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Crime Brief

16 May 2008
Issue: 7321 / Categories: Features , Profession , Immigration & asylum , Mental health
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CDS Direct >> Funding >> Bad Character

Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

This major piece of legislation received Royal Assent on 8 May, and will have a major impact on sentencing in both magistrates’ and crown courts. No formal timetable for commencement has been set, but it is widely expected that new provisions relating to the sentencing of dangerous offenders will be brought in to force as early as July 2008. A future Crime Brief will consider the provisions in full and the Act itself is available at www.opsi.gov.uk.
Mentally disordered people

The Home Office has issued a circular (7 of 2008, see www.circulars.homeoffice.gov.uk) dealing with places of safety for mentally disordered people. Duty solicitors frequently encounter people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, s 136 and should therefore make themselves familiar with the content of this circular, and in particular para 2.2:

“Every effort should be made to ensure that a police station is used only on an exceptional basis in cases, for example, where the person’s behaviour would pose

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
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