:
The United Kingdom maintains its roots of government, but perhaps it is time for some major changes to occur. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England all have a say in the UK government, but is there fairness in the representation? Currently all countries have the ability to decide on what happens in the United Kingdom government, which is not a bad thing if you consider that major legislative changes can affect all four countries. However, what about local Westminster changes that affect only England?
The year 2014 is very important for employment law. The current laws were introduced in the mid-1990s, so with it being nearly 20 years later, it stands to reason the UK government would be looking to change employment laws to meet current requirements and changes that have occurred to employment as a whole. Several proposed changes have been put into the works, with most of the employment changes occurring in April 2014. These new laws will have a greater impact on some employees than on others.
Child abduction by a parent has reportedly doubled since 2003-2004, stated the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). In 2003-2004, 272 new cases of child abduction by a parent were reported. In 2012-2013, 580 cases were reported. In an attempt to solve this increasingly troubling situation, ‘Caught in the Middle’, a film, was recently published on YouTube. The film looks at the children who suffer the most from parental disagreements that lead to abduction.
According to the statistics and legal advisers helping to bring children home, many of these cases occur around Christmas or after summer holidays. These two times of year are considered the most stressful, which can lead to rash thinking from one parent. Abduction is detrimental to the child, who is suddenly removed from their parent, friends and familiar homeland.
This month we are considering how the rapidly changing area of civil litigation has fared over the past year. There have been several articles in the Journal about the recommendations made by Lord Justice Jackson in his wide-ranging review in 2010. This review and the recommendations he made came into force in April this year as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Many have suggested that we are now experiencing the most significant changes to civil litigation in nearly 15 years. So how effective have the changes been, and what have they done to the legal profession?
Damages-based agreements
The United Kingdom is woefully behind in changing their drug laws, given the increase in drug- related deaths. In 2013 there were 52 reported deaths from legal drugs. A legal drug is classified as one that has not been banned and is sold online or in shops. These drugs are sold under the guise that they are not harmful, but new evidence shows they can be just as harmful as drugs already on the banned list.
Since the new government took power, there have been mild changes to the drug situation in which 200 substances have already been banned. These 200 substances can no longer be sold in shops or online. Anyone selling them or caught taking them will be subject to court proceedings, with a possible custodial sentence.
Recent scandals have caused proposed changes in the medical laws and the punishments that medical professionals will face if they break these new proposed regulations. These new laws will mean that medical professionals who break these rules could face up to five years in prison.
A recent review of patient safety found that there were hundreds of people who were suffering because of wilful neglect and mistreatment by medical professionals, which prompted lawmakers to look at the current regulations and at what needed to be changed.
Extensions
The first step to understanding how the laws are changing and what that means is to understand what the whistle-blower laws are in the first place. When an employee provides a statement that their company or department has done something that is illegal or dangerous, or not in the interest of the public, it is called whistle-blowing.
There are laws in place that help protect the people who are blowing the whistle as well as the companies. For example, if a single person within a company takes a bribe, the company can be released from liability of wrongdoing if it proves it has practices in place that discourage the taking of bribes. However, the people who suffer the most damage from blowing the whistle are the employees who step up.
The topic of human trafficking and modern-day slavery is an issue that is always guaranteed to provoke emotion in people. Some official sources are claiming that there has been up to a 300 per cent rise in human trafficking numbers from certain countries (Albania, Lithuania, Romania, Vietnam, etc.) in just two years.
This really is an abhorrent side to modern-day life. Despite the fact that slavery should have been fully abolished back in the 19th century, an alarmingly large number of criminals are making vast sums of money out of trafficking humans around the world.