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Private eye

11 August 2011 / Tom Morrison
Issue: 7478 / Categories: Features , Data protection
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Tom Morrison returns with his quarterly review of the world of information law

I mentioned in my first column that one of the consequences of a public authority complying with a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FIA 2000) can be that the media acquires some embarrassing information (NLJ, 20 May 2011, p 698). In the months that have followed it has been certain media outlets themselves that have suffered the consequences of disclosure as new revelations concerning inappropriate use of private investigators have come to light. Whilst some of the recent detail is disturbing, the fact of newspapers using private investigators to uncover information is not new. Neither is the fact that some of the methods used by those private investigators have been questionable at best.

Operation Motorman

Following an investigation code-named Operation Motorman the then information commissioner, Richard Thomas, highlighted the issues in his 2006 reports to Parliament What Price Privacy and What Price Privacy Now?. One of his aims was to expose the illicit trade in personal

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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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