Internet Newsletter for Lawyers
July/August 2006, by Delia Venables

However, it would appear that many of the most creative sites are actually being provided by individual barristers, unhampered by chambers meetings or discussions about costs or return on investment. It seems as if quite a few individual barristers feel that they have important information to offer and are happy to put untold, unpaid hours into providing this information online for the legal community at large.

These sites do of course raise their profile in the legal world and it may well lead to increased business over a period of time but my own impression of these sites is that the barristers' feeling that they have something important to contribute is the main reason that they do it, and any possible commercial advantage (if indeed there is any commercial advantage) follows a long way behind.

Here are my 6 favourite barristers' web sites followed by another dozen or so who offer useful and interesting resources. Most of these sites are "home made" and sell themselves on the excellence of their content rather than their beauty. To me, however, content is always king!

My Favourite Barrister Sites

Harassment Law at www.harassment-law.co.uk covers stalking, malicious communications, racial, sexual, religious or cultural harassment, harassment at work and anti-social behaviour (including neighbours from hell). There are links to legislation and sources of training and assistance.

Religion Law UK at www.religionlaw.co.uk is designed to provide practical information and relevant web links on the subject of Religion and the Law today. He covers the law relating to criminal and also civil situations where religion is involved and also has sections for case law relevant to religion, with links to the judgments if they are available. There is a section on international declarations and a very comprehensive set of links to religious bodies under headings of Legal, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Eastern and General. Neil says that Discrimination Lawyers, Charity Lawyers and Criminal Lawyers need to be aware that in October 2006 new law on Religious Discrimination and Religious Hatred comes into force. The relevant legislation and guidance to these is on the site.

Jamal Demachkie of Veritas Chambers provides Housing Law Updates, www.housinglawupdates.co.uk, a user friendly guide to UK Housing Law. (Actually, this one does look rather attractive).

The information is aimed at both landlords and tenants and includes a section dedicated to providing information on recent case law and legislative changes. In addition, the site contains the ability to ask short questions on Housing Law matters which can be answered free of charge.

Daniel Barnett of 1 Temple Gardens runs the popular Employment Law Mailing List, www.danielbarnett.co.uk. Over 13,000 recipients receive these bulletins (which have been running since 1999) including judges, tribunal members, barristers, solicitors, in-house lawyers, HR professionals, academics, journalists and union officials. The bulletins provide breaking news in employment law matters. Daniel also offers web seminars from the site on age discrimination, and remedies in employment law; the next ones will be in September. There is an extensive set of links in employment law and also a list of solicitors specialising in employment law. Basic listings are free for firms who apply but there is a charge for "featured" listings which contain more details and a statement from the firm about the services offered and the general approach.

Tim Kevan of 1 Temple Gardens provides information on personal injury, sports, consumer and internet law at www.timkevan.com. In particular, he provides a free email newsletter called Personal Injury Brief Update which gives a brief introduction to recent case law, news alerts and information of developments in the industry. This newsletter, which goes to over 12,000 people, is written by a team of five barristers who specialise in personal injury. There is a further extended version of this newsletter called Personal Injury Brief Update Law Journal (PIBULJ) which is written by over 30 barristers as well as a number of medical and health and safety experts. Whilst the newsletter will remain free, the Law Journal will eventually be subscription-based. He and Daniel Barnet are also editors of a newer website called Law Brief Update at www.lawbriefupdate.com which provides a free email newsletter containing brief law reports from around 20 participating barristers on all major areas of law and already has 8,000 subscribers (and see article on Email Bulletins) in this issue.

Gary Webber of 33 Bedford Row runs The Property Law Website at www.propertylawuk.net, an online property law updating service. Updates are available on the site most months, together with appropriate links to cases, statutes, statutory instruments and other documents (when available free on the internet). It is also possible to download the monthly updates in pdf or word format. Material from the monthly updates is also put into "The Property Law Library" section of the site, which also contains articles and other information relevant to property law. There is a section covering courses available which relate to property law, an extensive description of the web resources on the topic and a list of mediators available to deal with property law disputes. Some parts of the site are free but full access is only available to members who subscribe, currently £50 plus VAT, with group rates offered.

Francis Bennion has been writing on law, professional ethics, human rights, sexual ethics and many other legal and political topics for over 40 years. He has also had many letters to the Times published (since 1949) and has written poetry, fiction and plays. He started his site, at www.francisbennion.com, 10 years ago and it now records a substantial part of his writings: there are 1,000 pages of these materials. I would say that he is one of the Great British Eccentrics - you may not agree with everything he writes, but you cannot fail to be impressed. He also offers a paid service to barristers seeking an Opinion on a problem involving the Interpretation of Statutes, based on his own textbook of that name.

Roger Horne, of 11 New Square, offers what he describes as a Miscellany at www.hrothgar.co.uk. The site contains an analysis of copyright issues in law reporting in the UK and other countries, some experiments with indexing the references of the House of Lords Judgments, and some ideas for the future of law reporting using the web. He has also taken the new Civil Procedures Rules on a part of his site called "YAWS" (Yet Another Woolf Site) and added internal linking to the material. There are 50 full text judgments included in the material. He has also prepared a zipped version which can be downloaded in one go and then perused off-line. There is also information on XML.

Jonathan Mitchell a Scottish QC from the Murray Stable, at www.jonathanmitchell.info, provides information on a variety of topics, including the Faculty of Advocates, so that non-Scottish Lawyers can understand more what is on offer. The site also discusses issues relating to the Scottish Bar and jurisdiction and provides information on the Scottish legal System, the way the Scottish Parliament operates, data protection, Creative Commons, and public law. He also provides a number of "top downloads" which are documents important to lawyers, gathered into one place, including the Direct Access scheme, the Code of Conduct, Data Protection guide, FOI guide, and other documents. (See also his article on Creative Commons for legal websites).

Nik Nicol, of 1 Pump Court, at www.niknicol.co.uk, offers extensive information relating to support for asylum seekers (i.e. housing and subsistence). There is also an introduction to the English Legal System (and available in Spanish too). All these articles are excellent introductions to the respective topics, with extensive links to other resources.

Laurie West-Knights, of 4 Paper Buildings, was one of the early providers of legal websites. His site, LawOnLine, at www.lawonline.cc, covers UK and international resources and he also has a section on the Civil Procedures Rules and a section on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) for which he was one of the major initiators.

There do not seem to be many websites from Irish barristers but Kieron Wood at indigo.ie/~kwood was early into the medium several years ago with his pages on Irish Legal Matters. He provides information on family law, including all relevant legislation and the paperwork to carry out a divorce without a lawyer. There is also information on wills and, under a separate civil law section, there is information on Irish citizenship, Irish work permits, defamation, tenancies, redomiciliation and bringing an appeal in the Supreme Court. There is also a glossary of legal terms, a section on Irish solicitors and barristers (and how to become a barrister) a useful set of Irish legal links and a list of all Irish barristers with phone numbers and (where available) email addresses.

James Kessler, of 24 Old Buildings, hosts a discussion forum on trusts at www.kessler.co.uk. The Forum is a moderated mailing list initiated in October 1998 and covering topics relating to the drafting and administration of trusts, wills and other private client issues including taxation.

Terry Lynch, from Northampton Chambers, provides Family Law Topics and commentary on selected cases at www.terrylynch.co.uk.

Dr Michael J Powers QC, from the “Virtual Chambers” Clerksroom, provides articles relating to medical negligence actions on his site at www.medneg.co.uk.

Charles Price, of No5 Chambers, covers the latest developments in employment law at www.charlesprice.net and offers practical advice for employment lawyers. You can sign up for a regular email "E-Missive" on these topics.

Jonathan Turner of 13 Old Square, provides case reports and articles on IP, competition and IT law, on his site at www.jonathanturner.com.

Brian Watson of Guildhall Chambers, Bristol and now a District Judge at Bristol, provides a free site called Litigation Liabilities at www.litigationliabilities.co.uk which gives a summary of recent cases and practice developments since 1st December 2001 as an up-dating service for his book of the same name. The information on the site is free standing and the viewer does not have to have bought the book.

Pearl Willis, of Northampton Chambers, provides some case reports and commentary on Family, Child Care, and Criminal cases at www.pearlwillis.co.uk.

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