Baines Law

John Bercow MP was Speaker of the House of Commons for over 10 years. He became a worldwide celebrity during the parliamentary Brexit debates for his robust and interventionist style of chairmanship. But more recently he was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and complaints of bullying and harassment against senior employees were upheld.

Michael Mansfield QC, one of our greatest human rights lawyers, talks about the Home Secretary's (Priti Patel's) attitude to the Ukrainian Refugees, the government's proposals to reform human rights and fundamental freedoms, the diminution of legal aid, and the advent of "Supermarket" justice.

The Parliamentary Accounts Committee criticises the Ministry of Justice's meagre ambition to fix the broken Criminal Justice System. Listen to contributions from Chris Daw QC, HH Nigel Lithman QC and William Clegg QC.

The distinguished and highly experienced William Clegg QC who still presides as a Recorder of the Crown Court gives advice to aspiring advocates and discusses the difficulties the criminal justice system is currently facing: underfunding, decaying courts, backlogs and a complex sentencing system in need of overhaul - but for those intent on a rewarding and thrilling career, it is still worth it.

When a teaching establishment and the authorities turned against a 14 year old boy for a momentary indiscretion, it resulted in the boy's permanent exclusion from school. The headteacher's offensive analogy to that of a murderer and the refusal to accept the boy's fulsome and repeated apology reflect badly on the school, the governors and the local authority: YA v Independent Panel of Swansea City Council [2022] EWHC 408 (Admin)

When the body of a missing 11-year-old girl was tragically discovered by the roadside the authorities, keen to hold someone to account for the atrocity, arrested and detained a young man with a mental age of 12. After three days of questioning without the assistance of a solicitor, he admitted the killing and justice appeared to be done. Or was it?

The simple two stage test in Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] UKSC 67 still seems to be causing confusion. In Maxfield-Martin v Solicitors Regulation Authority recently, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was reversed on appeal for failing to consider the two limbs of the test separately.

Chris Daw QC discusses the government's proposals to increase the sentencing powers of magistrates, the age of criminal responsibility, decriminalising drugs, the political motivation of the Law Officers for challenging lenient sentences and other criminal and criminological issues

An overview of an attack by The Times newspaper on the Supreme Court judgment in Bloomberg LP v ZXC [2022] UKSC 5 in which it balances the right to privacy and a publisher's right to freedom of expression. A summary of this episode with case citations under the title Media Whine 2022: A Poor Vintage appears in the News Section at www.barrybaines.co.uk

In this appeal by Dr Sawati against the General Medical Council [2022] EWHC 283 (Admin), the court considered a sanction decision of striking off and the so-called "rejected defence" issue where a practitioner charged with dishonesty may be called upon to defend her defence as well as the primary allegation.