Civil Justice
- The Ministry of Justice provides the latest
Procedure Rules (Civil, criminal and Family) and reports. Take "Procedure Rules from the top set of options).
- Her Majesty's Court Service
provide information on courts and hearings as well as forms and leaflets.
- The Civil Justice Council is an Advisory Public Body,
established by the Access to Justice Act 1999 as a continuing body with responsibility for over-seeing and
co-ordinating the modernisation of the civil justice system as laid out in Lord Woolf's report "Access to Justice".
The Council meets at least three times a year to discuss and agree formal responses to consultation papers.
It provides advice to the Government on the effectiveness of aspects of the civil justice system.
The chairman is Lord Phillips, Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice.
The main work of the council is carried out through subcommittees:
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), Enforcement, Fees, Funding, Litigant Information and
the reform of Housing and Land. There are a number of reports and responses to consultations on the site.
- The Civil Court Users Association exists to represent
the interests of organisations that use the Civil Courts in England and Wales. The Association serves
its members by lobbying the Department for Consitutional Affairs and the Court Service on litigation matters
relevant to the credit industry and is focussed on improving the service provided by the Courts for Court Users.
Between them, the members of the Association are responsible for the issue of more than 80% of all civil proceedings for the recovery of debts.
Regular regional meetings allow the members to raise and discuss issues which are fed back to the
National Council which in turn holds regular liaison meetings with the Court Service.
- The Litigation Support Technology Group (LiST) was formed in 2003
by a group of litigation support specialists with the aim of encouraging and developing uniformity of approach
to the use of technology in litigation and alternative dispute resolution.
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The Chancery Guide 2009 is online on Her Majesty's court Service site.
It seeks to give practical guidance on the conduct
of cases in the Chancery Division within the framework of the Rules and Practice Directions.
- YAWS (Yet Another
Woolf Site) is provided by barrister Roger Horne. The rules are provided in a zipped format.
Roger has been attempting to provide a coherent and integrated set of rules from the endless amendments and
new versions since the very beginning of the Woolf reforms.
- Garden Court Chambers have created a bank of specialist
legal resources relevant to their practice areas including Civil Legal Resources (take "Resources" and then "Legal Resources").
Within each of these legal areas, they have then set up around a dozen
sub topics where they have located cases, relevant legislation and
useful links. The areas they cover under Civil Legal Resources are
Civil Claims Against the Police and Public Authorities, Community Care, Employment, Discrimination,
Gypsy and Traveller Rights, Inquests and Coroners, Mental Health, Planning, Prison Law and Welfare Benefits.
- Civil Court Service, from Jordans,
offers online access (a subscription service) to the full
text of the Brown Book, including the Civil Procedure Rules, with expert
annotation, Practice Directions, Pre-Action Protocols, Court Guides, Fees
Orders, Courts Directory, Court Forms and the Civil Court Service
Newsletter. All Rules have a full amendment history and there are updates
every two weeks. There is also a case archive back to 1999 and continuously
updated consolidated legislation.
Computer and Internet Law and Regulation including Computer Evidence and Computer Forensics
- The government's international ICT
(Information and Communication Technology) website has useful material.
- Spam Laws is a site set up by US Law Professor David E. Sorkin.
The site groups laws by USA (Federal and State), Europe (EU and by country) and other Countries, and provides links
to legislation or proposed legislation in these countries. There is also a good list of links to spam-related
sites.
- The Society for Computers and Law is the UK's leading community for IT lawyers,
with over 1,500 members, drawn from private practice and industry.
- British Computer Society is the leading professional body for those working in IT.
They have over 68,000 members in more than 100 countries.
- Internet Law & Policy Forum is dedicated to the sustainable global
development of the Internet through legal and public policy initiatives. It is an international nonprofit
organization whose member companies develop and deploy the Internet in every aspect of business today.
- out-law.com is an extensive information site provided by
Pinsent Masons. There are 10,000 pages of free legal news
and guidance, mostly on IT and e-commerce issues with many new items posted every day. There are
also a large number of quite detailed "Guides" on new media and e-commerce topics. About Cookies
is another site set up by Pinsent Masons as a guide to deleting and controlling cookies and
(for web site owners) assistance in staying the right side of the law.
- Sprecher Grier Halberstam provide
information on current topics of business, e-commerce, employment and commercial law generally.
They also offer a separate site called WebLAW.co.uk
which focusses on the topic of e-commerce and legal aspects of web site development and
maintenance.
- Michael J L Turner is forensic computer examiner
and an established expert witness on computer evidence. The site provides an extensive list of cases
relating to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. He gives a brief summary of each case and a link to a free
source of information, if available.
- Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions,is authored
by Martin H Sampson of US lawfirm Davidoff Malito & Hutcher.
The site is one of the web's foremost case digests, providing in-depth analysis of over
600 US court decisions affecting those who do business on the Internet.
Court decisions are organized by subject matter. The user is provided with a brief synopsis of the
court's decision. If the decision is of interest, a link takes the user to a more thorough analysis.
As part of a current update of the site, pdfs of all court decisions analyzed will be provided as well.
An electronic newsletter, Internet Law Update, is available to provide users with the latest cases added
to the Library. A full text search engine is also available to assist in utilizing the Library's resources.
The Internet Library has analyzed cases covering a broad array of topics, including trademark and copyright
infringement, dilution, use of meta tags, links, thumbnails and framing, browse wrap, click wrap and shrink
wrap agreements, domain name disputes, internet service provider liability, subpoenas, online defamation,
gripe sites, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer
Fraud and Abuse Act, jurisdiction, the legality of gambling on the Internet, search engine advertising,
licensing requirements for the operation of an online pharmacy and automobile distributorship, the legality
of keying and cookies, use of e-mail in the work place, spam, the legality of pop-up ads and spyware, and
First Amendment issues arising out of governmental regulation of the Internet, among others.
- Stephen Mason is a barrister, an accredited mediator and an IT expert, with a particular expertise in
electronic signatures.
He reports, on his site, on the legal issues involved with the
first PIN ATM case to go to trial (he is representing one of the parties).
There is extensive information on
electronic signatures on his site, including books, reports,
legislation and cases - a valuable and unique resource.
He has written one of the key books on this subject himself -
Electronic Signatures in Law (Tottel, 2nd edition, 2007).
He has also written Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discovery & Admissibility
setting out the practical concepts of electronic evidence, how it is created, stored and structured and including computer
forensics.
- Black Knight Associates (BKA) was formed in 2008 by
data, accountancy and legal professionals increasingly concerned by the
cost of accurate and consistent forensic audit reports required by commercial and consumer clients in their
pursuit of financial mis-selling cases. They provide an online service that allows easy and comprehensive
investigation of loan and mortgage irregularities. As well as the paid-for products, there is a free calculator
on the site (called Pinky Pig) which calculates how much a loan or mortgage will actually cost based on
loan amount, APR, number of payments per year and payment period.
- Jonathan Turner is a barrister who
provides case reports and articles on IP, competition and IT law.
He has acted in a number of interesting internet cases,
including French Connection v Sutton (fcuk.com) and Antiquesportfolio.com v Fitch
(copyright in photographs on the net, duties of website designers),
as well as other significant IP cases such Designers Guild v Russell Williams,
PLG v Ardon, Reckitt & Colman v Borden (Jif lemon) and C&H v Klucznik.
- Disklabs Computer Forensics provide computer investigations
by leading experts. Disklabs Computer Forensics also provide the same computer forensics services on seemingly
'dead' hard disk drives and other data storage devices.
