IN BRIEF
Law Commission consults on next work programme
The Law Commission, the body that looks at law reform, is seeking ideas for projects for its new work programme. The commission is consulting to find any problems it has not identified and the impact these problems are having, and wants any evidence which consultees have on such problems and the potential benefits of reform. In addition, the commission is inviting comments about its ideas on areas of law that it considers may benefit from reform, including the following:
•Sentencing: is there a need for a project to codify and simplify sentencing law?
•Leasehold law: some areas of landlord and tenant law, mostly relating to commercial leases, might benefit from reform. Are there any others?
•Social media and the criminal law: should the criminal law and criminal rules of evidence and procedure be reviewed in light of the growing use of social media?
•Bills of sale: do problems with bills of sale persist? Should the law be reformed?
•Land registration: does the Land Registration Act 2002 still meet its original objectives?
•Corporate liability: should there be other models, apart from the identification doctrine, for holding corporations to account?
The consultation closes on 31 October 2013. The commission will submit its proposals to the Lord Chancellor in summer 2014. If approved, the suggestions will comprise the main part of the commission’s law reform work in the subsequent three years.
Employment tribunal fees introduced
Charges to bring employment tribunal claims and appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal were introduced from 29 July 2013 under the Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 SI No 1893 (see also page 14 of this issue). In claims for unfair dismissal or discrimination, an issue fee of £250 and a hearing fee of £950 will apply. There are lower charges for some cases, such as illegal deductions from wages, and a fee remission scheme will apply.
This is the first time fees have been charged since tribunals were established to deal with employment disputes. Unison, the trade union, applied successfully for permission for an oral hearing on a judicial review application in an attempt to overturn the change. Unison argued that for many employees the new fees make it virtually impossible to enforce their rights under EU law and that the fees indirectly discriminate against women. The hearing has been listed for next month.
Dave Prentis, Unison’s general secretary, said that he was pleased that permission had been granted. ‘The introduction of punitive fees for taking a claim to an employment tribunal would give the green light to unscrupulous employers to ride roughshod over already basic workers’ rights,’ he commented.
Rallies held on ‘legal aid day’
Protests against the coalition government’s proposals to ‘transform’ legal aid were held in Manchester and London on the July anniversary of the royal assent to the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949. The event in London was organised by the Justice Alliance, a new umbrella organisation which has been established to resist the ‘government’s proposed attack on legal aid and the criminal justice system’.
The rally was held outside the Old Bailey in London. Speakers included Billy Power, one of the Birmingham Six, and Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty.
John Nicholson, a barrister at Kenworthy’s Chambers in Manchester, was among the speakers at the rally which took place outside Manchester Crown Court. The event was planned by organisations opposed to the legal aid and other cuts in advice services. He told Legal Action that there was ‘a very good spread of people who attended the event, including clients, staff from advice centres, trade unionists, as well as many barristers and solicitors’. He believed that this demonstrated the widespread ‘support for the need for a legal aid system’ to provide access to justice.