29/07/10 Hildebrand rule overturned in Tchenguiz divorce caseThe Court of Appeal has ruled that documents secretly obtained by separating couples will no longer be taken into account in divorce proceedings. In ruling that the documents secretly obtained by the Tchenguiz brothers on behalf of their sister for use in her divorce from Vivian Imerman, the Court of Appeal effectively overturned the Hildebrand rule. Antony White QC and Lorna Skinner represented Imerman in this case. Visit The Lawyer website for the full story. Full judgment available here.
26/07/10 Matrix scores third British Academy FellowProfessor Conor Gearty was today awarded a Fellowship of the British Academy. This prestigious award is already held by two academic members of Matrix, Professor Christine Chinkin and Professor James Crawford. Full press release from the Academy below. BA Press Release
15/07/10 Raza Husain QC - The Times 'Lawyer of the Week'Raza Husain QC appears in The Times this week as 'Lawyer of the Week' following his successful representation of HJ, the Iranian asylum seeker facing persecution in his home country because of his homosexuality. The Supreme Court made the landmark decision to protect HJ's right to live openly and not hide his sexual orientation. Raza Husain QC speaks about the challenges he faced in the case, and his legal life in general.
13/07/10 Home Office appoints Lord Ken Macdonald QC to review counter-terrorism powersThe Home Secretary has announced today that a rapid review of key counter-terrorism and security powers is underway. The review will look at what counter-terrorism powers and measures could be rolled back in order to restore the balance of civil liberties and counter-terrorism powers. Lord Ken Macdonald QC will provide expert independent oversight of the review. Read the Home Office press release here.
12/07/10 NHS ordered to reinstate whistleblower's full salaryA Watford employment tribunal judge last week ordered the NHS to reinstate a whistleblower's full salary after she was allegedly sacked for blowing the whistle on senior doctors. This case is the latest to highlight the inadequate legal protection for whistleblowers who speak out about wrongdoing in the NHS. Helen Mountfield QC and James Laddie are involved in this case. See The Independent website for the full story.
07/07/10 Victory for rights of gay asylum-seekersThe Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision that it was permissible to return a person if they would conceal their sexuality in order to avoid being persecuted, provided their situation could be regarded as “reasonably tolerable”. To compel people who are gay to pretend their sexuality does not exist is to deny them their fundamental right to be who they are. Raza Husain QC, Helen Law, Karon Monaghan QC and Jessica Simor were involved in this case. Download the full judgment below.
HJ Judgment
30/06/10 Stop-and-search powers violate human rights rules ECtHROn 12 Jan 2010, the European Court of Human Rights in Gillan & Quinton v UK (2010) EHRR 45 ruled that key anti-terrorist stop and search powers violated the right to respect for private life. The UK Government reacted to the ruling by requesting a referral to the Court’s Grand Chamber. On 30 Jun 2010 that request was refused by the Court and its decision is final. Accordingly, the litigation has finally concluded with a resounding victory for the applicants. Ben Emmerson QC, Rabinder Singh QC and Alex Bailin QC were involved in the case.Find out more.
29/06/10 Top lawyer cleared of witness-tampering convictionsA six-year-long case of alleged witness tampering drew to a close yesterday when the Court of Final Appeal dismissed all allegations against lawyer Andrew Lam Ping-cheung, barrister Kevin Egan and Mandy Chui Man-si. The top court also ruled out a retrial. Clare Montgomery QC represented Andrew Lam in this case. Visit Bloomberg or The Standard website for the full story. Judgment available below.
CFA Judgment
22/06/10 Employee working abroad establishes jurisdictionDecision on the jurisdiction of employment tribunals in relation to employees working abroad following Lord Hoffmann’s analysis in Lawson v Serco. The employee in this case established jurisdiction in a divided 2:1 decision. Aidan O’Neill QC was involved in this case.Find out more.
21/06/10 Julian Knowles represents Jon VenablesJulian Knowles is representing Jon Venables who is charged with two offences under the 1978 Protection of Children Act. Visit the BBC website for more details.
11/06/10 'Climate Camp' attendees unlawfully stopped and searchedKent Police conceded in judicial review proceedings that two 11-year old children and a peaceful adult protestor were unlawfully stopped and searched when attending the ‘Climate Camp’ environmental protest at Kingsnorth, Kent in August 2008 – the proposed site for Britain’s first coal-fired power station in 30 years. Alex Bailin QC represented all the claimants.Find out more.
03/06/10 First ever acquittal in an FSA prosecution for insider dealingSir Ken Macdonald QC and Julian Knowles (instructed by Sarah Wallace of Irwin Mitchell) represented Andrew King, acquitted of insider dealing charges today by a jury at Southwark Crown Court after less than 90 minutes of deliberations. This is the first-ever acquittal in an FSA prosecution for insider dealing. Mr King was the Finance Director of the biotech company Neutec, taken over in 2006 by Novartis, the pharmaceutical giant. Visit The Times website for further details.
28/05/10 Sir Ken Macdonald QC named Liberal Democrat peerMatrix is proud to announce that Sir Ken Macdonald QC has been named as a Liberal Democrat peer. Sir Ken is delighted by this appointment and looks forward to working with the Liberal Democrats in Parliament, particularly in the area of civil liberties and criminal justice. He will continue to practice at Matrix.
27/05/10 CAT upholds Stagecoach's merger appeal The Competition Appeal Tribunal has found for Stagecoach Group plc in its challenge to a decision of the Competition Commission prohibiting the acquisition by Stagecoach of Preston Bus Limited. The CC had made its decision on the basis that the result of the merger was to be compared with competitive conditions prevailing 18 months before the merger took place and required Stagecoach to divest itself of the entire Preston business. The CAT found that the CC had acted irrationally in arriving at several of the key findings on which its decision and proposed remedy were based. This is the first time that the CAT has found a decision of the CC to be “Wednesbury unreasonable”. Rhodri Thompson QC and Christopher Brown acted for Stagecoach, instructed by Maclay Murray and Spens LLP. Full judgment available below.
Stagecoach Judgment
26/05/10 Prosecution wrongly abandonedOn 23 March 2010 the DPP conceded that a prosecution for serious sexual offences was wrongly abandoned and agreed to pay the victim £8000 damages together with legal costs and an apology. The victim was a teenage girl with an autism spectrum disorder and the prosecution was wrongly abandoned on the first day of trial following a defective assessment of her mental capacity and competence. The DPP has now accepted that abandoning the prosecution in this way violated the victim’s Article 3 ECHR rights. There is, however, no possibility of a re-prosecution because the defendant was formally acquitted when the prosecution offered no evidence at trial. Alex Bailin QC and Helen Law represented the victim, instructed by Leigh Day & Co.
13/05/10 Claims against the police still difficultIn Moulton v Chief Constable of the West Midlands [2010] EWCA Civ 524 (13 May 2010) the Court of Appeal rejected an appeal by a man acquitted of rape as well as his argument that the law of malicious prosecution should be changed in order to bring it into line with Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to liberty. Cherie Booth QC and Adam Sandell were involved in this case. The full judgment is available here.Find out more.
10/05/10 BA price-fixing allegations droppedThe trial of four senior British Airways executives over price-fixing allegations with Virgin Atlantic collapsed today after prosecutors offered no evidence against BA's one-time commercial director Martin George (represented by Clare Montgomery QC), sales and marketing director Andrew Crawley, former head of communications Iain Burns, and Alan Burnett (represented by Ben Emmerson QC), who led sales in the UK and Ireland. The Office of Fair Trading asked jurors today to give a not guilty verdict at the criminal trial after saying it had overlooked thousands of e-mails to or from a Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. employee related to fuel surcharges and other issues related to the case. Visit Bloomberg for the full story.
02/05/10 Matrix is 10!Matrix celebrates its tenth anniversary today, 2nd of May 2010. Since inception, Matrix has nearly tripled its members, and now has 65 members with legal practices which are multi-disciplinary and cover in excess of 25 practice areas. Members continue to be involved in cases at the highest level.
21/04/10 UKSC dismisses Sexual Offences Act appealThe Secretary of State submitted that to impose notification requirements for an indefinite period without the possibility of review under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, s 82, was a disproportionate interference with their rights under ECHR, art 8. The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the Secretary of State's appeal and repeated the declaration of incompatibility pursuant to the Human Rights Act 1998, s 4 made by the lower courts. Tim Owen QC and Aidan O’Neill QC were involved in this case.Find out more.
20/04/10 Reprieve sign up Julian Knowles as Death Penalty DirectorLegal action charity Reprieve has signed up Julian Knowles as its Death Penalty Director. Julian will continue to practice as a successful junior specialising in extradition and crime. He will spend the equivalent of two days a week working for Reprieve on a pro-bono basis, filling in behind Clive Stafford Smith who now specialises in Guantanamo-related cases.
22/03/10 Four more silksCongratulations to Alex Bailin, Raza Husain, Helen Mountfield and Matthew Ryder who were all appointed QC today. This brings Matrix's silk count to twenty which constitutes just over 30% of Matrix's members (including associates). With such proportions in mind, Matrix evidently continues to house some of the most experienced specialists in the profession.
18/03/10 UKSC gives asylum guidance as to members of organisations alleged to have committed international crimesThe Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a Court of Appeal Judgment quashing the government’s refusal to grant asylum to a Sri Lankan who was a former child soldier and subsequently an adult member of the Intelligence Division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“LTTE”). In so doing, the Court gave important guidance as to the application of article 1F(a) of the Refugee Convention which provides that a person is not to be recognised as a refugee where there are serious reasons for considering that he has committed a crime against peace, a war crime or a crime against humanity. Rabinder Singh QC and Michelle Butler were involved in this case.Find out more.JS (Sri Lanka) Judgment
12/03/10 Parole Board directed to request Security Service informationJudicial Review of a decision by the Parole Board not to request information from the security service about the risk posed by a person convicted of terrorism offences. The judge quashed the decision of the Board and directed that the information from the Security Service be requested. Security Service information (rather than simply Probation Officer/Psychology Reports) is likely to be critical in determining the appropriate terms of the licence of an individual convicted of terrorism offences when he is released. Daniel Squires was involved in this case.Rowe v Parole Board Judgment
11/03/10 Secretary of State failed to apply Minor's PolicyIn an appeal against the SS’s decision to deport the appellant to Vietnam, it was submitted that the Senior Immigration Judge had erred in dismissing as irrelevant the SS failure to apply the Minors Policy to the appellant’s case. Samantha Knights was involved in this case.Find out more.
02/03/10 European Court finds that the UKs actions which exposed 2 men to an ongoing risk of the death penalty in Iraq were unlawfulThe European Court of Human Rights found that the transfer to the Iraqi authorities of 2 men detained by the UK in Iraq breached their right to freedom from inhuman treatment by exposing them to an ongoing fear that they may face the death penalty. Ben Emmerson QC, Karon Monaghan QC, Raza Husain and Helen Law were involved in this case. Find out more.Al-Saadoon Judgment
24/02/10 Matrix roundtable comments on Law Commission's proposed adult social care law shake-upThe Law Commission, which advises the Government on law reform, today proposes the most radical shake-up of adult social care law for more than 60 years. A wide-ranging package of reform proposals includes clearer rights for the estimated six million carers who give up their time to look after elderly and disabled friends and relatives. Martrix are holding a Community Care & Health Claimant Law roundtable on the 24th March to discuss these proposals as part of the Law Commission's review of adult social care law. Click here for details.
Law Commission Press Release