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Nicholas (Nick) Freeman (born 1956) is an English lawyer best known for specialising in the defence of traffic and speeding cases. [1] [2] [3] He is the owner of Manchester-based legal practice Freeman & Co.
Freeman has been nicknamed "Mr Loophole" by the British tabloid press, a sobriquet which he has since trademarked. [4]
Freeman is Jewish. He was privately educated at Uppingham School in Rutland. [5] His father worked in retail, but warned him there would not be a business for him to take over. Although harbouring ambitions to become a professional golfer, he was persuaded to study law. [6] Freeman completed his A-levels a year early, and went on to study law at Trent Polytechnic, and at the College of Law in Chester.
On graduation, Freeman became an Articled Clerk in Nottingham. He won an advocacy competition and was hired as a prosecutor for Greater Manchester Police in 1981. In 1983, he moved to a firm of criminal lawyers in Manchester and was a partner within six months.
Aged 42, he left and set up Freeman & Co in Manchester. Freeman gained notoriety for getting acquittals for a number of celebrities. Freeman also still handles legal aid work and is on the Legal Services Commission's specialist fraud panel. [6]
On the ethics of using loopholes, Freeman comments: [9]
Morally, I can't [justify it], but ethically, I can. My job is to give my clients the best defence I can. That is the job of every defence lawyer. I can't pick and choose who I defend based on my opinion; that would mean I was judging them, and that would be a dereliction of my duty. If I repeatedly identify shortcomings in police procedures, then perhaps we will end up with better standards in policing and then we will all be safer on the roads because people will not take chances. Until then, it is my job to identify inadequate policing and procedures. I want to make one thing clear, however. I do not condone drunk-driving or irresponsible driving of any kind. And where I successfully defend clients I will often take them to one side and give them a polite ticking-off, tell them they have been very lucky and advise them to use that luck by not transgressing again.
His first high-profile case was that of Alex Ferguson in 1999. Freeman argued that Ferguson had to use the hard shoulder to get to the training ground to allow for his upset stomach and need for a toilet. [9] Clients since have included:
On 30 October 2006, Freeman and one other man were arrested by Greater Manchester Police at premises in the centre of Manchester and held at a police station. The arrest was for suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by encouraging a client to lie under oath, [34] and the arrest was on behalf of an investigation being undertaken by Gwent Police. Freeman denied the allegations, [35] and after an extended release on bail, no charges were brought against him after it emerged that he had not spoken to the client. [36]
In 2021, Freeman created a petition calling for cyclists and e-scooter riders to be required to display visible identification, to use cycle lanes where available, and for the introduction of a licensing and penalty point system. [37] The petition received 10,000 signatures, and the government responded that it had no plans to introduce such requirements for cyclists. [38] [39]
In 2014 he established the "Save the Staffy" website as part of his campaign against negative stereotypes about the Staffordshire Bull Terrier dog breed. [40]
James Stuart Hall Jr. is an English former media personality and convicted sex offender. He presented regional news programmes for the BBC in North West England in the 1960s and 1970s, while becoming known nationally for presenting the game show It's a Knockout. Hall's later career mainly involved football reporting on BBC Radio. In June 2013, he was convicted of multiple sexual offences against children, effectively ending his media and broadcasting career.
Patrick Damien "Pat" Secker, Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from October 1998 to August 2013, representing the Division of Barker, South Australia.
A traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, indicating that the user has violated traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding the speed limit, or a non-moving violation, such as a parking violation, with the ticket also being referred to as a parking citation, or parking ticket.
Akinwale Oluwafolajimi Oluwatope Arobieke, commonly known as Purple Aki, is a British convicted criminal. He is a 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall bodybuilder who weighs 22 st.
The Kapunda Road Royal Commission was a royal commission created by the Government of South Australia in 2005 to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the hit and run death of Ian Humphrey and the circumstances around the trial and conviction of Eugene McGee. The Royal Commissioner was Greg James QC. The first hearing of the commission was on 12 May 2005 and the report was delivered on 15 July 2005.
Traffic court is a specialized judicial process for handling traffic ticket cases. In the United States, people who are given a citation by a police officer can plead guilty and pay the indicated fine directly to the court house, by mail, or on the Internet. A person who wishes to plead not guilty or otherwise contest the charges is required to appear in court on the predetermined date on the citation, where they may argue before the judge or negotiate with the prosecutor before being called to appear in front of the judge. Most prosecutors will not negotiate with someone who does not have a lawyer. The person may also request a trial by a written declaration in the following states: California, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, and Wyoming. In the case of a trial by written declaration, the accused does not have to be present in the courtroom; they may just explain the reason to defense for the case. Officers are required to turn in their declaration. The judge will then make a decision based on the declarations and evidence from both sides. After the written trial, the accused is allowed to request a new in-person hearing if they are not satisfied with the outcome of the written trial, by filing a trial de novo request.
Six persons, including three police officers were killed by a speeding BMW E38 in the Lodhi Colony area of Delhi, India, on 10 January 1999. After following trails of the engine oil, police found the BMW at 50 Golf Links, the residence of Rajeev Gupta. It was then revealed that Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of Indian Navy Chief and son of Indian arms dealer Suresh Nanda was driving the car after returning from a party with Siddhartha Gupta, and Manik Kapoor.
A day-fine, day fine, unit fine or structured fine is a unit of payment for a legal fine which is based on the offender's daily personal income. It is intended as a punishment financially equivalent to incarceration for one day without salary, scaled to equal impacts on both high- and low-income offenders. An analogy may be drawn with income tax, which is also proportional to income, or even levied at higher rates for higher incomes.
Meredydd John Hughes is a retired British police officer. He served as Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police from 1 September 2004 to 2011.
Speed limits are enforced on most public roadways by authorities, with the purpose to improve driver compliance with speed limits. Methods used include roadside speed traps set up and operated by the police and automated roadside 'speed camera' systems, which may incorporate the use of an automatic number plate recognition system. Traditionally, police officers used stopwatches to measure the time taken for a vehicle to cover a known distance. More recently, radar guns and automated in-vehicle systems have come into use.
Road speed limit enforcement in the United Kingdom is the action taken by appropriately empowered authorities to attempt to persuade road vehicle users to comply with the speed limits in force on the UK's roads. Methods used include those for detection and prosecution of contraventions such as roadside fixed speed cameras, average speed cameras, and police-operated LIDAR speed guns or older radar speed guns. Vehicle activated signs and Community Speed Watch schemes are used to encourage compliance. Some classes of vehicles are fitted with speed limiters and intelligent speed adaptation is being trialled in some places on a voluntary basis.
The Amina Bokhary controversy occurred in Hong Kong in 2010 involving the assault conviction of a wealthy woman from a well-connected family. Amina Mariam Bokhary, 32, received a sentence of probation and a one-year driving ban following an incident in the aftermath of a road traffic accident when she struck several police officers. She had committed similar offences in 2001 and 2008.
Regina v Christopher Huhne and Vasiliki Pryce is the prosecution of the former British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne MP, and his former wife, Vicky Pryce, the former Head of the Government Economic Service, for perverting the course of justice, contrary to common law. Huhne became the first Cabinet minister in British history to resign as a consequence of criminal proceedings. On 4 February 2013, Huhne was convicted on the basis of his own plea after re-arraignment. The trial of Pryce began on the following day, lasting until 20 February 2013 when the jury were discharged by the judge. A re-trial began on 25 February 2013 and led to the conviction of Pryce on 7 March 2013.
R v Evans and McDonald was the prosecution of two footballers, Ched Evans and Clayton McDonald, who were accused of the rape of a woman. On 20 April 2012, Evans was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. McDonald was acquitted. Several people were later fined after naming the woman on Twitter and other social media websites.
On 3 January 2007, a National Express Coaches Neoplan Skyliner N122/3L coach was operating on route 592 and was heading towards Aberdeen. It left Victoria Coach Station at 22:30 (GMT), carrying 65 passengers, and was due to arrive at Aberdeen Coach Park at 10:30 (GMT) on 4 January 2007. The coach was due to call en route at Heathrow Airport, Carlisle, Hamilton, Glasgow and Dundee.
Kate Blackwell KC is a British barrister. Head of Chambers at Lincoln House Chambers in Manchester, she became a Crown Court Recorder in 2009 and Queen's Counsel in 2012. Blackwell has been described by The Guardian as a ‘no-nonsense prosecutor’.
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O'Halloran and Francis v. United Kingdom was a 2007 European Court of Human Rights case. The case revolved around a challenge to a requirement in the United Kingdom's Road Traffic Act 1988 that owners of a speeding vehicle provide police with the name of the driver. The plaintiffs, two British citizens, argued that the requirement was a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, under which there exists an implied right to remain silent. In a departure from previous rulings on the issue, the court ruled in a 15–2 majority that the Road Traffic Act requirement was not unreasonable and that there was therefore no Human Rights violation.
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