* A tougher line on sentencing is emerging from the new Lord Chief Justice - or at least a tougher tone. In a speech at the University of Hertfordshire, his first since becoming Britain's most senior criminal judge last month, Lord Judge of Draycote said: "The guilty defendant should always be frightened of going to court. The paramount consideration in every sentencing decision is the safety of the public and the reduction of crime." Nick Herbert, shadow justice secretary, said: "People will welcome straight talk about the need for punishment and deterrence."

* The High Court has alerted the UK media to their right to challenge the Government's move to keep details secret in a challenge by Binyam Mohamed, the British resident who is a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. The Government has filed a Public Interest Immunity Certificate and is arguing the need to keep secret evidence relating to allegations that Mr Mohamed was tortured in Pakistan and "rendered" by the US to Morocco for 18 months of abuse. Reprieve, the charity that fights for the rights of prisoners, said the Government had adopted its stance "because exposing our ally's criminal misconduct would be extremely embarrassing to the US and would therefore apparently harm UK-US relations".

* Richard Stein, Mr Mohamed's solicitor at Leigh Day, said: "The High Court is taking a very proper course, allowing those concerned to articulate the case for wider disclosure in the public interest. In our work, all we have ever asked is that the evidence that exonerates Mr Mohamed and supports his case that he was kidnapped and tortured be provided to his US lawyers."

* Well-off people found guilty of criminal offences may have to pay towards their defence under proposals outlined by the Legal Services Commission and the Ministry of Justice.

There is concern that better-off defendants are entitled to legal aid in the Crown Court even though they can afford to contribute to their defence. A consultation paper suggests ways of recouping the costs from those who can pay towards their defence.

A pilot scheme will be run in five Crown Court centres offering everyone legal aid but those who fail the means assessment and are convicted will have to reimburse the taxpayer for their costs. There are about 117,000 legally aided defendants in the Crown Court each year.

* There is apparently confusion over what protection clients have over billions held by solicitors on their behalf throughout England and Wales in client accounts. Mark Stobbs, director of legal policy at the Law Society, has said that unless a solicitor is negligent, he or she is not liable for any losses if the bank holding the client's money goes bust. But Jonathan Djanogly, the Conservative shadow Solicitor-General, is to press the Treasury for clarification. Djanogly, a partner at SJ Berwin, the City firm, says the Treasury has just pointed to client account rules in the Financial Services Authority handbook and other guidance on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. He told the Law Society Gazette that the replies did not begin to address the questions he had raised.

* Solicitors in a Law Society ballot are against plans to allow non-solicitors to become members of the society. About 60 per cent of solicitors voted against plans to allow non-solicitors to be members and enjoy Law Society facilities but without voting rights. Only 12.7 per cent of those eligible to vote responded - so it's clearly not a burning issue. Paul Marsh, president of the Law Society, said the low turnout was disappointing but understandable "in these difficult times". Nonetheless, the steer from voters was clear, he said.

* The Open University, the UK's leading provider of distance education, and the College of Law, the leading professional law college, have sealed their ten-year partnership for another decade. There are more than 5,000 students on the degree programme run by the OU/College of Law partnership and nearly 2,000 students have graduated with an LLB.

Professor Gary Slapper, Director of the OU's Centre for Law, said: "Our partnership began in a different era: in 1997 there was no Human Rights Act and only one in ten adults had access to the internet. Since then, we have had 10,000 students join our law courses, and now have 200 tutorial groups across the country. We are set to help to shape legal education over the next ten years with new technologies and a new global online degree."

* The £4 million compensation paid to 65 former Armed Forces personnel because they were gay has been welcomed as "long overdue" by Peter Tatchell of OutRage, the group that has campaigned for three decades against the ban on gays serving in the Armed Forces. The ban was overturned in 1999 with a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The average payout is £61,500. Tatchell said: "Although this monetary compensation package was welcome and long overdue, what's really important is the official recognition that a grave injustice was done to these people and to hundreds of other dismissed lesbian and gay soldiers and aircrew."

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