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01 February 2018 / Roderick Ramage
Categories: Features
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Law in 101 words

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Snippets from The Reduced Law Dictionary, by Roderick Ramage

10 pint hero

It is inexcusable to drive with ten pints of best bitter inside you, but, that apart, this client was a hero. In those pre-breathalyser days, the police had other ways to test the intoxication of a driver, eg touching your nose with your eyes closed and walking along a straight line. He passed them all and refused to give a urine sample. So they locked him in a cell for the night, with a urinal in the corner. He survived the night without passing a drop of his ten pints, so they let him free the following morning. He deserved it.

Case management

The most important lesson that I received about the practice of law was given by my uncle, Roderick Davies of Manchester, on my first day as an articled clerk in 1962. Another articled clerk, a supercilious type, described him as ‘as thick as two short planks’, overlooking the fact that he invariably came to the right answer and rarely lost a case or a negotiation. The invaluable advice was to pin

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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