Headlines – Page 1331
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Disability discrimination
The decision of the House of Lords in London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm [2008] UKHL 43, [2008] 4 All ER 525, made it significantly more difficult for a disabled tenant to argue that his landlord had discriminated against him on the grounds of disability. Mr ...
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Family law
Administration of justice - Anonymity - Lump sum orders - Matrimonial property K v L: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Laws, Jacob, Wilson): 13 May 2011 The appellant husband (H) ...
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Criminal procedure
Compensation - Facts - Fresh evidence - Miscarriage of justice R (on the application of Andrew Keith Adams) v Secretary of State for Justice: In the matter of Eamonn MacDermott: In the matter of Raymond Pius McCartney: SC (Justices ...
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Administrative law
Legal advice and funding - Amendments - CLS funding - Funding code R (on the application of Evans) v Secretary of State for Justice: DC (Admin) (Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Stadlen): 12 May 2011 ...
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Video evidence; and assessing an unsafe system of work
Disclosure of video evidence – Douglas v O’Neill. This High Court decision helpfully summarises the existing law relating to CPR 31 and (late) disclosure of video footage. The claimant (C) was badly injured when knocked over by a car driven by the ...
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Is English lawyers' innate pragmatism a burden or blessing?
I remember once addressing a group of German lawyers. One asked me whether having two doctorates rather than one would be more helpful in obtaining a job in the City of London. In that question lurked a world of difference ...
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When should the ombudsman involve the SRA?
As a new creation and as a lay organisation, rather than one already embedded in the minds of lawyers, LeO has always considered it important to try to break down the barriers between us and the profession. So one of the things we have tried ...
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Lord chief justice allowed himself to be labelled 'enemy of free speech'
Taking on the media is never a good idea if you happen to be a member of the judiciary. While judges are required to be fair, logical and impartial, reporters and commentators are often inaccurate, opinionated and driven more by commercial needs than by lofty ...
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Sounding off
The capital’s cabbies aren’t cheap, so a free ride is not to be sniffed at. The Law Society's Sound off for Justice campaign was offering Londoners precisely that last week. The campaign hired three specially branded black cabs, complete with ...
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Station of the cross
It wasn’t quite a papal decree that kept David Morgan, consultant at London firm RadcliffesLeBrasseur, away from a meeting of European lawyers in Luxembourg last week. But it came within a cardinal’s whisker of being one. Morgan, a member of ...
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Pioneers recognised
With women poised to overtake men in the solicitors’ profession over the next few years, it is heartening to see that the four aspiring female lawyers who set the ball rolling back in 1913 were added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography this week. ...
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Child's play
Obiter’s recent news that Law Society president Linda Lee saw her own daughter admitted as a solicitor earlier this month sparked a rush of correspondence. Last week the Gazette heard from Charles Palmer, who recalled his embarrassment at not being able to understand Lord Denning’s ...
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LSC big firm meetings 'unfair', small practices allege
Small legal aid firms accused the Legal Services Commission of breaching its duty of fairness this week, as it emerged that the LSC had scheduled two meetings in recent days exclusively for large firms, in the run-up to the government’s best value tendering (BVT) consultation. ...
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Magistrates drop court closure challenge
Sedgemoor magistrates have dropped legal action seeking to prevent the closure of their court after having ‘lost faith in the system’. The decision leaves the Ministry of Justice facing three actions over its programme of court closures. Mike Dodden, former chairman of ...
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Solicitors face 'challenge' from Council for Licensed Conveyancers over ABS
The solicitors’ profession faces an ‘interesting challenge’ following the Legal Services Board’s recent stamp of approval for the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to become a regulator of alternative business structures, a leading market commentator has suggested. Stephen Mayson of the Legal Services Institute said that ...
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Mynah inconvenience
A newspaper article I read the other day, about an argument over who should keep ownership of a rather handsome labrador, reminded me of a 1959 breach of promise action, writes James Morton. Middle-aged gentleman William Bensfield had jilted a widow a few years younger ...
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Solicitors Regulation Authority under attack from insurers
Insurers have criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority for being too slow to act when law firms breach the rules. Speaking at the Law Society Property Section’s annual conference in London last week, Andrew Nickels, risk manager at Zurich Professional, claimed the SRA fails to take action ...
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Fresh plea for asbestos victims 'fund of last resort'
Lawyers acting for people suffering from asbestos-related diseases have renewed their appeal for a ‘fund of last resort’ when insurance details cannot be found. Claimant lawyers said they had waited more than a year for the results of a consultation on setting up an Employers’ Liability ...
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Law firms face new financial management challenges
The legal sector is increasingly focused on financial management. Contributing factors have included high-profile collapses such as Halliwells and Howreys, as well as ongoing failures and distressed mergers and acquisitions activity in the mid-markets. Common reasons cited for law firm collapses ...