The phrase “State related deaths” might mean little to the average person, but it's an umbrella term referring to a death in custody or a mental health setting. It also applies to situations when people have taken their own lives while in the armed forces or even to disasters like Grenfell or Hillsborough.

What all these have in common is that they are followed by inquests or public inquiries, where investigators or coroners try to work out what caused the deaths.

Public inquiries are set up to draw conclusions and release their findings, and coroners are required to write a "Prevention of Future Deaths" report when there are lessons to be learned.

Hundreds of these PFD reports are released in England and Wales each year - yet there is no system in place to ensure preventative changes are made.

In Scotland, the equivalent is a Fatal Accident Inquiry. It's held by a procurator fiscal - and not a coroner - in front of a sheriff, and has a wider remit than an inquest. It too, can flag up systemic failures that led to a death, and precautions that should be made in future.

So should the UK have a body that ensures these warnings are heeded?

Also on the programme:

Presenter: Joelle Grogan

Contributors:

The Victims and Courts Bill is progressing through Parliament, and will force convicted criminals to attend their sentencing hearings.

If criminals convicted of the most serious offences in England or Wales refuse to attend, or are disruptive in court, they will face an extra two years in prison. There are other sanctions too, including missing out on family visits.

‘Reasonable force’ can also be used to get criminals to attend.

The families of three women killed in London - Sabina Nessa, Jan Mustafa and Zara Aleena - have been campaigning for a new law. In each case, the men who murdered their loved ones refused to come to their sentencing hearings.

Their families are not alone; the mother of 9 year old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was fatally shot in August 2022, has also been calling for a change in the law. The man who murdered her daughter also refused to come to court to be sentenced.

But will the changes improve the court system for the families of victims?

Also on the programme:

Presenter: Joelle Grogan

Contributors

Wrongful convictions in the Post Office scandal and for train fare evasion have been described by the Government as ‘catastrophic failures’, and it's held a consultation in England and Wales to reform private prosecutions.

It covers private prosecutions brought by organisations, and also, the SJP - the single justice procedure - where a minor criminal offence is decided by a magistrate behind closed doors. Tens of thousands of rail fines have been quashed, after train companies were found to have misused the SJP system.

So how should private prosecutions be reformed?

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(Note that in Scotland, the nearest equivalent to a police caution is a Procurator Fiscal warning which is usually issued for low level offences such as street drinking or breach of the peace).

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Contributors:

What legal responsibilities does a company have to keep your data secure?

M&S, and the Co-op are picking up the pieces after their systems were hacked.

The cyber criminals claim to have the private information of 20 million people who signed up to Co-op's membership scheme, but the firm have not confirmed that number. The Co-op says the breach did not include members’ passwords, bank or credit card details. However, experts say seemingly innocent information can be used to commit fraud or identity theft.

Companies aren’t the only target; on Monday this week, the Ministry of Justice revealed that the Legal Aid Agency was also hacked in April.

So can you sue if your private data is stolen in this way? And if you're the employee who clicked on a hacker's dodgy link in an email, how liable are you for any losses that occur?

Also on the programme:

Presenter: Joelle Grogan

Contributors

When someone passes away - legally, what do you have to do?

In this episode, Dr Joelle Grogan and guests look at the host of legal obligations that have to be considered in England and Wales from declaring a death, to the circumstances in which a coroner becomes involved, dealing with a dead person’s estate and the grant of probate.

Note that in Scotland, different laws and rules apply. The Procurator Fiscal investigates all sudden, suspicious, accidental, unexpected and unexplained deaths and any death occurring in circumstances that give rise to serious public concern. Also in Scotland, "Confirmation of Executors" - also known as Confirmation - gives someone the legal authority to manage and distribute a deceased person's estate. It is similar to probate, but some procedures and terms used in the process differ.

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A teenage boy recently lost a High Court case against his parents. He was unhappy that they had placed him in a Ghanaian boarding school because they feared that he was becoming involved in criminal activity in London.

The case rested on parental responsibility, and the judge ruled that their actions were within the scope of decisions that parents can make - and that the state shouldn't intervene.

But what is "parental responsibility" and is there a situation where a child can divorce their parents?

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Contributors:

Justice delayed is justice denied - the court backlog in England and Wales has reached a record high and suspects being charged with new offences are regularly told they may not get a trial until 2027. Some courts are already booking court dates for 2028. The government has commissioned an independent review of criminal courts to work out how to cut waiting times. A victim of crime and a criminal defence solicitor tell Dr Joelle Grogan about the human cost of court delays.

Also on the programme, the MP introducing a law to end the abuse of Lasting Powers of Attorney and what can someone do when their ex refuses to pay child maintenance?

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Contributors:

Since the October 7th attacks by Hamas on Israel, and the IDF military invasion of the Gaza strip, terms like 'war crimes', 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' have been used when discussing the conflict.

Warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander Mohammed Deif - who has since died in an air strike - citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In this special episode of the Law Show, we'll ask what are the legal definitions of these terms, how victims in a conflict situation can seek justice, and we'll explain the difficulties of gathering evidence in war and proving claims in an international court.

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole-life sentences after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital - with two attempts on one of her victims - between June 2015 and June 2016.

But a campaign to clear her is being led by 14 medical experts who say there is no medical evidence for murders or attacks on those babies in her ward at the hospital.

The expert witness at her trial, Dr Dewi Evans, has consistently defended the evidence he provided to the court.

So what is an expert witness? When is their evidence required in court, what do they do, and who pays their fees?

Also on this week's programme:

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Contributors:

A parliamentary inquiry has just started work into the law around Joint enterprise.

Joint enterprise is contentious because if a person is seen to be involved in a crime, from knowing about it, to egging someone on, being present, or even being able to predict that someone is likely to use a weapon like a gun - then they could be considered as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger.

It has a long history, but in recent times, it has been used as a way of prosecuting murder, especially in cases involving groups of people, when it's not known who carried out a killing.

But is it being applied fairly?

The CPS says “We choose the right charges for the right people based on the evidence in front of us. We look objectively at the evidence before making our own decisions.

and they add that “The CPS carefully monitors joint enterprise prosecutions, with senior legal oversight over every case to ensure that our approach is fair and proportionate.”

But campaigners say joint enterprise disproportionately results in working-class and black youths being prosecuted and convicted.

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Contributors:

The job of the Criminal Cases Review Commission - or CCRC - is to investigate cases where people may have been wrongfully convicted of a crime in the criminal courts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The CCRC has faced criticism over it's actions - or lack of action - in a high-profile miscarriage of justice.

In April this year, the CCRC offered an unreserved apology to Andrew Malkinson. He spent 17 years in prison following conviction for a rape in Salford that he didn’t commit. DNA testing which led to his conviction being quashed was not commissioned by the CCRC, and in July, an independent review found that he could have been freed five years after receiving a life sentence in 2003.

After the report was published, the Justice Secretary called for the resignation of the chair of the CCRC, Helen Pitcher. However, she said she was still the “best person” for the job and that she had no intention of standing down.

So how does the Criminal Cases Review Commission work? How does it make decisions about which cases should go back to the Court of Appeal, and which should be rejected?

Also this week:

Presenter: Dr Joelle Grogan

Contributors