Last 3 months headlines – Page 1681
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Hard choices: software patents, open source
This summer the Court of Appeal handed down its latest decision on the patentability of software in the UK, while a new standard licence was published for open source developers.
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Legal profession
Barristers’ fees – Comparators – Funding arrangements Lord Chancellor v John Charles Rees & ors: QBD (Sir Charles Gray): 19 December 2008 The appellant Lord Chancellor appealed against the ...
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Legal advice
Breach of contract – Conditional fee arrangements – Costs – Retainers (1) Bray Walker Solicitors (a firm) (2) Bevans Bray Walkers Ltd (t/a Bevans) v Carlo Moise Silvera: QBD (Mr Justice Blake): 18 December 2008 ...
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Insolvency specialists - high demand, short supply
The UK has nosedived into recession – but for some this financial cloud has a silver lining. After a relatively lean decade, the downturn is potentially lucrative for insolvency specialists. The current skills shortage in this practice area, though, is a corollary of the perception by ...
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Accountancy/legal mega-firms will expose conflicts of interest
I read your opinion ‘A Level Playing Field’ (see [2008] Gazette, 15 January, 10) about proposed reforms of the Scottish legal profession with great concern. I recognise that the implementation ...
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Give it away free
As you correctly reported, the internet is about to overtake traditional channels for people to find a solicitor for simple legal work, such as conveyancing and writing a will. However, I would suggest that law firms need to look beyond this to ensure that they maintain, or increase, their market ...
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Complex world
The reference to ‘a simple transaction, such as conveyancing or making a will’ in your article, together with the absence of any quotation marks, is yet another insulting nail in the coffin of our professionalism. If the article’s authors really have the necessary expertise to use such dismissive words in ...
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Crossing continents: transnational cases raise important issues
What have the son of a Liberian dictator, a rabidly anti-Jewish Australian and a Rwandan diplomat all got in common? They are all defendants where courts in one state are seeking, or have recently sought, to decide criminal liability for alleged actions in another. As such, they illustrate the best ...
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Connect with your clients
Our news item last week on the rise of the internet as a medium for choosing a legal adviser has touched a nerve. Traditional methods of choosing a solicitor, such as word of mouth or using the ‘family firm’, still dominate, but the web is ...
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Improving justice in the family courts
Family Justice in View was published by the Ministry of Justice and laid before Parliament on 16 December 2008. It represents the government’s intended policy on creating uniformity in approach to transparency in the family courts, and is based on two consultations undertaken ...
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That’s the way it is
Keeping up with our theme of solicitor musicians, this week we present… The King himself. Mark Fitch (pictured), a litigation partner at Hatch Brenner, in Norwich, is lead singer in an eight-piece Elvis tribute band, the BlueSueders. The Sueders describe ...
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She’s a diamond
Never, ever, underestimate a legal secretary. Last week, Obiter dared to suggest that the 39 years and five months that Ann Moody worked as a secretary for retired solicitor, Tony Mackintosh might be some kind of record. Beat that, we challenged. And, inevitably, you did.
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A bird in the hand
Law Society media supremo Melissa Davis got herself a bargain when she bought a second-hand stuffed owl over the internet for a very reasonable £68. New ones – equally dead, but recently eviscerated – can retail for as much as £600, she told Obiter last ...
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Trolley good show
Even in these tough times, some law firms are still offering new graduates generous starting packages. But none, it seems, can compare to supermarket ALDI. According to the Graduate Market in 2009 survey, published by High Fliers Research, the retailer pays trainee managers £40,000 a year, with an Audi A4 ...
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Down with the kids
While British judicial authorities dither about whether to allow cameras into courts, a US federal judge has shown she’s ‘well up wiv tha yoof’ when it comes to embracing the new media age. Massachusetts District Court Judge Nancy Gertner is allowing a continuous video feed of a crucial hearing to ...
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Judgment day
Obiter’s informal census of solicitor judges has drawn a healthy response, confirming our feeling that the number is now high – especially on the district bench and on tribunals. Keith Martin, of Davies Partnership in St Agnes, Cornwall, says he’s not sure whether ...
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Firm to pay price of trainee sacking
Firms that sack a trainee without the agreement of the Solicitors Regulation Authority could find themselves liable for hefty damages, a landmark employment tribunal decision suggests. Sheffield Employment Tribunal last week ruled that a Manchester firm, Express Solicitors, was in breach of the terms of ...
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Courts system sleepwalking into crisis
A five-year strategy must be agreed between the judiciary, government and HM Courts Service to revive a civil justice system that has been ‘sleep-walking into a crisis’, a heavy-hitting report has warned. Sir Henry Brooke, former vice-president of the Court of ...
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Firms 'lose out' in fighting crime
The burden of complying with new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations is not proportionate to the funds recovered from launderers, according to new research. For every suspicious activity report submitted, an estimated £618 is recovered from criminals, according to the Home Office and Serious Organised Crime Agency. ...