Headlines – Page 1493
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Trainees lawyers should serve some time in IT, too
I was amused by one of the reader comments on my last blog – that there is nothing wrong with carrying a second phone, as a ‘belt and braces’ approach to IT is a good thing. I have since been busy adding a second PC to each of my users ...
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Coroners reforms receive royal assent
The Bar Council and the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have today welcomed changes made to the Coroners and Justice Bill, which received royal assent yesterday. The Ministry of Justice said the act will provide better protection for victims and witnesses during criminal investigations, more consistency in ...
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Lovells results show static revenues
Half-year revenues at City firm Lovells remained roughly static for the first half of the financial year, the firm reported today. Revenues stood at £259m for the six months to 31 October this year, down slightly from £260m for the same period in 2008/09. ...
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Dispute resolution: enforcing against a judgment debtor
All prudent dispute resolution lawyers are well aware that, despite having obtained a judgment in favour of a client, enforcing that judgment against a judgment debtor could potentially cause great problems.
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Civil procedure
Banking and finance – Costs - Disclosure Timothy Duncan Earles v Barclays Bank plc: QBD (Birmingham) (Judge Simon Brown QC): 8 October 2009 The claimant (E) claimed damages in respect ...
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Criminal procedure
Road traffic – Notices of intended prosecution – Postal service – Time limits Gidden v Chief Constable of Humberside: DC (Lord Justice Elias, Mr Justice Openshaw): 29 October 2009 The ...
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Yahoo! Europe’s general counsel Grainne Brankin
At a gathering of corporate counsel in Geneva earlier this year, Grainne Brankin gave a talk on ‘how to communicate in a crisis.’ This was probably because the general counsel at Yahoo! Europe’s new Swiss headquarters has experienced crisis first-hand.
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Why third-party interventions in the judicial process benefit democracy
by Roger Smithis director of law reform and human rights organisation JusticeAmnesty International did it in the Pinochet cases – with a somewhat unexpected result. The United Synagogue did it in the Jewish Free School case. Secretaries of state do it regularly; the attorney general occasionally. Justice does it about ...
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Wish you were here?
What do celebrities Diana Rigg and Judith Chalmers have in common, aside from being two former glamour pusses of the small screen who are now, shall we say, advancing in years? Answer: they have both had the recent pleasure of being photographed with our favourite outspoken personal injury lawyer, Kerry ...
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Linesman wanders offside
Obiter suspected that last week’s Heimlich manoeuvre expert Richard Taylor, who heroically stopped his client from choking during a posh dinner, would not be the only solicitor out there to have saved a client’s life. Paul Inns, partner at Powys firm Hanratty & ...
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Tickled pink
Obiter is somewhat lost for words on this one. Staff at Lichfield-based Keelys swapped their usual suits for a ‘wear it pink’ campaign in aid of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. While the ladies pictured have made a bit of a half-hearted ...
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Last in the Kew
George 'Gideon' Osborne will have caught it in the neck from his spin doctors for a maladroit attempt to come across as a man of the people (‘we're all in this together’, don’t forget). The shadow chancellor argued that his school, St Paul's, is ‘incredibly liberal’ because ‘your mother could ...
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Security guards do a difficult job
Clive Booth wants to know why visitors to court are asked to open their own bags and take out items as part of security checks. This is HMCS policy and is common practice among many organisations.
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Clients are not units of production
I refer to the recent letter from Hugh Barrett of the Legal Services Commission (‘Access is the number-one priority’, [2009] Gazette, 29 October, 11).
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Supreme Courts appointments process - need for change?
Arrangements to fill the 12th seat on the Supreme Court bench should be well under way by now, with no more applications being accepted for the vacancy.
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Pro bono conundrum and those left exposed by legal aid cuts
The pro bono protocol says work of this nature is ‘always only an adjunct to, and not a substitute for, a proper system of publicly funded legal services’. This can be a difficult distinction at times, but it has been the mantra of the pro bono movement as it has ...
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LSC chairman defiant over family funding cuts
The chairman of the Legal Services Commission struck a defiant note in a debate on family funding cuts, stressing that ‘it is difficult to convince ministers and a hard-headed Treasury that they are getting value for money out of legal aid’. Sir Bill Callaghan was ...
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Call for public to have direct access to the bar
The public wants direct access to barristers in crime, family and immigration work and is ‘dissatisfied with paying two lawyers for one job’, a panel of leading barristers claimed this week. Kevin Leigh, barrister at No5 Chambers in London, said: ‘It’s about giving proper choice to ...
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Grieve issues warning over access to justice 'crisis'
The country is facing ‘the biggest crisis in access to justice since the second world war’, shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve QC told the Bar Council’s annual conference last Saturday. The warning came as Bar Council chairman Desmond Browne QC revealed that Lord Bach, the legal ...
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Gazette reporter wins Bar Council award
Gazette reporter Jonathan Rayner has won the print category of this year’s Bar Council awards for outstanding legal reporting. He received the accolade for a piece published on 5 March that addressed his son’s mental illness and journey through the health and justice ...