News & Events
News & Events
Following a 4 day inquest, Ben Bradley, instructed by Christian Khan to represent the wife of the deceased, successfully invited HM Coroner for NW London to make 4 separate rule 43 recommendations (including a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Health). The inquest concerned issues relating to mental health assessment in custody and in the community. The coroner recorded a narrative Middleton verdict. In due course, the coroner will make various rule 43 recommendations relating to the use of holding powers whilst a formal Mental Health Act assessment is being awaited; and will make recommendations to improve communication and reduce delay when such assessments are requested.
News 9 Sep, 2012
The Birmingham Mercantile Court recently refused an application by Barclays for an indefinite stay of proceedings in an interest rate swaps mis-selling case brought against Barclays Bank plc. Graiseley Investments Limited & Ors (the Guardian Care Group) v Barclays is notable as the first case in the UK which pleads Libor misrepresentation (issued in April 2012). Barclays sought to defer pleading a defence to the claim, and pause proceedings generally, until such time as a ‘redress’ scheme, the fact of which has been agreed between the FSA and number of banks including Barclays, had run its course. The precise details of the scheme are as yet unpublished. The scheme is itself unusual for the fact that it is not one…
News 2 Sep, 2012
Following his successful presentation on the Bribery Act 2010 hosted by the British Embassy in Panama in January, Outer Temple Chambers’ barrister John McKendrick embarked upon a visit to Costa Rica and Nicaragua where he gave a series of seminars in English and Spanish on the power of transparency to overcome corruption and the importance of the rule of law in stimulating economic development.
News 15 Aug, 2012
James Counsell reports: On 26 July 2012, the Court of Appeal (Lord Judge LCJ, Lord Neuberger (MR) and Sir Maurice Kay (VP CA Civ)) announced an increase in the level of PI and other general damages by 10% to reflect the recommendations of the Jackson report and to anticipate the entry into force of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Lord Judge, giving the judgment of the court in endorsing a settlement in the PI claim of Simmons v Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1039, indicated that the increases would apply to all claims for damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity in personal injury, nuisance, defamation and all other torts which cause suffering, inconvenience or…
News 26 Jul, 2012
Michael Bowes QC led the prosecution team in a case brought by the FSA which resulted in six men being convicted of participating in an insider dealing ring that profited from confidential information stolen from the print rooms of two of the City’s biggest investment banks, JP Morgan Cazenove and UBS. In the FSA’s longest and most complex prosecution to date, the men were convicted of insider trading offences between 2006 and 2008 following a four-and-a-half month trial at Southwark Crown Court. The court found they made profits of £732,000. A seventh man was acquitted. The FSA on Monday called the insider dealing ring a “sophisticated and complex attempt to deal on inside information over a long period”. The case…
News 23 Jul, 2012
Chambers is pleased to announce John McKendrick has been appointed as standing junior counsel to the Advocate General for Scotland. The Advocate General, Lord Wallace QC, is the UK Government’s principal legal officer in Scotland. John will work mostly for the Secretary of State for Home Department. John is uniquely placed to act as junior counsel for the UK Government on both sides of the border: he was appointed to the Attorney General’s ‘B’ panel of counsel earlier this year. John is a specialist public and regulatory law practitioner. See further at: http://www.oag.gov.uk/oag/CCC_FirstPage.jsp
News 19 Jul, 2012
Appeal court rules that Portsmouth diocese is liable to pay for alleged wrongdoings of its clergy, paving way for similar claims. Read more: BBC Guardian
News 15 Jul, 2012
Nathan Tavares is representing, Glennroy Blair-Ford, a teacher who was left paralysed after a welly wanging accident. Read more: Metro The Sun
News 8 Jul, 2012
Robert Rhodes QC was interviewed by Al-Jazeera’s English channel about the Barclays scandal regarding the fixing of Libor and Euribor rates, which resulted in regulatory fines of nearly £300M on the bank.
News 27 Jun, 2012
Charles Foster and Ben Bradley, instructed by Barlow Robbins, represented Care Not Killing, an alliance of organisations opposed to any change in the law relating to assisted dying, in the recent conjoined cases of Tony Nicklinson and ‘AM’. The case attracted international media attention. Tony Nicklinson has locked-in syndrome. He wishes to die. He cannot kill himself. He seeks to expand the doctrine of necessity so as to provide a defence to anyone who, at his request, killed him. He says that: (a) the common law can and should – quite apart from any ECHR considerations – evolve to provide this defence; and (b) that Article 8 of the ECHR compels such an extension. The other claimant, ‘AM’, seeks to…
News 26 Jun, 2012
Outer Temple pupil Tom Gibson appeared recently in the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Duffy v George UKEAT 0517/11/CEA. The appeal raised interesting questions on the way employment tribunals should handle potentially vulnerable witnesses in sexual harassment cases, and the extent to which an individual respondent, acting in person, should be allowed to cross-examine them. Judgment was reserved and is expected shortly. Tom appeared pro bono for the appellant via the Free Representation Unit (FRU), a charity that provides pro bono legal advice, case preparation and advocacy (see www.thefru.net).
News 25 Jun, 2012
The High Court has reversed the decision of a circuit judge and assessors and struck out a race discrimination claim against the ambulance and police services. Sir Charles Grey found that the County Court had been wrong to find the claim had a real chance of success on the basis that additional evidence to support it might emerge.
News 17 Jun, 2012
