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Nightmare on Disclosure Street

16 March 2018 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7785 / Categories: Features
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The Director of Public Prosecution’s disclosure nightmare seems to be getting worse by the week. Jon Robins reviews the evidence

A recent BBC survey revealed that 97% of criminal defence lawyers had encountered disclosure failures in the last 12 months. Since the botched prosecution of Liam Allan collapsed before Christmas, the Director of Public Prosecution’s disclosure nightmare seems to be getting worse by the week.

The case against the 22-year-old criminology student was dropped three days into the trial at Croydon Crown Court when police were forced to disclose a wealth of digital evidence comprising some 40,000 messages which revealed, amongst other things, that the alleged victim had pestered the young man for ‘casual sex’.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Alison Saunders was asked if it was a possibility that there were people in prison today as a result of disclosure problems. ‘I don’t think so’, she replied, ‘because what these cases show is that when we take a case through to trial there are various safeguards in place, not least of which the

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NEWS
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
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
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
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
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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