The Defence Brief

The Family Court This is a blog about legal aid, but first I want to set out the facts of a case. A few weeks ago, the Court of Appeal heard the case of M (A Child) [2018] EWCA Civ 240 in which a mother appealed against an order that would have permanently separated her from her five-year-old daughter. The facts are that on the 23 rd October 2014 and on the 8 th May 2015 the mother administered to her daughter an epi-pen and subsequently called an ambulance reporting that her daughter was having an allergic reaction. On both occasions, the doctors at the hospital felt that the epi-pen had been unnecessary. It is worth saying that the mother is a qualified nurse who later accepted that she had over-reacted because her motherly concern for her child had overridden her medical training. In 2016, the local authority and mother would sign a threshold document agreeing that the mother’s error had in part been made because she was not aware of the severity of her daughter’...

A typical Magistrates' Court - no defence brief in sight due to legal aid cuts Not long ago, I wrote about mitigation given in the case of a celebrity who had been convicted of drink driving.   I return to the topic today after seeing what should have been a car crash of a plea in mitigation, but was saved by the “inexperience of the bench” – those were the words of another advocate who witnessed the hearing. I want to say at this point that I don’t write these posts in the hope of shaming another advocate or because I want to show off. I write them because I think it is important for all of us who appear before the courts to be reminded once in a while that everything we say (and the things we choose not to say) are important and proper consideration should be given to everything. That often does not happen when people view offences as “not serious” or “unimportant”, but while a drink driving or TWOC may be minor in the grand scheme of things it will be impor...

As the title suggests, it really is all my fault... must be two judges said so. Problems with two cases have been blamed on me, one quite bizarrely and the other because the judge seems intent on not listening .to the facts of the case. First, yesterday I got a call to let me know that one of my clients was in court for his custody time limits to be extended.  This surprised me as it was the first I'd heard of it.  Turns out that the prosecution had notified the firm, by fax, of their intention to apply to extend the time limits at 9pm on Tuesday night.  Unsurprisingly, come Wednesday morning at 10am nobody was at court for the defendant and because it is the school half term it was surprisingly difficult to find cover.  Somehow the judge seemed to believe that this was my fault and ordered that we attend. Second case was today.  One of the trainee solicitors who is about to qualify is handling the case, I'm supervising but as the "solicitor" I get the bla...