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Out in the open

03 March 2017 / Jon Robins
Issue: 7736 / Categories: Features , Profession
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As the Open Justice Charter is launched in the UK, can we learn from our legal colleagues in the US, asks Jon Robins

At the end of last month the American lawyers who defended Steven Avery and featured in the groundbreaking documentary Making a Murderer lent their support to a new campaign calling for greater transparency and accountability in our justice system.

Cameras in courts

The ban on cameras in courts on this side of the Atlantic means a UK version of the Netflix hit is nigh on impossible. Over three of its 10 hours comprised trial footage. “That is more time than Dr Zhivago spent on the entire Russian Revolution,” according to Dean Strang who, along with Jerome Buting, acted for Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey.

The two lawyers argue that the presence of cameras in courts provides a powerful check on the justice system. “A judge who perceives that the public is watching wants to be on best behaviour,” Strang told MPs, lawyers, journalists and campaigners at a meeting

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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
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
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
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
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