According to the Daily Mail, last week a UK judge ordered an accused Muslim woman to remove her veil in Court before he (the judge) would accept her plea.Can the court order that? Is it a contempt of court for her to refuse?I started writing this post a few weeks ago when a similar thing …
Tag: procedural fairness
Criminal trial funding restored, but Legal Aid still needs help
Following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Chaouk — discussed here — Victoria Legal Aid last week announced that it was restoring funding for solicitors when required in criminal trials.It’s certainly welcome news, and will prevent what looked like an impending logjam in quite a few trials.But it hasn’t really addressed the chronic underfunding by the …
Continue reading Criminal trial funding restored, but Legal Aid still needs help
Private contractors responsible for contracted State obligations?
R v Applied Language Solutions [2013] EWCA Crim 326 is a recent costs decision from the UK Court of Appeal considered the obligations of a private contractor to provide court interpreters.But more than that, in this age of contracting various functions traditionally performed directly by the government, it suggested that private contractors who willingly assume …
Continue reading Private contractors responsible for contracted State obligations?
Blowback: consequences from legal aid cuts
Recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq brought the intelligence communities' phrase 'blowback' to public consciousness.At its most basic, it's about unintended consequences; often ones that the actor actual intended to avoid, and yet by their actions, brought about.Recent legal aid cuts in Victoria might be a case in point.The UK has also recently gone through …
MacDonald v The County Court & Ors [2013] VSC 109: doesn't measure up
It would appear that resort to the National Measurement Act 1960 (Cth), called as a kind of evidence to the contrary to an allegation of speeding, has had its day. To my knowledge the argument has never been accepted, and it doesn't look like it will be. Perhaps someone may breathe new life into it …
Continue reading MacDonald v The County Court & Ors [2013] VSC 109: doesn't measure up