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24 April 2008 / John Cooper KC
Issue: 7318 / Categories: Opinion , Legal services , Procedure & practice , Profession
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Establishing the truth can take time, says John Cooper

The NLJ Column

Sometimes, the process of justice and the quest for truth is not the slick, seamless process that many would find preferable. In any fact-finding tribunal, the presentation and testing of evidence requires a disciplined, but rigorous, application, how else can a court distil the cogent and dismiss the chaff?

Neither is it controversial to state that the perception of justice is also central to the process and integral to this is open and thorough examination of the issues, for it is just as important to test a contention and find it wanting, as it is to sustain it. It is with these two fundamentals in mind, that we must consider the recent inquest into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed.

 

Causation

Critical to any inquest is the question “how” the deceased came about their death. This does not mean a simple medical inquiry into the cause of death, but involves a conscientious examination of causation.

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
he abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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