Dominic Regan casts a playful eye over (judicial) crimes & misdemeanors which made headlines in 2015
What a strange year we have had! The oddity is that the judiciary has created the problems rather than resolved them.
A vast amount of legal effort was thrown at Coventry and others v Lawrence and another [2015] UKSC 50 [2015] All ER (D) 234 (Jul) which came to nothing. I blame Lord Neuberger. Nothing personal mind. In July 2014 he gave a judgment in the substantive dispute which was about the law of nuisance. In concluding, he wondered aloud whether the conditional fee regime might offend Art 6. It could be said that the other side might be intimidated by the extra costs burden which a successful litigant would inflict. Let us adjourn and hear detailed argument, he directed.
Seven months later, seven judges heard submissions from the 23 barristers in court who were fed fine lines by 15 solicitors. The 5-2 majority found that the system of recoverability, in place since 2000, was not unlawful and so we
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