Last 3 months headlines – Page 1372
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LeO dealing with lawyers who don't engage
Nearly a year into the life of the Legal Ombudsman and we have seen thousands of cases. These cases are not quite as we thought they would be when we started - nothing in our modelling prepared us for family law overtaking conveyancing as the most complained about area of ...
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Intellectual Property
Trademarks - Community trademark Meredith Corp v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM): General Court of the European Union (Fourth Chamber) (Judges Pelikanova (President), Jurimae (Rapporteur) and Van der Woude): 7 September 2011 ...
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Intellectual Property
Trademarks - 'Likelihood of confusion' Omnicare Inc v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs): General Court of the European Union (First Chamber) (Judges Azizi (President), Cremona and Frimodt Nielsen (Rapporteur)): 9 September 2011 ...
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Supermarket sweep?
Obiter-friend Michael Mansfield QC is a candidate in an arcane election that is due to ‘hot up’ in the next fortnight. We speak of the ‘Election for the Office of Chancellor’ at the University of Cambridge, which takes place on 14 and 15 October. Mansfield ...
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Language barriers
Obiter’s stout defence of the language against the depredations of modernity is proving to be cathartic. James Pinder, a partner at DWF in Preston, has fired off his own list of pet hates. ‘Why is a plan or strategem now a "road map"? And why do ...
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Hanging about
It’s easy - just don’t look down! That was Obiter’s advice to the brave folk from US firm Reed Smith who, along with paralympic wheelchair racing hopeful Nikki Emerson, abseiled 540 feet from the top of the Broadgate Tower, City of London. They helped the ...
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Running the show
The Olympic Games are racing ever closer and first over the line for the legal profession is former schoolboy sprint hurdles record holder, Paul Trincas. Now a partner at Newbury firm Charles Lucas & Marshall, Trincas is to be one of 200 officials helping ensure ...
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Lawyers slam ‘chaotic’ asylum unit
The UK’s system for registering asylum claims is chaotic and unworkable and urgently needs a root-and-branch overhaul, lawyers’ groups allege. Problems at the ‘Kafkaesque’ asylum screening unit in Croydon (pictured), the only such unit remaining after a similar unit in Liverpool closed in 2009, have ...
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Indemnity insurance renewal ‘less frantic’
Solicitors are reporting a less turbulent renewal round for professional indemnity insurance this year as the deadline approaches, although prices have risen steeply for some mid-sized firms. Hilary Underwood, chairwoman of the Sole Practitioners Group, said there have yet to be any complaints from members ...
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SRA consults on referral fees ban
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to canvass personal injury firms dependent on referral fees to ask how they will cope when the government moves to ban the payments. Richard Collins, SRA director of standards, told a LexisNexis conference on professional regulation that the authority was identifying ...
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Leading QC: judicial system discriminates against white men
Many people now perversely believe the judicial and QC appointment systems discriminate against white men, according to a leading silk who is about to become a High Court judge. Interviewed by the Gazette, Rabinder Singh QC stressed that progress has been made over recent years to ...
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Death ‘inevitable’ if legal aid cuts go ahead
It is ‘inevitable’ that someone will die if the government proceeds with planned legal aid funding cuts for cases involving domestic violence, the Law Society has warned. Vice-president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff told a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that the definition of domestic ...
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Lords may amend legal aid reforms, says top peer
One of the legal profession’s most distinguished peers has offered fresh hope that the House of Lords may yet drive through significant amendments to the legal aid and civil litigation reforms. Liberal Democrat Lord Carlile of Berriew QC believes there is enough support from all sides ...
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Abuse of process
Striking out Action - Claimant bringing claim against defendant for collective enfranchisement Westbrook Dolphin Square Ltd v Friends Provident Life and Pensions Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice Arnold): 14 September 2011 ...
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Abuse of process
Striking out Action - Claimant bringing claim against defendant for collective enfranchisement Westbrook Dolphin Square Ltd v Friends Provident Life and Pensions Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice Arnold): 14 September 2011 ...
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Equalities and austerity cuts
The journey of Ulysses was classically eventful and hazardous. Local authorities seeking to effect necessary budget cuts can find their journey through the public sector equality duty and its predecessors equally challenging. Many local authorities, such as Birmingham, have fallen by the wayside, even though (as the old 1930s song ...
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Internet policing is ‘inevitable’
State-imposed control of the internet is ‘inevitable’ if the conflict between the right to privacy and a free press is ever to be resolved, lawyers and journalists suggested last week at a Law Society public debate. They also warned that the current press regulator is toothless ...
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City law firms cool on ABSs
City law firms do not generally see alternative business structures as attractive, because they are reluctant to cede control of the firm to source external funding that they do not need. This is one conclusion of the first of a series of studies looking at ...