England

An English woman who took abortion pills beyond the 24-week statutory limit has been jailed for 14 months, sparking fresh calls for the decriminalisation of abortion in England and Wales. Carla Foster, a 44-year-old mother-of-three, pleaded guilty to the offence of administering poison with intent t

Black defendants are detained on remand for more than 70 per cent longer than white individuals in England and Wales, data highlighting racial disparities in the criminal justice system shows. Information acquired by The Guardian and Liberty Investigates under the Freedom of Information Act reveal t

Forced marriage "remains rife" in England and Wales in spite of legislation introduced more than 15 years ago in a bid to end the practice, new research shows. The research on Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs), a civil injunction designed to prevent forced marriages, uncovers the scale of th

Senior legal executives will have the opportunity to become Crown Court judges in England and Wales as the UK government takes action to address the backlog of serious criminal cases. Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC announced that the departure from usual practice on the Crown Court bench, which has

A male partner at a law firm has been ordered to pay £45,000 in fines and costs after singing a “degrading” song to a junior female colleague and making obscene gestures at a Christmas party. The woman, who had been working as a trainee solicitor at the practice in London for three

The UK government is considering plans to reduce reoffending and address labour shortages in England and Wales by allowing more prisoners to go on day release and work in industries such as construction, haulage, and hospitality. Currently, only a quarter of those leaving prison have a job within si

England's Legal Services Board (LSB) has launched a call for evidence on the role that lawyers’ conduct can play in the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). While the majority of NDAs are lawful and can legitimately be used to protect the confidentiality of sensitive business ideas and

Discount supermarket Lidl has prevailed in a trademark battle against Tesco. The English High Court ruled that Tesco's Clubcard logo copied Lidl's. Both feature a yellow circle against a blue square background.

The Law Society of England and Wales has assured law firms that they can refuse to advise clients whose activities conflict with scientifically-supported climate change targets. In "milestone" guidance published yesterday, the Law Society encourages solicitors to "adopt a proportionate approach to c

Sentences handed down by judges in the south of England are more likely to be referred back to the courts as unduly lenient as those handed down by their northern colleagues, according to new research. Of all the sentences handed down in England and Wales from the start of 2020 to the end of 2022, a

A Luxembourg-based pharmaceutical company has succeeded in an action in the High Court of England and Wales in which it alleged that a drug manufacturing division of an NHS trust was in breach of a drug development agreement (DA) relating to a treatment for lung disease. SciPharm S.a.r.l claimed tha

Thousands of children could be protected from witnessing their parents thrash out family disputes through the English and Welsh courts, following plans to mandate mediation for separating families announced by the UK government today. Proposals will see mediation become mandatory in all suitable low

A Deputy Judge of the High Court of England and Wales has granted permission for a Ukrainian father to withdraw an application under the Hague Convention of 1980 under which he sought the return of his two children to Kyiv. Applicant NW had remained in Ukraine under the requirements of martial law w

A woman who suffered image-based abuse at the hands of her former partner has been awarded nearly £100,000 in the first civil case of its kind to come before the English courts. The woman had discovered that her partner had secretly filmed her naked on a number of occasions and uploaded the im

Juries in England and Wales are more likely to convict than acquit a defendant of rape, and this has been the case for at least 15 years, according to a large-scale analysis of all jury verdicts by University College London’s Professor Cheryl Thomas. The analysis found that the jury conviction