Last 3 months headlines – Page 1679
-
News
Criminal procedure
Armed forces – Anonymity – Court martial – Hearings in chambers (1) Times Newspapers Ltd (2) Guardian News & Media Ltd (3) soldier B (appellants) v (1) R (2) soldier A (3) soldier C (4) soldier D (5) soldier ...
-
News
Criminal law
Life imprisonment – Minimum term – Mitigation – Murder – Sentencing guidelines R v (1) John Height (2) Malcolm Anderson: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Chief Justice, Lords Justice Thomas, Leveson, Mr Justice Owen, Mr Justice Christopher Clarke): 29 October ...
-
News
Civil Procedure Rules changes, part two
The most important forthcoming change to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) is the new part 6 on service (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 25]. This article considers other reforms.
-
News
Freedom of expression remains secure for internet users
The online community breathed a collective sigh of relief at the end of September. The European Telecoms Package was passed, but without a number of controversial amendments that would have threatened the right to freedom of expression for internet users – in particular, the amendments that looked set to enable ...
-
News
Review: The Barristers
The BarristersBBC2, 9pm, 14 NovemberThe Open University, BBC Three years ago the BBC thought it would be a good idea to make a solicitor’s office the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. No Win, No Fee portrayed the colourful personal injury practice at Manchester firm Amelans. This year it’s the turn ...
-
News
Review: All Wind and Pistol
On the inside back cover of All Wind and Pistol, we find, as is standard in hardback novels, a short biography of the author. Roger Butters, it says, ‘practised as a solicitor until he took early retirement in order to pursue his many interests, which include Buddhism, karate, aviation and ...
-
News
Jersey offers British lawyers a choice opportunity
For a couple of weeks a year, a select few British lawyers become the envy of their peers. Instead of struggling down the Strand to argue cases before unsympathetic judges, they sit as judges themselves – indeed, as no less than a court of appeal. ...
-
News
Standing out from the crowd
If a law firm launched a campaign that boasted ‘we will act in your best interests and provide you with good service’, it would seem a modest boast indeed.
-
News
Getting personal
‘Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,’ advised Sun Tzu, the Chinese general and military strategist. Manchester Law Society has clearly taken this message to heart. The latest issue of its journal, The Messenger (Harbinger, more like) includes an article from shy and retiring BBC ...
-
News
New tricks treat
From now on, Obiter wants to see more musicians on this page. Like the family departments of Cumbrian law firms Temple Heelis and Thomson Wilson Pattinson which, in the spirit of ‘give a little bit’, took the idea of collaborative law one step further by organising and funding a live ...
-
News
Proof in the pudding
Our collection of legal typos continues to grow – and some of them would make Russell Brand blush. In the more printable category, Edm und Coxhead of PCB Solicitors recalls being intrigued by the mention of an ‘enjoyment rug’ in a typed-up draft of a will. ...
-
News
Identity cards and protecting information
I was surprised to hear a former colleague mentioned on Radio 4’s News Quiz last week. Harvey Mattinson – now with GCHQ – suggested that it was ‘absolute bunkum’ for politicians to claim that ID cards would help thwart terrorism.
-
News
Let 'em eat cake
Talk about having your cake and eating it. Walsall solicitors Enoch Evans is looking for sponsorship for the forthcoming local half-marathon. But hey, who can motivate themselves to slog through all those miles of training on wet November evenings unless there is a tangible benefit ...
-
News
Making regulation credible
You may have read in the press that the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have had what might be called a ‘full and frank’ exchange of views. The trigger was the way in which the Law Society had established Lord Hunt’s review into the future of regulation.
-
News
Building Society mergers, offshore farms and property development
Big build: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy is advising Skipton Building Society on its proposed merger with Scarborough Building Society, which, if completed, would create a society with 860,000 members and more than £16bn in assets. Completion is expected in early 2009. ...
-
News
Can 83-year old legislation enable home buyers to recoup deposits
We have clients who signed a contract in June 2007 to purchase a flat in a large new development, off-plan. At exchange of contracts, they had a mortgage offer based on the flat having a value of £470,000 and they paid a deposit of £47,000. ...
-
News
Court fidelity
It was disappointing to read Roger Smith’s rather unforgiving assessment of the recent performance of the US Supreme Court (see [2008] Gazette, 23 October, 10). Mr Smith singled out the court’s decision in Boumediene v Bush as an example of the court’s ‘illiberalism’, yet this was ...
-
News
Anglo-Welsh
I am sure I was not alone in reading your focus on Wales with a mixture of interest and frustration (see [2008] Gazette, 23 October, 12). The thriving legal community in Chester was barely mentioned.
-
News
Societies seek united front
The City of London Law Society and the Law Society have begun meeting formally to discuss potential areas of co-operation, the Gazette has learned. David McIntosh (pictured), City of London Law Society chairman, said the two societies were developing a ‘sensible liaison’ to present a ...
-
News
Medical care 'lottery' for detainees
A top forensic physician has criticised the quality of medico-legal help available to some police station detainees, backing lawyers’ claims that cost-cutting in medical care could block access to justice.