Irwin Mitchell Solicitors made their offices available for the event at which almost 60 lawyers from all over Europe attended lectures and workshops - it has been the biggest Young Lawyers conference so far. This year’s special guest - Jack Casciato, an American lawyer with extensive court room experience - represented Clifford Law of Chicago. Jack introduced the European audience into the secrets of American judicial proceedings and presented examples of evidence that he uses in court - such as flight simulations or medical graphics aimed at activating the jury’s imagination.
Equally interesting was a discussion in a panel of lawyers from England (Ben Bradley), Italy (Paola Ciccarelli), Spain (Daniel Teruel Izquierdo) and the Netherlands (Eva Spijkerman), during which tackled was the issue of rights of victims of personal injury within criminal proceedings across Europe. During this part of the conference many questions were directed at the speakers, among others concerning the possibility of using evidence from criminal proceedings in civil proceedings as well as the possibility of interrupting the limitation period for civil claims by initiating criminal proceedings.
Lecture presented by Gabriela Lenarczyk from the BFP law attracted equally as much interest. Atty. Lenarczyk spoke on last year’s groundbreaking resolution of 7 Supreme Court judges passed in one of the BFP firm’s cases, i.e. the resolution of the Supreme Court of 27 March 2018 (III CZP 60/17). The resolution states that: "The court may award compensation for non-material damage to the closest relatives of a victim who has suffered severe and permanent health detriment as a result of a tort.”
The presentations were followed by marketing and communication skills workshops. Similar activities are already a tradition at PEOPIL Young Lawyers conferences and form the most interesting part of the programme for young lawyers.
PEOPIL always makes sure to provide for interesting activities for the participants after the substantive part of the conference. A hard-working day was completed with a treasure hunt which provided an opportunity to sightsee Manchester’s city center. A perfect culmination of the event was a motivational speech delivered by the President of PEOPIL - John Beer. We will remember his words: “Don’t let anybody tell you that your time will come. You time is now!”
