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PI in the sky

30 October 2014 / Ray Purdy
Issue: 7628 / Categories: Opinion
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Ray Purdy discusses how a new space detective agency can offer lawyers access to evidence from satellites & drones

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and see what was going on at a certain place at a particular time? This is now increasingly possible. Expanding archives of information from satellites, unmanned aerial systems (drones) and aircraft can provide historical evidence that would otherwise be unavailable.

Because of this, the world’s first “space detective agency”, Air and Space Evidence, was recently established in the UK, specialising in sourcing archived data that could assist as evidence in legal cases, criminal investigations or insurance claims.

The company was started by two University College London academics, Ray Harris (geography) and me (law). Our research found that while most lawyers would have looked at Google Earth, most of them had no understanding of the evidential opportunities these technologies presented and had never considered using such imagery in a legal context. Where lawyers had tried to source imagery they often found that archives were

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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

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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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