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Weekly Round Up 23.03.12

CBA News:

Chairman’s Update: 

AN APOLOGY. I have not troubled you so far this week, but of course I take responsibility for daily emails from Aaron and Mike Turner, urging you to complete the Survey which has just closed. To those who completed the Survey weeks ago, I apologise unreservedly for tedious repeat messages. Believe me, I know what it is like to receive unwanted emails. I only hope you can accept that we have been trying our hardest to ensure that the Survey reflects the views of all. The Officers, Committee and myself fight daily battles in the interest of the CBA. We need all the help you can provide. Thank you for bearing with us. I intend to provide a full and frank appraisal of the Survey next week, once we have studied the detail.

Turning to emails which I very much welcome, may I also apologise for sometimes failing to answer every personal message. I do my best, but there are not enough hours in the day, or night, to respond to everyone. Don’t stop writing though, please.

GOOD NEWS. See the letter HERE from CPS, regarding transfer of DWP/DOH work, and the retention of specialist counsel to do the work. This is progress in difficult times, and proof that communication and consultation can work, sometimes.

CACD. See Master Egan’s (whose recent appointment we congratulate) plan for increased efficiency in submissions to the Court of Appeal HERE. A separate copy of the grid, which can be used as a template, can be found HERE.

I hope to see you at our Paperless Trials Symposium at Church House on Tuesday, 27th March. You can still register HERE.

Have a good weekend

Website Reminder:

Several months ago the Committee commissioned an independent design company for the re-construction, layout and overall design of the current website.

The majority of the site is Now only accessible by members of the Criminal Bar Association. In order to log in for the first time you will need to have your individual unique CBA reference, those of you who have completed and returned your Direct Debit Mandate would have received this pin earlier this month. If you haven’t then you will need to complete a form HERE and send back to me., upon receipt I can provide you with your reference by email.

I had previously informed you that the two areas of the site that couldn’t go live until certain provisions were in place were Event Booking and Shop – both of which required us to have SAGE PAY installed and to obtain Merchant Numbers from our Bank. . Unfortunately there has been a delay with the Bank and these functions will not be accessible for another 10 days. I apologise for any inconvenience.

TAX:

As you may recall, Ed Vickers and Aaron Dolan met with Philip Bristow of Vector Professions Finance (a Bar Council Service Partner) and negotiated a deal for CBA Members who take out loans in the coming months. Vector will waive their fees (£120 including bank TT fees) for any CBA members applying before 31st August 2012 (to cover July tax payments). The application is straightforward – application form, full aged debt and last 12 months gross receipts – and transfer of money can be completed within a week. You need to quote reference BAR 888. Contact Philip Bristow at [email protected] ; for more information, the link is here. This offer also applies to FLBA members

Follow the chairman on twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/TheCriminalBar

 

CBA Events:

Paperless Trials from 1st April 2012 – A welcome or a concern?

Tuesday 27 March 2012

6.30pm – 8.30pm

27 March 2012

Speakers include out Chairman, Max Hill QC and The DPP, Keir Starmer

Church House, Deans Yard, Westminster

Silks, Solicitors and non-members £40 / Juniors/Clerks: £30 / Pupils: £20

Please book by completing the booking form here and return with your payment to Aaron Dolan

 

The CBA Spring Conference 2012 

This year’s CBA Spring Conference will take place on Saturday 21st April 2012. It is being held on the North Eastern circuit at Northumbria University in Newcastle. Speakers include Lord Justice Hooper, Penny Barrett (Criminal Cases Review Commissioner), Michael Tuner QC and Gareth Underhill on the topic of appellate advocacy and CCRC referrals, Professor David Ormerod on a roundup of the legal year, His Honour Judge Nicholas Browne QC and Patricia Lynch QC on serious sexual offences and Rudi Fortson QC on confiscation and sentencing in drug offences. It is expected to bring 6 CPD hours.

Prices remain the same as last year at £95 for members over 7 years call, £60 for members under 7 years call and £40 for pupils. Please book by completing the booking form here and return with your payment to Aaron Dolan.

CBA Annual Dinner

Friday 18th May 2012

Middle Temple Hall, Middle Temple, London

Guest Speaker – The Hon Mr Justice Calvert-Smith

For further information and to book please contact Aaron Dolan

Early booking is advised

 

Other News:

CPS T3 Project

Crimeline update:

You will be aware that the T3 project is gaining momentum, and to that end you may find the following documents of interest. The first is a newly updated FAQ document, this is more recent that the one sent out by many CPS areas only a couple of days ago.
Read it here


Of more interest however is a revised Prison Service Instruction which deals with bringing electronic devices into prison/court cells. This is a very important document and you are advised to read it and circulate widely.
Read it here
Funding changes, designed to better support T3 working take effect from 1 April 2012, read about them here:

Legal Services Commission – guidance to barristers on fee claims

Barristers and clerks who undertake legal aid work will wish to be aware of the February issue of the LSC Bar Bulletin which gives advice on how to reduce the chance of fees being rejected or unnecessarily delayed.

The Bulletin includes advice on:

– claiming for financial hardship;

– civil payments on account;

– Family Advocacy Scheme and VHCC claims;

– crime travel expense claims and the Local Bar Rule;

– acknowledging receipt of crime Advocates Graduated Fee Scheme claims;

– the identity of the Instructed Advocate;

– Pages of Prosecution Evidence, including paper evidence converted into electronic format;

– Criminal VHCC claims.

Click here for the full bulletin (Pages 9-13 on Criminal)

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CBA NEWS FEED

Criminal Law Week – updates (issue 12)

Key updates from this week’s issue of Criminal Law Week:

 

Retrial – whether evidence excluded by a judge at earlier proceedings could constitute “new” evidence in respect of which an application for a retrial could be granted: R. v. B., C.A. (CLW/12/12/2).

Facilitating breach of immigration law – meaning of “immigration law” for the purposes of the offence under the Immigration Act 1971, s.25(1): R. v. Kapoor and ors, C.A. (CLW/12/12/3).

Negligence – whether the police owe an informant a duty of care in respect of purely economic loss: An Informer v. A Chief Constable, C.A. (Civ. Div.) (CLW/12/12/26).

Criminal Justice Act 2003 – new commencement order brings provisions relating to written charges and requisitions into force for proceedings instituted by the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Director of the Serious Fraud Office on March 19, 2012: S.I. 2012 No. 825 (CLW/12/12/27).

Sentencing – the latest part of the Criminal Appeal (Sentencing) Reports, including cases on the conveyance of a prohibited article (including drugs) into prison and causing death by driving whilst disqualified, uninsured or unlicensed (CLW/12/12/4-25).

 

 

Criminal Procedure Rules and the new-look Ministry of Justice website

Here are the new URL links to the Criminal Procedure Rules andRule Committee pages :

The Criminal Procedure Rules’ What’s New? page: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/criminal

The Criminal Procedure Rules: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/criminal/rulesmenu

The Criminal Procedure Rules Forms page: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/criminal/formspage

The Consolidated Criminal Practice Direction: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/criminal/pd_consolidated

The Criminal Procedure Rule Committee: http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/moj/advisory-groups/criminal-procedure-rule-committee

The keen web-watchers amongst you will perhaps notice that the ‘CrimPR What’s New?’ page is about a month out of date. Colleagues in the Web Team are addressing that and promise that it should soon be corrected. Last week, I published a PCMH form for use in cases involving between two and five defendants. The related news item was dated 21 February 2012 and when you can are able to see that on the What’s New? page, you will know that the remedial work has been done.

 

Criminal Cases Review Commission – Commissioners

Birmingham

£93,796 pro rata – full or part time – up to four posts

Full details and to apply for these roles are available here 

 

Other Events:  

South Eastern Circuit Keble Course: 

The 2012 South Eastern Circuit Bar Mess Foundation Advanced International Advocacy Course at Keble College, Oxford will take place from Monday 27 August 2012 (please note that this is a bank holiday), until Saturday 1 September 2012. Participants must attend each day of the course. The aim of this course is to encourage and develop the highest standards of advocacy amongst practitioners. The course is the most demanding and intensive of any advocacy course in the UK and was described by a former presiding judge of the Circuit as the “Best Advanced Course in the UK”.

Although the Circuit application process will not open until 2nd April 2012, if you wish to apply for a scholarship to attend this course from one of the Inns, the deadline for submissions is 14 March for Lincoln’s Inn and 15 March for Inner Temple, Middle Temple and Gray’s Inn.

To qualify for the course, you must join the Circuit and for further information regarding the course and the scholarships available, please visit the South Eastern Circuit website by clicking here

 

Invite for CBA members to Inquest Law conference 

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Central London

A discount to all CBA Members is available

Further information can be found here

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights Introducing an essential tool for UK practitioners 

Thursday 29 March 2012, 5.30 – 7.30pm

Europe House, 32 Smith Square, London SW1P 3EU

£45 (£40 for JUSTICE or BEG members) 2 hours CPD BSB/SRA

Event chaired by Lord Justice Laws, Honorary President, Bar European Group
For full details of this and how to book please go to www.justice.org.uk/events.php

2012 Queen Mary Criminal Justice Centre Lecture 

Eurojust: challenges in cross-border judicial co-operation

School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London

The lecture will take place on Monday 2 April at 6.00pm in the Council Chamber, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR.

A drinks reception will follow the event and all attendees are welcome to join Criminal Justice Centre academics and School of Law students to discuss the lecture further.

Further information and booking procedures can be found here

ECBA Spring Conference 

Defence Rights in Europe

27 & 28 April 2012 –

Geneva

Further information can be found here

The Health & Safety Lawyers Association 

Manchester Event – 3 presentations – each approximately 30 minutes, Followed by drinks reception

DWF LLP, 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AA

Tuesday 8th May 2012

Further information can be found here

The 5th ICAC Symposium – Registration 

Fighting Corruption in a Changing World

May 2012

Hong Kong

Further details can be found here

An Evening of Sacred Music 

Temple Church

Wednesday 30th May 2012

7pm

Tickets £25

You can buy tickets by emailing [email protected] or through Temple Church box office: www.templemusic.org

MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH PROJECT – TRIBUNAL LAWYERS NEEDED 

A criminologist at Cambridge University is looking for volunteers to participate in a study seeking to examine lawyers’ experiences of working with clients with mental disorders. Participants would discuss their experiences with the researcher over the course of an hour’s interview taking place towards the end of March. This is an opportunity to communicate your views on the realities of working withclients with mental disorders: research of this kind is very rarely attemptedand is important in ensuring that debates about changing law and procedure are informed by the people who have to deal with law and procedure every day.

The researcher has had a number of responses from those with experience of cases involving hospital orders in the Crown Court and would like to encourage both barristers and solicitors who have appeared before Mental Health Review Tribunals seeking the discharge of such orders to consider participating. The researcher hopes to interview practitioners of varying experience –from those who specialise in this work to those who deal with one or two cases a year – and varying seniority – from trainees/pupils to senior practitioners. If you are interested in taking part in this research, or if you would like moreinformation, please email

[email protected]

with your name, the type oftribunal before which you usually appear (Crown Court or MHRT), the number ofyears of post-qualification experience you have, and the dates on which you are free in the last fortnight in March.

Interviews can be conducted in Cambridge or central London. Participants’ on-going duties of confidentiality to clientswould be respected, and only generalised information is sought. All participants who wish to receive a copy of the research findings will be sent a copy once the entirety of the study has been completed in July.

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