Last 3 months headlines – Page 1634

  • News

    Solving sell-to-rent-back issues with proprietary estoppel

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The doctrine of proprietary estoppel may help clients who sold their house in return for tenancy but have since been given notice to quit.

  • News

    Internet publication and freedom of expression

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The long-standing principle of ‘publish and be damned’ is jealously guarded by the media. But when it comes to publications on the internet, a recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) shows that those who publish there may find themselves being damned for ever and a day.

  • News

    Family law

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Children – Discretion – Residence orders Re R (a child ) sub nom CP v (1) AR (2) CR (a child by his guardian): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Wall, Wilson): 29 April 2009 ...

  • News

    Sentencing

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Causing death by dangerous driving – Mobile telephones – Mitigation – Undue leniency Attorney general’s reference (no 17 of 2009), sub nom R v Phillipa Curtis: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Mr Justice Lloyd-Jones, Mr Justice ...

  • News

    SharePoint can provide firms with high-end tech for low-end cash

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    There is a software company that owns solicitors’ desktops. It has the lion’s share of their company email too, and now it wants the rest of their IT business. Microsoft is a brand that needs little introduction, but it is making inroads into areas of law firm IT which were ...

  • News

    Brought to account

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Obiter, who blushes to reclaim a receipted taxi fare, has watched with awed fascination the Daily Telegraph’s exposure of how MPs have worked parliament’s expenses regime. Justice ministers are among those in the spotlight. Justice secretary Jack Straw, ...

  • News

    Quick on the draw

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Obiter has received two more entries for the coveted title of ‘fastest lawyer in the land’.

  • News

    Jumping ahead

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Guy Barnett, managing partner of Midlands firm Blakemores, won the show jumping Welsh Masters Championship 2009 – despite being on his second string horse, a Danish Holsteiner called Aragon (pictured). Apparently his first choice, Joli Coeur, suffered an ‘unlucky rub’ in an earlier round. Barnett, appropriately, specialises in equine law.

  • News

    Memory lane

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    New appointments as Lord Chancellor, Attorney General as well as Solicitor-General. Also changes to taxes in the 1969 Budget statement. The Law Society’s Gazette, 16 May 1979 ...

  • News

    Floored strategy

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    One bright idea for helping the chancellor out of his little difficulty with public finances is for public bodies to share accommodation. With efficiency and cultural synergy in mind, what could be more logical than co-locating the police and Crown Prosecution Service? It turns out it is not as easy ...

  • News

    Doctor in profit

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Derek Peedell casts light on a substantial issue in the governance of the NHS (see [2009] Gazette, 7 May, 11). GPs are publicly funded to meet the entire cost of the provision of GP services to their NHS patients.

  • News

    Direct criticism

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    John Sirodcar makes reference to my review of certain CDS Direct files (see [2009] Gazette, 7 May, 11). He attributes a quote to me which is not in fact entirely correct.

  • News

    Closing the gap

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    I write in response to the comments made by Desmond Browne QC, the chairman of the Bar Council, about the impact of fees on black and minority ethnic (BME) and female lawyers (see [2009] Gazette, 30 April, 3).

  • News

    Counting the costs

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    It is hard to know where to start with Lord Justice Jackson’s gargantuan preliminary report on civil litigation costs. If nothing else, it is as comprehensive a review of the current problems as one could hope to have.

  • News

    Collaborative regulation is required for the corporate sector

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Regulation in the City of London has hardly been out of the headlines for some months – most notably in relation to financial regulation, but also in relation to the legal sector. One of the SRA’s key tasks over the next few months is to ensure that we have the ...

  • News

    Bar considers action on ‘threat’ posed by solicitor-advocates

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The Bar Council has set up a working group to tackle what it calls unfair competition from solicitor-advocates for Crown Court work.

  • News

    Radical reforms mooted in Jackson civil justice review

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Radical reform of civil justice is on the agenda in the wake of Lord Justice Jackson’s preliminary report on costs. Greater use of fixed costs, an end to recoverability, a conditional legal aid fund (CLAF), a crackdown on referral fees and changes to the cost-shifting rule ...

  • News

    QC appointment review rejects proposals for radical change

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The former head of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel has rejected Law Society proposals that would have increased the number of solicitors eligible to apply. In a report published last week, Sir Duncan Nichol said that widening access to the current award ‘would run a serious ...

  • News

    Research shows mentally ill more likely to be victims of crime

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Adults with severe mental health problems are almost 25% more likely to be victims of crime than the general population, a report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice has revealed.

  • News

    NOMS IT under fire from MPs

    2009-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The director general of the National Offender Management Service, Phil Wheatley, was taken to task by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last week over the service’s IT programme. Edward Leigh MP, the committee’s chairman, told Wheatley that a National Audit Office report on his ...