Jonathan Goldsmith

Jan 14, 2025 | lawgazette.co.uk | Jonathan Goldsmith

I threw virtual documents onto a virtual blaze to keep warm during the recent freezing temperatures, but I saved one to read: the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) summary of key cases from 2024. It diverted me for an evening. There is only one UK case reported as key from last year: (32483/19, 35049/19). This involved a miscarriage of justice, where two men were wrongfully imprisoned for years, and denied compensation under the existing UK scheme.

Dec 9, 2024 | lawgazette.co.uk | Jonathan Goldsmith

Last week’s climate-related legal activities brought lawyers and the law to the fore again. Deniers, with the huge support of the incoming US president, will continue to say that climate change is a scam (‘there has always been climate change’, ‘we are hobbling ourselves economically while our competitors continue to use fossil fuel’, and so on), but, whatever our views, we cannot disregard the legal developments. First, there is continuing activism against lawyers.

Dec 3, 2024 | lawgazette.co.uk | Jonathan Goldsmith

Recent parliamentary events have led me to long for a new Charles Dickens to bring alive the extremes of our legal system. At one end, there are the crammed prisons and criminals released early, closed courts, trials delayed for years, and legal aid solicitors on the brink of a nervous breakdown trying to make ends meet. We read about these all the time.

Nov 27, 2024 | lawgazette.co.uk | Jonathan Goldsmith

There has been an uptick in criticism of lawyers’ behaviour recently. I will cite some examples, but the real question – assuming the criticism is proper - is what will address the issue. The story which brings the criticism best to life is the one told in the House of Commons debate last week about strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs). Most solicitors glaze over at the mention of SLAPPs, since the majority believes that they never come across such cases.

Nov 19, 2024 | lawgazette.co.uk | Jonathan Goldsmith

I was going to write about how AI is creeping up on us in our everyday working lives – in Google searches, Zoom calls and Word documents – whether we like it or not. I was going to say that lawyers should be extra careful about the data that they use in these everyday applications, because the data will be swallowed up and re-used by private companies for their own profit, regardless of ownership or confidentiality.