The Defence Brief

My typical view of the AXON website Legal practice, at least contentious legal practice, is all about evidence. One side brings a case by putting to the court and their opponent some evidence that they say proves their case. The other side responds by seeking to exclude, undermine or rebut that evidence, usually with evidence of their own. Exchanging evidence, call it discovery or disclosure as you will, is the all-important key to winning a case. Effective disclosure leads one side to thrown in the towel and give up. Failing to disclose leads to a loss in court, at best, and a wasted costs order at worst. Since evidence is so important you’d think somebody would have thought up a way to get that evidence to the people who need to see it quickly and efficiently while preserving the security of the information. I manage it in my firm through the use of encrypted uploads to secure cloud services and software that lets me to email the links to encrypted files that magically d...

Courts have wide powers in dealing with people convicted of drink driving Most people realise that once they are convicted of drink driving the court will take away their driving licence for at least 12 months, but most people aren’t too sure whether the court can also take away their car, it’s probably right to say that most people never think about it at all. The answer is, yes, a court can take your car from you if you are convicted of drink driving. Section 143 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 grants criminal courts the power to deprive a convicted defendant of any rights in property they to the property that was used to commit or facilitate a criminal offence or any property that the defendant intended to use to commit a crime, this specifically includes motor vehicles. It is called a Deprivation Order and means that a court can lawfully deprive you of your car not only if you are convicted of driving with excess alcohol but also if you a...