All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1168
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News
Claims review stuck in first gear
Is that it? The Ministry of Justice took a year to decide the way forward after its claims process consultation – and this week’s retreat from the original proposals suggests that they were either far too ambitious or betrayed worrying ignorance about how personal injury claims work. ...
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Woolf in sheep’s clothing
Obiter’s attendance at last week’s Law Society Council meeting was greatly enhanced by the valedictory speech of former president and council member for the City of London, Fiona Woolf. After serving on the body for 21 years, she is now stepping down and ...
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New conduct code for third-party funders
Plans to introduce a code of conduct for third-party litigation funders have moved a major step closer after a high-level summit, the Gazette can reveal. The code, which will be endorsed by the Civil Justice Council (CJC), will set minimum standards of behaviour and outline the ...
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Question of conflict
Leading employment lawyers have questioned the use by legal and professional services group Parabis of its subsidiary law firm to defend its employees in a poaching dispute. Parabis employees Martin Hynes, Sarah Preston and Heather Smith were defended by Plexus Law, one of four law firms ...
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Legal recruiters swamped as conveyancers feel the pinch
Legal recruiters have been inundated by approaches from conveyancing practitioners looking for work as the credit crunch takes its toll on the housing market. The decline in the property market has led to job losses for lawyers and support staff across the country. Volume conveyancers Barnetts ...
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Microsoft sets sights on costs shake-up
Microsoft, the software giant, has told law firms across the globe that they must trim fees and scrap hourly-rate billing if they want to continue working for the company. In a letter from Microsoft HQ in Washington, seen by the Gazette this week, Brad Smith, senior ...
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Solicitor slaps writ on county court
Frustration at the service lawyers receive from some court administrators was further manifested this month when a Surrey solicitor filed a High Court order to force a county court to list a hearing on a landlord-tenant case. Clive Wismayer, of Wismayers Solicitors, Great Bookham, said ...
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Criminal law
Aiding and abetting – Dissemination of terrorist publications – Intention – Mitigation – Sentencing guidelines R v (1) Abdul Rahman (2) Bilal Mohammed: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Chief Justice, Mr Justice Goldring, Mr Justice Plender): 8 July 2008
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Damage limitation
New York has moved to protect local media from England’s ‘asphyxiating’ defamation laws The Libel Terrorism Protection Act is the formal ‘short title’ of legislation recently passed in the State of New York. Its purpose, in the words of an accompanying note, is to protect ‘New ...
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ECJ in disability ruling
A law firm could be the first of many thousands of employers to face a disability discrimination claim following a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on ‘discrimination by association’, employment lawyers have warned. Legal secretary Sharon Coleman, who has a disabled son, left London firm ...
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Tache-tastic effort
Moustaches will be in vogue this September – lawyers included – if you are connected to the private equity world and want to raise money for charity. The Everyman male cancer campaign launched TacheBack last week by sticking fake moustaches on four of its high-profile participants – but the challenge ...
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Equality under the law: a fairer future?
It is the lot of every solicitor that there will be a specific dinner party question that folk cannot resist asking. That question will be specific to each area of law and will usually be raised over the After Eights as if for the first time ever.
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Fee speech
I note that there is another government drive to make the court self-funding through court fees. When was this principle debated in Parliament? It is of profound significance. Imagine the same principle being applied to the NHS or state education.
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Prescribing a responsible future
New professional guidance for doctors clarifies the crucial role of medical expert witnesses in the justice system Tomorrow the General Medical Council (GMC) will produce new guidance for doctors, entitled ‘Acting as an expert witness’. As well as being a source of guidance for doctors, we ...
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GMC witness prescription
The medical profession’s regulator will publish new rules this week to ensure doctors acting as expert witnesses understand their overriding duty is to the administration of justice. The General Medical Council’s new guidelines appear at a time of crisis in the witness system, following complaints about ...
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Intellectual property
Pharmaceuticals – European patents – Incentive step – Prior art Conor Medsystems Inc v (1) Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc (2) British Columbia University: HL (Lord Hoffmann, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury): 9 July 2008
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Super regulator names members
Solicitors will make up one-third of the members of the new overarching regulator of legal services, the Ministry of Justice has disclosed. The new Legal Services Board was set up under the 2007 Legal Services Act to simplify regulation and ‘put the consumer first’. ...
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Parliament rules supreme
Government’s planned consultation on pleural plaques is not a hasty response to an unwanted judgment The pre-emptive attack by insurers and their solicitors on the government’s planned consultation on pleural plaques is unwarranted and contributes little to the discussion (see [2008] Gazette, 17 July, 4).
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Short sharp shock
‘Subtle, insidious, disturbingly creepy.’ That was the judges’ verdict on the work of employment lawyer Martin Edwards. And not only did they mean it as a compliment, they even let him trouser £1500 for his trouble… They were, of course, the judges of the annual Crime Writers Association short story ...