Weekly Law News

Tragic Death of Toddler Sparks Driving Offences Sentencing Row

There has been some controversy about sentencing for driving offences this week after the death of a toddler in Dorset. The defendant, Dean Phoenix, served a 12 month sentence after admitting to causing death by careless driving. The toddler, Jaiden Mangan, was tragically killed after Phoenix drove through a red light in his lorry. Furthermore, Phoenix was on licence from prison at the time after murdering his wife. Whilst death by careless driving carries a maximum sentence of 5 years, causing death by dangerous driving has a max of 14. Yet, Phoenix was cleared of the dangerous driving offence. The family of Jaiden is campaigning for stricter sentencing for driving offences.

For more information: Independent Article BBC Article

High Court Rules Heathrow Expansion Plans Lawful

The High Court has ruled that the government’s plans to expand Heathrow Airport, with the introduction of a third runway, are lawful. The campaigners, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan and charities such as Greenpeace, argued that the government National Policy Statement on the project did not take full account of the negative impact on air quality, noise, congestion and climate change. Lord Justice Hickinbottom pointed out that the ruling was about the legality, not the merits, of the National Policy Statement. Having ruled it legal the government do not need to devise another National Policy Statement, nor put it to Parliament.

For more information: BBC Guardian Independent

Julian Assange Guilty of Breaching Bail

I’m sure we have all seen the news about the arrest of Julian Assange, the co-founder of Wikileaks, after Ecuador withdrew its asylum. Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations. Assange has now been sentenced 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions. Judge Deborah Taylor stated that Assange’s actions had undoubtedly affected the Swedish proceedings. Assange now faces US federal conspiracy charges and potentially still faces sexual assault charges in Sweden if Swedish prosecutors decide to re-open the case. The UK government will have to decide whether to extradite Assange to the US/Sweden in response to these allegations.

For more information: BBC Guardian

P&O sues UK government over no-deal Brexit ferry case

The government is in further trouble over its no-deal Brexit ferry plans after P&O have accused the government of unlawfully handing their rival £33million of taxpayer money.

The Department of Transport had awarded contracts worth more than £100m in total to three firms – Brittany Ferries, DFDS and Seaborne Freight – in order to prevent congestion at UK ports in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The government was heavily criticised for its selection process, especially after it had to cancel its contract with Seaborne as they had never run a ferry service. The Eurotunnel challenged this procurement of shipping contracts, successfully suing the government for not considering it for a contract as it has run a ferry service before. The claim was settled for the aforementioned £33m outside of court.

Now, P&O is arguing that this settlement puts its business at a “competitive disadvantage”. The settlement could be found to be illegal state aid. If this is found, the government will have to recover the aid in full and will most likely have to pay P&O damages.

For more information: BBC Guardian

Quick News

HMRC is set to bring in an online complaints process which will allow taxpayers to log complaints online for the first time from autumn. Currently, you can only make a complaint via post, phone or fax.
The UK’s competition regulator has blocked the planned merger of Sainsbury and Asda arguing it would lead to a poorer shopping experience for UK shoppers with increasing prices and reduced product choice.
Big companies are reducing the amount of money set aside for legal claims and regulatory fines due to the decrease in scandals and related litigation which emerged following the financial crisis.
The 800m Olympic champion, Caster Semenya, has lost her appeal against the International Association of Athletes Federation (IAAF). This means the governing body will be allowed to restrict testosterone levels in female runners.

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‘Gay Cake’ Case

A story that caught a lot of people’s attention last week was the supreme court ruling about the so-called ‘gay cake’. The case involved Ashers Bakery in Northern Ireland that refused to bake a cake with a slogan supporting gay marriage to a gay, male customer, Gareth Lee. Mr. Lee sued the bakery for discriminating on the grounds of sexual orientation, arguing they refused to sell him the cake because he is gay. The bakery however maintained they did not refuse to bake the cake because of the sexual orientation of the customer but because they personally disagreed with the message.

Although the bakery initially lost the case, the court finding they had treated Mr.Lee with discrimination, they finally managed to appeal to the supreme court. The five court justices came to the unanimous decision that Ashers refusing to bake a cake with a support gay marriage slogan did not amount to discrimination. The court came to this decision arguing that the bakery’s objection was to the slogan on the cake rather than to the sexual orientation of the customer and therefore did not constitute discrimination. Arguably, they would have refused making this cake to anyone regardless of the characteristics of that individual.

Initially, this does seem highly unfair and seems to suggest the supreme court justices were allowing businesses to reject homosexual clients for no real reason. However, in reality this is not the case. In fact, the Judges in this case were seeking to protect out right to freedom of expression and belief. You should not to forced to endorse a belief that you yourself do not believe in. To put it another way, you would not expect a gay baker to have to make a cake with the slogan ‘Against gay marriage’ iced on top! This should not be viewed as a step away from equality for homosexuals but rather seen as a case protecting our human rights.

If you wish to learn more about the case the references is ([2018] UKSC 49) You could read the court’s judgement yourself!

Additionally, do not forget to check out the different news articles, such as the BBC’s report, linked here: BBC Article

When are you eligible for divorce?

A big divorce case that made the news back in May concerned Mrs Tini Owens who wished to divorce her husband, Mr Hugh Owens. Mrs Owens felt unhappy in her marriage which had lasted over four decades and with grown-up children, thought it was time to divorce. She moved out of the marital home in 2015 and filed for divorce. Her petition was rejected.

Why?

You may well be asking yourself why a woman can be forced to remain married. However, current UK divorce law demands that a couple prove that their marriage has broken down, giving one of only five reasons. ‘Because one of us wants to’ is not one of these options. The reasons are

Adultery
Unreasonable Behaviour
Desertion
If you’ve been separated for 2 years and both parties want to divorce
Or separated for 5 years if only one party wants to divorce

In Mrs Owens case, she did not qualify for divorce because Hugh Owens did not consent to a divorce and they had not been separated for 5 years. She tried to argue that she should get divorced due to Hugh Owen’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’ but these were rejected as ‘of the kind to be expected in marriage’ by a family law judge.

In July, the Supreme Court rejected Tini Owen’s appeal, meaning she has to wait the whole 5 years (until 2020) to legally divorce Hugh.

For more information on grounds for getting a divorce, look at Gov website: Gov: Grounds for Divorce

For more information on the case, check out this BBC news article on the subject: BBC News: Owen’s Case and Discussion on Divorce