Last 3 months headlines – Page 1632

  • News

    Negligence

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Barristers – Legal advice – Limitations – Professional negligence – Solicitors Pritchard Joyce & Hinds (a firm) v Batcup & anor: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Sedley, Dyson, Sullivan): 5 May 2009 ...

  • News

    Succession

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Assumption of responsibility – Family provision – Wills Baynes v Hedger & ors: CA (Civ Div) (Sir Andrew Morritt (Chancellor), Lords Justice Longmore, Goldring): 7 May 2009 ...

  • News

    Review: books cast a magic spell

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    The enchanted LibraryKaren Andrea Legend/YouWriteOn, £5.99 After visiting a bookshop promoting the works of Spanish novelists Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, and Carlos ...

  • News

    Review: a sideways look at the workplace

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Getting OutSarah Henley Lion & Unicorn Theatre, London

  • News

    Litigation funding: an overview of a contentious area of growth

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    A litigator’s job description could increasingly be said to include the skills of bookie and salesman – assessing the odds of winning a case and advising clients on the evolving market in funding their litigation.

  • News

    Bach to the wall

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Last Friday was not a good day for our legal aid minister, Lord Bach of Lutterworth. First his ministerial sidekick, Shahid Malik, became a casualty of the expenses scandal engulfing Westminster. Then he was given a rough ride at a legal aid conference, where he ...

  • News

    Sleep of the just?

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Lord Bonomy, a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has a rather forbidding demeanour that befits his calling. This distinguished Scottish judge and criminal prosecutor was one of the headline speakers at the Law Society of Scotland’s 60th anniversary conference, held in Edinburgh a couple of ...

  • News

    Biting off more than you can chew

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Long nights and short summers don’t seem to have dulled the wit of Torben Melchior, president of the Danish supreme court. He told last weekend’s plenary session of the council of bars and law societies of Europe in Copenhagen that, despite public and media perceptions to the contrary, courts’ sentencing ...

  • News

    Pulling power

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers and law students from across north-east England donned their gym kit to take part in the York College of Law’s fourth annual sports day. More than 30 teams, including Eversheds, Olswang, Forsters and Gordons competed in football, netball and rugby tournaments, but the highlight was the ‘tug of law’ ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society’s Gazette, 12 May 1999 Press round-upIt is still early days for the almost 800-strong solicitor ...

  • News

    Biased system

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Anyone reading the recent articles on judicial appointments by the Lord Chief Justice and the president of the Law Society might think that there were few barriers to attaining a fair system of making judicial appointments (see [2009] Gazette, 17 April, 10-11). This is simply not the case.

  • News

    Equal footing

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    I was pleased to read Tim Lawson-Cruttenden’s response to the ‘solicitor bashing’ faced by solicitor-advocates of late (see [2009] Gazette, 14 May, 10). It is about time someone fought their corner.

  • News

    The bigger picture

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    In his critique of the career of Lord Hoffmann (‘Judging the Judges’, 23 April), Joshua Rozenberg presents an incomplete picture of his role in the Pinochet litigation.

  • News

    ICC's credibility hangs on Palestinian statehood decision

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    President Obama’s meeting this week with the Israeli prime minister has focused attention on the universal goal of a Palestinian state living peacefully alongside its Jewish neighbour. But there is increasing concern in legal circles that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court risks making the ...

  • News

    Revolution for regulators coming ready or not

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Board’s discussion paper on regulation of alternative business structures is most significant for its bold and unambiguous statements of intent.

  • News

    Inns of Court president withdraws letter on solicitor-advocates

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has forced the bar onto the defensive in the increasingly charged debate about the role and performance of solicitor higher-court advocates (HCAs). Lady Justice Smith, president of the Council of the Inns of Court, has taken the unusual step of withdrawing ...

  • News

    Jack Straw announces crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ employment lawyers

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Justice secretary Jack Straw has announced a crackdown on ‘irresponsible’ employment lawyers who he says are exploiting vulnerable clients by taking a large proportion of the damages they win in ‘excessive legal fees’. The move to curb the use of contingency fee agreements in tribunals – ...

  • News

    Trebling of compensation fund levy on SRA agenda

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    The board of the Solicitors ­Regulation Authority will decide today whether to recommend a 313% increase in compensation fund contributions in 2009/10. SRA officers have proposed that solicitors holding clients’ money contribute £470, up from £150 last year. Last month, the regulator predicted that practitioners ...

  • News

    Solicitors doubt judges’ impartiality in advocate appraisals

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Solicitor-advocates have issued a warning that declining faith in judges’ impartiality in respect of ­different arms of the profession may imperil plans to assess publicly funded defence advocates. The Legal Services Commission is testing a process to ‘quality assure’ all publicly funded criminal defence advocates, both ...

  • News

    France to press ahead with Clementi-style reforms

    2009-05-21T00:00:00Z

    Clementi-style reforms of France’s legal landscape are to go ahead next year despite a retreat on a major element, the reforms’ architect said this week. Jean-Michel Darrois, a company law specialist and head of Paris firm Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier, headed a commission of academics, ...