Headlines – Page 1465

  • News

    CPS rolls out national telephone charging service

    2009-11-10T00:00:00Z

    The Crown Prosecution Service and Association of Chief Police Officers today announced the nationwide roll-out of a telephone charging advice service for police. From January, the existing CPS Direct service, which provides advice to police when charging suspects out of hours, will be expanded across ...

  • News

    The European Courts – and a certain treaty

    2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

    Oh, and the Lisbon Treaty… I want to write about the European Courts, but I can’t let a week like the past one go by without comment. We rarely have so much excitement in Brussels. Tony Blair apparently out of the running for the role of new EU President!

  • News

    LSB consumer panel to examine referral fees

    2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Board’s new consumer panel will examine referral fees as the very first item on its agenda when it meets for the first time later this month, the Gazette has learned. The news comes after the Law Society’s council last week voted overwhelmingly in ...

  • News

    Eversheds reports fall in turnover

    2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

    National firm Eversheds today reported a 6% fall in half-year turnover but said it is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that its performance will improve. Revenues for the six months to October 31 stood at £178m, down from £188m for the same period in 2007/08. ...

  • News

    Fee income falls at Simmons

    2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

    Fee income at City firm Simmons & Simmons fell by 16% in the first half of the financial year, the firm reported today. The drop, to £120.3m in the six months to 31 October, from £143.5m over the same period in 2008/09, was blamed on the ...

  • News

    Rise in number of intellectual property disputes

    2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

    Intellectual property (IP) disputes in the High Court jumped by a third last year, according to recently released judicial statistics. At 562, the number of IP disputes in 2008 represents a significant increase over the 422 in 2007, and around two and a half times the ...

  • News

    Revenues down at Allen & Overy

    2009-11-06T00:00:00Z

    Half-year revenues at magic circle firm Allen & Overy fell by 7% as the City giant became the first to announce its financial performance results over the past six months. Revenues fell from £548m to £511m during the six months to 31 October. More than half ...

  • News

    Make more time for your life: unsubscribe from spam

    2009-11-06T00:00:00Z

    At a very social day of learning about social media for law firms this week – we mostly sat around and talked about the issues, rather than listen to endless PowerPoint-led talks – I got a sage piece of advice: unsubscribe from any email newsletter you no longer read.

  • News

    City firm Denton Wilde Sapte increases turnover

    2009-11-06T00:00:00Z

    City firm Denton Wilde Sapte grew turnover 3.5% over the half-year, and said that it has met its revenue forecast. Revenue for the first half of the 2009/10 financial year was £87.7m, compared with £84.7m over the first half of the 2008/09 year. ...

  • News

    Prosecutors should explain sentences to victims, says attorney general

    2009-11-06T00:00:00Z

    The attorney general has said prosecutors should explain sentences to victims and has issued revised guidelines on plea and sentencing. Speaking to a conference of Crown Prosecution Service Crown advocates – qualified CPS lawyers in the Crown court - as their superintending minister, Lady Scotland (pictured) ...

  • News

    Does a recent decision mean some people will never escape past convictions?

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Imagine the scene, you are 18 years old, you have rather unwisely been a bit rowdy after sampling your first shandy and the overworked police officer has arrested you for a breach of the peace. You are not judged to be a serious threat to society and are bound over ...

  • News

    Employment – is Or-well with the Equality Bill?

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Was it Harriet Harman who wrote that ‘all employees are equal, but some employees are more equal than others’? Whoever it was, they may well have foreseen some of the more interesting provisions of the latest version of the Equality Bill, which, we are assured, is still cranking its way ...

  • News

    Employment

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Criminal Records Bureau – Data protection – Principles - Duration (1) Chief Constable of Humberside (2) Chief Constable of Staffordshire (3) Chief Constable of Northumbria (4) Chief Constable of West Midlands (5) Chief Constable of Greater Manchester (appellants) v ...

  • News

    Family law

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Ancillary relief – Divorce petitions – Enforcement M v M: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Thorpe, Wall, Mr Justice Coleridge): 21 October 2009 The appellant husband (H) appealed against ...

  • News

    Home truths: new regulations for cancelling contracts

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors who see clients at home need to be aware of new regulations for cancelling contracts, says District Judge Pal Sanghera The Cancellation of Contracts made in a Consumer’s Home or Place of Work etc Regulations 2008 came into force on 1 October 2008. In a ...

  • News

    Superlawyer saves the day

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Clients may have a habit of thinking their business must be dealt with as a matter of life and death but, just occasionally, they do have a point. A client dinner attended by quick-thinking solicitor Richard Taylor, an intellectual property partner at DLA Piper, is a prime example of how ...

  • News

    Court in the act

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Has anybody heard of William Garrow? The chances are you will have soon, as a new BBC drama based on this unsung hero of the criminal justice system began on Sunday. Garrow was a pioneering barrister who stood up for the rights of the defendant ...

  • News

    Preaching to the flock

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Sheep are, according to John Campbell QC, president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, ‘a good example for the modern mediator, since they think for themselves as well as their flock’. Introducing former lord chief justice Lord Woolf at the institute’s annual mediation symposium, the president, who grew up on ...

  • News

    Chancery Lane is fighting for members’ interests in testing times

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Time passes quickly. Three months after becoming president it remains the case that the main challenge facing the profession is change. After all of the changes currently in train are complete, one hopes (prays) for a period of constancy, unlikely as that may seem. Alas, ...

  • News

    Time-wasting job

    2009-11-05T00:00:00Z

    Re: ‘Woolf lambasts failures in CPR’ (see [2009] Gazette, 22 October, 1). I have steered clear of litigation for most of my 40 years in practice, but I did advise one party on the pension aspects of a financial settlement following divorce.