In Focus

 

Court of Appeal guidance on credit for guilty plea indications

This article reviews the Court of Appeal case of R v Plaku  [2021] EWCA 568 [1] which provides guidance concerning credit for guilty plea indications.  R v Plaku [2021] EWCA Crim 568 provides a summary of the general principles which...

Release of Prisoners (Alteration of Relevant Proportion of Sentence) Order 2020

When sentencing defendants subject to the new, harsher regime governing early release, should judges reduce the overall term if a defendant is sentenced after the new provisions came into force due to a delay that is no fault of his own? This article...

Full credit for an early guilty plea: you can't have your cake and eat it

Plaku & Others [2021] EWCA Crim 568 is another reminder to practitioners that a one-third discount for an early guilty plea will only be given if there is "an unequivocal indication" that the defendant wants to plead guilty at that first...

Firearms Offences: An overview of the new sentencing guidelines.

There are new sentencing guidelines for firearms offences, which apply to all defendants sentenced from 1 st January 2021 onwards, irrespective of the date of the offence. In essence, they effectively collate and distil the leading authorities on sentencing...

Fraud, Asset Tracing and Recovery

An examination of Confiscation proceedings and civil recovery,  proportionality and abuse of process. Those accused of fraud by state agencies, private bodies and individuals, continue to face asset recovery measures and draconian legal...

COVID Bang Up: The Staunch Duty of the Defence Lawyer

An analysis of how Covid has affected prison conditions and what can be done to address this. The nation is finally moving on from lockdown three, and with the government’s road map, we are promised a way out of the Covid restrictions we’ve...

The Need to Sum Up the Evidence in 'Short and Simple' Cases (R v Ravinskiy)

The Court of Appeal has reminded judges that in ‘short and simple cases’ they should still provide the jury with a summary of the evidence. In Ravinskiy [2021] EWCA Crim 191, the Court of Appeal has (once again) had to remind judges that,...

  • Page 3 of 3