Friend In Law

The case of R v Dudley and Stephens (1884) captivated the late Victorians as  a story of the perils of the sea and poor famished shipwrecked sailors, but judges and politicians were worried about what would happen if public sympathy became the guide for homicide law. The abolition of the custom of the sea that allowed shipwrecked sailors to kill and cannibalize each other for survival had been sought for a number of years and unfortunately for Dudley and Stephens they were to become famous in legal circles for being the unfortunate defendants being made an example of. Listen to this episode to find out more about necessity as a defense to a charge of murder, how a mandatory death sentence became less than a year imprisonment and how the case may have been accidentally predicted by Edgar Allen Poe.

The theft act set out the offence of theft and what it means to steal, in this episode I go through the physical elements of the crime of theft and what they mean with examples.

Parliamentary sovereignty is a key constitutional principle in the UK, in the absence of a codified constitution the UK parliament functions as the supreme law of the land and has, at least in theory, unlimited power. In this video I explain what Parliamentary sovereignty is, how it applies in UK constitutional law and if there are any exceptions.

The law on Euthanasia in the law of the United Kingdom shows how  criminal law and  public morality intertwine within the country and how it affects the behaviour of doctors and influences the development of medical law. In this episode I explain what the law is regarding Euthanasia in the United Kingdom and where it fits within the criminal law on homicide. My videos should NOT be construed as either legal advice or financial advice, they are intended for educational purposes only.

When you enter into a contract the seller may say things to try and convince you to buy their product, but can they outright lie to you? Is misrepresentation of the  product allowed in contract law?  In this episode I go through what misrepresentation is and what remedies you may have if you're misled into entering into a contract. Law can be complex topic for both Law Students and those who have never studied it, in my podcasts I'll be trying to walk you through various aspects of the law that will hopefully make it easier to understand and less daunting. All of my podcasts are also available in video format on my Youtube channel.   I recently completed my masters and LPC  and previously graduated with a first class LLB degree obtained in England. The law I refer to, unless otherwise specified, will be  that of England and Wales.

Individual Saving Allowances provide a means by which UK residents can invest up to £20,000 each tax year without attracting taxation on this sum. Most people will be familiar with a stock and shares ISA or some others may be aware of the Cash ISA but far fewer will know about the Flexible ISA or the Innovative Finance ISA which are much newer forms of ISA. In this video I explain what an ISA is, what purpose it serves and the different forms they can take.

Congratulations on the good news, your investments have produced income but bad news you're now going to have to consider how this affects your tax bill. Investment income for an individual may be viewed as a capital gain and charged to capital gains tax or as income and charged to income tax; the situation for a company would appear simpler by virtue of being charged in corporation tax but the question of whether it is a capital gain or income will still need to be answered even so. In this video I run through the main considerations in differentiating a capital gain from income and the issues of deciding which tax it would be better to pay and the key parts of the law that govern taxation of investment income.

A retainer is a contract much like any other, it creates a relationship of client and professional between the client and the solicitor. The contract can however be brought to an end, it is far easier however for the client to terminate the solicitor's retainer than it is for the solicitor to do so. In this episode I discuss the circumstances in which a retainer can be brought to an end by either the client or the solicitor as well as when the law itself demands termination as well as the responsibilities than persist after the termination.

One of the key skills a lawyer would be expected to demonstrate is advocacy in court, being able to put forth the case of a client whoever they may be is one of the most obvious functions of a lawyer. In this video I overview advocacy as a legal skill during criminal trials with a focus on examination-in-chief, cross-examination and the much rarer re-examination aspects of legal advocacy.

OSCOLA is an unusual style since it is designed specifically to be used in law and is not used in any other discipline as far as I'm aware, nor is it usually taught prior to university like Harvard or Chicago sometimes are. In this video I run through the key citation styles used in OSCOLA with examples from both my own essays and those given by the Oxford School of Law themselves. To watch this episode in video format, follow this link to the video of this podcast on my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/Bvd4uzZUZeA

Hearsay is a pretty common word that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing in law that it does in general conversation. With the recent defamation trial in the US becoming memeable for "objection hearsay" being repeated numerous times in quick succession,  famously including  by a lawyer in response to his own question, hearsay has becoming a trending legal topic. In the law of England and Wales the rules of evidence for hearsay are far more restrictive in Criminal law than in Civil Law hence in this episode I explain what hearsay is and then the exceptions that permit hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings as well as the human rights considerations raised by the admission of hearsay evidence.

Company accounts, if you don't know what you're looking for can be an absolute mess of numbers and terminology that make analysis of the financial health of a company daunting and difficult. In this video I explain some of the key terminology used in business accounts and run through some of the tests and ratios used in accounting to determine whether a company is in good or poor financial health.  Want the  updated version of the book I used to make this video? then follow this affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/3NNtyxF

The ability of police to Stop a person for the purposes of searching them for contraband is one of the most common and therefore significant areas of police powers and constitutional law in regards to the rights of a citizen to be free of government interference in both their person and their property. In this video I talk about when the police have a legal right to conduct a search, what they have a right to search for and whether a person can use force to defend themself against an illegal search.

One of the most obvious places for a solicitor to be useful is at a police station advising a detainee about the law, it is vital  after all that people be aware of the rights they are entitled to at a police station and what limitations can be imposed upon them to prevent mistreatment or injustice. In this video I explain the key rights of a detainee at a police station and in what circumstances they can be delayed so that hopefully one of the most stressful experiences possible can be a little less daunting.

Defamation is one of the most visible areas of law at the moment with there being two high profile cases ( "WAGatha Christie" and Johnny Depp v Amber Heard) currently ongoing, defamation is also one of the most controversial areas in English law since it is often viewed as an area in which the UK as a whole falls well below international standards for protection of freedom of speech; in this episode I give an overview of what defamation is and why it is so controversial.    Note: shortly after filming this, it was announced Laurence Fox's application for a jury defamation trial had been rejected.

Constructive manslaughter, otherwise known as UDAM, is a form of involuntary manslaughter in which the defendant's conduct ,when taken together in the round, makes it possible to construct a charge of manslaughter out of a case in which death was neither expected nor intended. UDAM is not however very well known and people would likely be shocked to discover just how little the prosecution needs to prove in order to secure a constructive manslaughter conviction. In this video I explain what constructive manslaughter is and what the prosecution must prove in order to secure the conviction. To get the most well respected law textbook on criminal law in England and Wales follow the affiliate link below:  https://amzn.to/3kGhh11

What is an LLP? In 2000 a special category of partnership was created to help protect professional firms who felt a partnership was the best way to run a professional business such as a law or accounting firm but also chafed under the restrictions that were part of traditional partnerships, the new LLP was a hybrid of a Limited Company and a partnership intended to assuage these concerns, but how do they function?

As of the 6th of April 2022 no-fault divorce is now available in England and Wales, although referred to as such the same applies to judicial separation and dissolution of a civil partnership as well as divorce. If you don't know what no-fault divorce is, why it was introduced or what has changed then listen to this explainer.

E-commerce seems to be a buzzword (or maybe my targeted ads have been a little weird recently) that everyone seems to be talking about and believing is the cheat code to the king of all side hustles, but what is the actual law that governs it? With everyone clamouring for the money you would think it's the wild west out there but there is in fact some regulation out there and some rules to protect both buyer and seller that you would need to be aware of before diving headfirst into e-commerce.

Diminished responsibility is a special defence, it is pleaded not to get an acquittal but instead to avoid being convicted of murder and the mandatory life sentence that comes with it. In this episode I discuss the workings of the defence and how the law prevents those who are suffering from impaired mental functioning from being held liable for murder where their mental impairment causes the crime. The defence technically allows you to get away with murder, but it doesn't allow you to get away without consequences since successfully running the defence leads to a conviction for manslaughter instead.