London courts revamp controversy
There is something slightly odd about the way the plan emerged to open a “state-of-the-art” court in the City of London that is being billed as the new home of heavyweight fraud and cybercrime trials.
The proposed combined court is being promoted as a “multipurpose replacement” for the Mayor’s and City of London county court and magistrates’ court. However, the venerable Old Bailey will escape the merger plan.
Peter Binning, a partner at Corker Binning, agrees and says the move cannot come soon enough. “For many years Southwark has been a second-class court facility and more recently it has suffered badly from neglect and poor maintenance,” he says.
“Bringing the major financial and cybercrime cases back to the City is welcome. It sends the right signal that the UK means business in tackling financial crime and it will provide a much more convenient location for this kind of heavy litigation, which has been absent from the City since the days of the Maxwell trial in nearby Chichester Rents back in the 1990s.”
Read the full article in The Times here, behind a paywall.
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