Headlines – Page 1151
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Cuts opponents fuelled by self-interest, says Clarke
The lord chancellor has accepted that not enough progress has been made to increase judicial diversity - and labelled the profession’s lobbying over the legal cuts ‘predictable’ and not client-centred. Talking to Justice director Roger Smith last night in an event hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, ...
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Patents - it’s not over after all
Those of you who are following the twists and turns of the European patent saga should know that the fat lady has not yet sung. The Gazette wisely said in their recent article that the saga ‘appears to have been settled’. But appearances are known to be deceptive, and the ...
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SRA eases insurers’ disclosure rules
Professional indemnity insurers will not be required to tell solicitors if their credit rating changes during the year of cover, regulators have decided. Following lobbying from the insurance industry, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has eased rules regarding insurers’ disclosure. Under the Qualifying Insurer’s Agreement approved earlier ...
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Are GCs prevented from forcing down fees?
I heard a depressing tale last week that will be familiar to many lawyers working in the in-house sector. A general counsel was dealing with a substantial piece of litigation. He had chosen to give the job to a good silver circle firm, and was very ...
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Claims managers get the blame for PI spike
The legal profession has rounded on claims management companies after a sharp spike in personal injury claims following road accidents. Figures from the Institute of Actuaries released this week show the proportion of accidents involving bodily injury rose by 18% last year. This was at a ...
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Freshfields and Linklaters dampen magic circle celebrations
Magic circle rivals Linklaters and Freshfields have recorded modest financial results to end a week of announcements by the UK’s biggest firms.
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Intellectual property
Patent - Infringement - Validity of patent - Novelty Molnlycke Health Care AB v Brightwake Ltd (trading as Advancis Medical): Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justices Ward, Etherton and Lewison): 24 April 2012 ...
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Intellectual property
Petition for revocation - Obviousness - Defendant company holding patent Smith & Nephew plc v Convatec Technologies Inc: Chancery Division, Patents Court (Judge Birss QC (Sitting as a Judge of the High Court)): 13 June 2012 ...
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Immigration
Leave to enter - Refugee - Asylum SK (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division: 19 June 2012 The Court of Appeal, Civil ...
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Spreading the word
Devon & Somerset Law Society welcomes the president’s call for local law societies to reassess their role. DASLS has just launched its business plan for the next three years. Part of our strategy is to put junior and in-house lawyers at the centre of the plan. We are also committed ...
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Taking a view on gay marriage
I confess to having been taken aback that a committee of the Law Society has responded to the government’s consultation on ‘gay marriage’ at all, but the more so because its response is prefaced by a reference to the Society representing solicitors in England and Wales, thus giving the impression ...
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Partisan position
It was disappointing to read the statement by Law Society president John Wotton expressing, in thoroughly ‘right-on’ terms, the official Society line that it is supporting gay marriage.
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Equality is overdue
I welcome the Law Society’s support for equal marriage for same-sex couples. This measure is overdue. Civil partnership provides same-sex couples with most, but not all, the rights of married couples. Yet it is a ‘separate-but-equal’ institution simply designed to deny full marriage to lesbians ...
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Right message
Camden Community Law Centre was pleased to see the Law Society’s support for equality in the item about same-sex marriage. We congratulate the Society on speaking out. We believe that the Society should speak out on issues of equality in the law. ...
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Immigration
Leave to remain - Indefinite leave to remain - Claimants applying for judicial review R (on the application of Gurung and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) (Mr Justice Eady): ...
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Closing the door
I have never before, in over 30 years in the law, been moved to write to the Gazette. However, the article by Solicitors Regulation Authority board chair Charles Plant so incensed me that I felt the need to put pen to paper.
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We can’t give up
A Adoki suggests that we should let the system implode, rather than do what we can to mitigate the inevitable and serious adverse consequences that we all recognise will result from legal aid cuts. As chair of the Law Society’s Access to Justice Committee, I cannot agree.
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Jurisdiction
Conflict of laws - Whether proceedings should be stayed Joint Stock Company Aeroflot Russian Airlines v Berezovsky and others: Chancery Division (Mr Justice Floyd): 18 June 2012 The Commercial Court ...
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Plain speaking
Here is a test for your readers. Read aloud, without pause, the full names of the following (all taken from a single edition of the Gazette): LDP, ABS, SDT, RTA, ABI, APIL, CLS, ADR, CBA, CFA, COLP, COFA, ALS, MoJ, LSB, CQS and SRA. Of course, as a profession we ...
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Clarity at a price
It was helpful to refer solicitors to part 3 of the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook, particularly the set of voluntary sample letters ‘designed to help ensure complete clarity’.