Legal Updates

Introduction

My country (the Philippines) today, our highest judge was successfully impeached and just removed from power. But how do countries around the world treat the word “impeachment” as part of democratic process to ensure the public accountability principle? Our constitution provides the slogan of “Public Office is a Public Trust”.

In our first review article on the pending reforms to civil litigation we will be looking in more depth at the changes intended to limit legal costs.

This is not the first time that legal costs have been in the spotlight. One of the highlights of the last set of reforms¹ to our litigation system in the late 1990s was the attempt to address legal costs. It has been argued that, despite improvements made to the rules over the years, legal costs in litigation have remained stubbornly high. The current changes² are due to be implemented in April 2013. We will examine below two key alterations to existing litigation procedure, namely the increased use of fixed fees and changes to how claims are funded.

If you are already aware of the new recommendations that have been put forward from NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) to extend the right to IVF fertility treatment to slightly older women, same-sex couples and other groups of people, you will have noticed just how heated this debate has become lately. It would seem that everyone holds a strong opinion on this topic, with very few people deciding to sit on the fence.

Over the years since I have been writing articles for The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs, I have covered the topic of anti-social behaviour on a number of occasions. This is mainly down to the fact that this particular subject means so much to all of us; after all, it is a huge issue within many of our neighbourhoods, and there are high levels of frustration when it comes to how people feel local authorities, the police and the criminal justice system are dealing with such problems.

From 2 to 5 June the Diamond Jubilee celebrations will take place to mark 60 years of the Queen’s reign. The Queen came to the throne on 6 February 1952, and her coronation took place on 2 June 1953. What better time to take a look at how the Queen is involved with our various laws?

The British Sovereign can be seen as having two roles: Head of State, in which the Queen undertakes constitutional and representational duties; and Head of the Nation, where her role is less formal but no less important for the social and cultural functions it fulfils.

A Summary of the Effect of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012

For several months we have been following the passage of the controversial Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) through Parliament. This month, despite 14 defeats for the government in the House of Lords, it has now become an Act. The changes to civil litigation will be the most comprehensive since the Civil Procedural Rules (CPR) were introduced over 12 years ago. These reforms were not unexpected, and if you look back through the Institute’s journal articles since 2010 you will see many references to Lord Justice Jackson’s Report on Civil Litigation and costs.¹ It has already taken two years for the Jackson reforms to hit the statute books, and it is expected to take until April 2013 for the changes to be made in legal practice.

Owning a dangerous dog is seen as a status symbol by some, and in spite of the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, recent years have seen a rise in the number of dog attacks across the UK. Children are most often the victims of aggressive and violent dogs. Many feel that even though the Dangerous Dogs Act was amended in 1997, it still lacks the teeth to make any real difference. Will the recent plan for making it mandatory to micro-chip all newborn puppies be enough to curb the rising trend of violent dog attacks?

One of our Associate Members, Clint Diesto from the Philippines, has written an article on the importance of Paralegals in small claims cases. The fundamental question is, when should Paralegals appear in order to assist a litigant?

Imagine yourself at a collection suit hearing in a tribunal or court where you have to appear before a Judge. Although you have been informed that this is an informal hearing and you have to raise a point of inquiry before the Judge, you cannot express it confidently because you are afraid you will be misquoted by the court.

Another instance would be as follows: You are supposed to present your bargaining terms with the other party, yet you cannot formally present it even with the court’s assistance, because you cannot lay down “legal and formal” terms and conditions.

The Law Commission¹ recommended at the beginning of this month that more than 800 old laws be removed from the statute books. The recommendations cover laws on poor relief, lotteries, turnpikes and Indian railways. The oldest legislation dates back to 1322 (Statutes of the Exchequer), and the most recent is part of a Taxation Act from 2010. This is the largest of the Law Commission’s reports (there have been 18 others to date) on removing outdated laws. It is likely that their recommended Statutory Law (Repeal) Bill will be accepted by Parliament this summer as (another!) law on the statute books. 

The subject of House of Lords reforms has been continually discussed for more than 100 years. Many of us have come to believe that the possibility of any real reform is a myth. For some, the House of Lords itself is like an archaic myth – do they really refer to one another as ‘noble lord’ and ‘noble baroness’? And what work do they really do? Now the current coalition Government has decided that it wants to have another crack at reform.