The automatic right to an oral Cost Committee hearing disappeared in the mid noughties. After that date cost appeals go to individual ICAs sitting in camera. The experience of this is patchy and we have a plethora of examples of inconsistent and perverse decisions. By comparison we have succeeded in persuading the single ICA to […]

Compliance activity surrounding the 2017 Criminal Contract has picked up pace in recent weeks. Duty Solicitor compliance has been to the fore but office requirements (especially new ones) have also been under scrutiny, including Contract Managers acting as Secret Squirrel or perhaps Inch High Private Eye and making unannounced visits. To deal with office requirements […]

This, from another 6 Music discovery Susanne Sundfør is just so great I am posting it without a proper video.

After a couple of postponements the 2018 Civil Contract Bid Round now looks set to begin in mid September. At least we should all be back from our summer hols! It will be an 8-week window, however such timetables have a tendency to slip. All that we know so far is here, you can also […]

Another quarter has passed and another issue of the JRS “Compliance Matters” newsletter is available. Welcome.

This issue is back, yet again: Dear XXXX, There is no precise guidance on the point and certainly none which supports the LAAs determination that a second reference is required on a further matter developing out of an initial DSCC referral. The only “logging” requirements are contained here and solely relate to matters NOT originally […]

Sorry, missed a couple of weeks due to a wedding and the last ever Grovestock. This is one of my favourites, Justin Townes Earle, back on top form with an excellent new album “Kids in the Street”

We thought we had this fettled in November 14 so I’ve decided to try a different approach: Sadly due to the passage of time, the ageing process and the shear volume of events of this nature the firm can only recall, rather than definitively confirm, that this appeal was successful. Perhaps the LAA’s records are […]

A couple of weeks ago a close friend rang me in a bit of a state. His 16-year-old daughter had been accused of a serious criminal offence in her workplace. He was, of course, seeking a recommendation of a local criminal firm to represent her at a police interview the next day. She was, equally […]

Once again I am banging the drum about the sheer quality and variety of live music on show in the UK – it is not hard to find. Britain has got amazing talent however it’s currently somewhere other than on prime time TV. Last Saturday, with 10-days notice, Cleveland FBU put on a benefit for […]