header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

Entering the contempt maze

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All Rights Reserved.
09 July 2020 / David Burrows
Issue: 7894 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Contempt
printer mail-detail
23828
David Burrows navigates through a labyrinth of legal aid provisions & tackles the much misunderstood ‘contempt’
  • Contempt: a maze of terminology & legal aid.
  • Clarity—or not—and the procedure for contempt.

Tom Bingham (nom de plume of Lord Bingham) states his first rule of the Rule of Law (title of his 2004 lecture, and a 2011 Penguin paperback) as that all laws should be ascertainable, clear and accessible. Anyone threatened with imprisonment for ‘contempt of court’—itself a misleading title, which many judges say is inappropriate—will find that the law is anything but clear; and a defendant who wants legal aid for representation for defence (ie not to be sent to prison) will find the law is positively opaque.

On 1 May 2020 replies to a consultation concluded on ‘Proposed rule changes relating to contempt of court; redraft of CPR Part 81’ (https://bit.ly/37cbN6K); that is to amend the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR 1998) to modernise its terminology and to clarify some of its procedure.

I responded

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Read All
Online safety against serious harm
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Law reform ahead
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
Bullying & harassment at the Bar
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
The Sentencing Bill: Crime & punishment revisited
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
Billionaire divorce saga ‘lifeline’
The ex-wife of a Russian billionaire has won her bid to bring her financial relief claim in London, in a unanimous Court of Appeal decision
Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll