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Crime brief: 28 April 2023

28 April 2023 / David Walbank KC
Issue: 8022 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Criminal
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David Walbank KC reports on anthropomorphism in court & the legal protections accorded to animals
  • Limits of the criminal law.
  • Sexual harm prevention orders.
  • Public protection.

In the heyday of the print media, budding young Marshall Halls would compete to see whose cases could generate the most lurid Evening Standard headlines. My own personal best was a billboard appearing on news stands across the metropolis, which barked out the news of the hour: ‘Stay of Execution for Devil Dog!’

I had been instructed by animal rights campaigners (with the vocal support of Carla Lane, the much-loved creator of The Liver Birds and Bread) to seek what was literally a stay of execution for Otis. Otis was a wholly innocent puppy, who had the great misfortune to be spotted by an ever-vigilant constable in the back of my client’s white van as it sped along the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach Road. The problem was threefold: the officer thought that Otis looked suspiciously like ‘a dog

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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