LEGAL history will be made today when Colonel Jorge Mendonca and six other servicemen come before a court martial at Bulford, near Salisbury. It will be presided over by Mr Justice McKinnon, the first time that a judge has sat on a court martial. He was appointed to the task at the request of the senior military judge, Judge Jeff Blackett.
The men are accused under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 of failing in their duties to ensure Iraqi civilians were not ill-treated after a hotel worker died. Judge Blackett is on record as saying that it is such an important issue of jurisprudence that a High Court judge should deal with it.
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WHAT a jolly summer Vera Baird, QC, has been having. Press notices have landed every few days with news of another venue where the constitutional affairs minister has been sent to talk to lawyers about the legal aid reforms. At more than one of the meetings, held from Nottingham to Brighton, she has faced brickbats and barracking from angry lawyers over the plans for fixed fees and plans to cut rates in cases involving vulnerable children. The package will seriously undermine the quality of representation for vulnerable people, say lawyers. Her press office made light of the reception she has received, saying it was par for the course for lawyers who tend to be combative. But some aspects of the proposals may now be rethought.
THE set of Stephen Solley, QC, Charter Chambers, is involved in a new British comedy film, The All Together. The film opens next month but Charter, one of the largest criminal sets in Britain, was given permission by the makers, Establishment Films Limited, to hold a sneak preview.
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Jerome Lynch, QC, the deputy head of chambers, a regular on the ITV1 show The People’s Court, has the briefest of . . . cameos . . . while the back, shoes and cigarette of Patrick Duane, the chief clerk, who featured in The QC Whisperer article in The Times, can also be spotted — but the Bar Council can rest assured, despite the film’s title, they’re not actually naked. Directed by Gavin Claxton, the film stars among others Martin Freeman (The Office).
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, QC, is clearly delighted with the raised press profile of the Crown Prosecution Service. A media protocol introduced a year ago has been a “huge success”, he tells the CPS house magazine, CPS News. “We have now completely recast our relationship with the media from a dysfunctional dialogue based on mistrust to a more informed dialogue based on education, information and explanation,” he enthuses. Not, he freely adds, that this means that all the coverage will be positive. He’d never do in a government press office.
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lawdiary@thetimes.co.uk