
Systemic challenge to the imprisonment of immigration detainees fails
In late March 2020 the Home Office released some 300 immigration detainees to avoid the risk of spreading coronavirus. Hundreds more remain in detention and some are held on the prison estate. The fairness of imprisoning immigration detainees was tested in a recent, unsuccessful legal challenge.

This is the most sensible guidance on remote hearings that I’ve read so far📱👌🏽
Much has written about remote video hearings since the COVID-19 lockdown and there remain plenty of issues to consider. New, handy guidance from the Employment Tribunal offers a bunch of tips for better video hearings.

Home Office to face negligence claim over visa document delays
A new decision by the Court of Appeal confirms that the Home Office may be held liable in negligence for unreasonable delays in providing visa documents and that the Upper Tribunal can award damages in such claims.

Court of Appeal clarifies what acts are covered by disability discrimination claims
The Court of Appeal has clarified what disabled claimants bringing claims for reasonable adjustments or indirect disability discrimination need to show, in order to establish that a ‘provision, criteria or practice’ (PCP) has been applied to them. ‘One-off’ decisions will not necessarily be enough.

Commercial Court judge warns lawyers over unreal time estimates
Those lawyers itching for an early finish on Fridays should take care not to under-estimate the length of hearing required in the Commercial Court of the High Court, a recent judgment highlights.

What the Upper Tribunal didn’t tell you about its new ‘e-decisions’🤫
A letter from HM Courts and Tribunal Service on behalf of the Upper Tribunal signals a shift to electronic service of its decisions, but doesn’t draw attention to shorter deadlines for appealing against them.

Nintendo Switch hackers blocked by High Court order
Hackers bypassing security measures in the Nintendo Switch games console and selling pirate software have been blocked by a High Court injunction requiring the Internet Service Providers to restrict access to their websites.

Free Q&A on recent EU children’s rights case in the Upper Tribunal
The Upper Tribunal has taken a significant step forward for the protection of the rights of undocumented EU children in the UK, in the reported case of MS (British citizenship; EEA appeals) Belgium [2019] UKUT 356 (IAC). Download my Q&A for LexisNexis here.

Why I keep having to get my red pen out with these EAT ‘right to work’ judgments ❌
A employee has won their appeal against a Tribunal decision dismissing their claim for unpaid wages and discrimination in a dispute over the ‘right to work’ as it applies to EU immigration laws. But the appeal judgement appears to contain some omissions.

Mapping company that scraped 3.5 million addresses loses ‘big data’ dispute
The High Court has found that a private mapping company breached several licences and infringed the database rights of the Ordnance Survey Limited. The case has important guidance for ‘big data’ processors and discusses the interpretation of website terms.