In the ABA Journal eReport there is an article about the recent American case of United States of America and City of Bismarck, North Dakota (which settled out of court). It transpires that the position in the USA in relation to lawyers’ duty to provide an interpreter for their clients is similar to that in [...]
Deafblindness is now a distinct disability, recognised by the European Union. A written declaration has been signed by 323 members, ensuring that the declaration was adapted on the 1 April 2004. This has to be a significant move for Deafblind people across the EU, who may not necessary enjoy distinct recognition of their needs in [...]
Congratuations to Clare Norriss who has reached the Young Solicitor’s Group Pro Bono Awards finalist stage. Clare works for Beachcroft Wansbroughs, and commenced her volunteering as a trainee. She attends evening surgeries at Wandsworth & Merton Law Centre and is on the Centre?s Management Committee. Clare has been a driving force in the inclusion of [...]
Last week a White Paper was published: Fairness for All: A New Commission for Equality and Human Rights by the DTI. It is proposed that a single body is established combining the existing Commissions: Disability Rights Commission, Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission; in addition to providing support for the first time, [...]
Sir David Clementi released his consultation paper for the Review of the Regulatory Framework of Legal Services in England and Wales in March 2004, inviting responses from all sectors of the legal profession and outside it. The paper discusses how legal services could be regulated in the future. The Government has decided that the legal [...]
Us Deaf lawyers rarely get a chance to meet. One of the later meets was at a conference last July. Pictured are: Marije Davidson, Shobha Edgell, Rob Wilks, Alison Bryan, Helga Stevens and John Savva. We were lucky enough to have an international flavour, with Helga attending the conference from Belguim. That said, Marije is [...]
The single most infuriating problem that exists for Deafies today is the fact that there is little or no funding for terps for postgraduate courses like the CPE or LPC or BVC. Two of our members have suffered from this lack of funding; Alison’s dropped out of the LPC twice because of it, and John [...]
My introduction to law, and all things legal happened 16 years ago, when studying my A levels; and subsequent involvement with legal studies and working environments of all sorts since. However, as a mainstream Deaf person, I did not encounter Deaf issues until around 1993. Since then I have tried to merge law and deafness, [...]
Welcome to Deaf Blawg. The aim of this blawg is to provide a forum whereby Deaf lawyers, primarily those who reside in the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), can muse on and discuss issues of a legal nature. Many of you will have noticed that the www is dominated by Americanised groups of [...]