Chambers is delighted to welcome Matt Jackson to our Employment, Civil and Crime teams.

Interim Care Orders: New Developments or More of the Same?

There has been a measure of excitement generated by the recent case of C (A Child: Interim Separation) 2020 EWCA Civ 257. In particular, it has been posted on “Suesspiciousminds” and heralded as adding an additional component to the test for separation.

Re G (A Child: s.38(6) Assessment) Neutral Citation Number: [2020] EWCA Civ 282

The judge at first instance had granted a mother’s application for a s.38(6) residential assessment in the context of care proceedings, in which the mother was on the list of potential perpetrators of non-accidental injuries to her son. At the time the assessment was ordered, a decision had not yet been made over whether there would be a split trial or a composite hearing.

In December 2019 Rupert Russell advised the Attorney-General to refer a sentence passed on a serial domestic abuser to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient. On 25 February 2020, the Court quashed the original community order handed down at Taunton Crown Court and replaced it with a three-year custodial term. This is the first case of Controlling and Coercive Behaviour to be referred to the Court of Appeal since the government extended the unduly lenient sentence scheme to include the offence in September 2019.

R v AM: Conviction prevented on all charges including conspiracy to murder and assisting an offender. Kannan Siva successfully applied to dismiss charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause GBH last year before the trial judge. This year AM faced trial for assisting an offender arising from the same factual background. A not guilty verdict was entered after no evidence was offered at the close of the prosecution case. His co-defendants pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

Notification of fathers and extended family in adoption proceedings

Albion’s James Cranfield has successfully appealed a decision of a Circuit Judge, granting permission to a mother not to notify the putative father or extended family of the existence of the child, or the proposed adoption following her relinquishment of the same.

TUPE – Service Provision Change
Deliberately Organising Workforce to Take Advantage of TUPE
Mattravers and others (C) v Ian Williams Ltd (R1) and R and M Williams Ltd (R2)

Preamble

This short e-bulletin is prepared for the benefit of our instructing solicitors, prior to the written judgment being published. A fuller analysis of the consequences and effects of the judgment will be included in our spring newsletter.

Leader of Circuit Kate Brunner QC has released a paper entitled “This Doesn’t Look Like Justice: The Consequences of Closed Courtrooms on the Western Circuit and Beyond”.  A copy of the paper is available here.

Chambers is delighted to announce that several members of the Crime Team have been successful in their recent applications to upgrade their CPS Advocate Panel Level. 

Edd Hetherington has been upgraded to Grade 4, Alec Small to Grade 3 and Lucy Taylor and Emily Heggadon to Grade 2.