Last 3 months headlines – Page 1751

  • News

    Lack of capacity and beneficiary liability

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Baker v Baker [2008] WTLR 565 illustrates an increasing tendency for probate cases to involve a number of different claims. While terminally ill in hospital with liver disease, Mr Baker executed a will prepared by his brother, Richard. ...

  • News

    Human rights

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Asylum seekers - Delay - Immigration policy - Leave to remain - Proportionality EB (Kosovo) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2008): HL (Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Scott of Foscote, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood): 25 ...

  • News

    Constitutional law

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Governments – Implied promises – Legitimate expectation – Parliamentary privilege – Referendums R (on the application of Wheeler) (claimant) v (1) Office of the Prime Minister (2) Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (defendants) & Speaker of the House of Commons (interested party) ...

  • News

    Personal injury

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Negligence – Damages – Criminal conduct - Ex turpi causa - Post-traumatic stress disorder Kerrie Francis Gray v (1) Thames Trains Ltd (2) Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (formerly Railtrack Plc) (2008): CA (Civ Div) (Sir Anthony Clarke Master of the Rolls, Lords Justice Tuckey, Smith): ...

  • News

    Intellectual property

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Criminal law – Media and entertainment – Circumvention of copy protection – Computer games – Copyright R v Neil Stanley Higgs (2008): CA (Crim Div) (Lords Justice Jacob, Hughes, Justice Andrew Smith): 24 June 2008 The appellant (H) appealed against ...

  • News

    Landlord and tenant

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Local government – Mental health – Possession claims – Public sector tenancies – Schizophrenia Lewisham London Borough Council v Malcolm (2008): HL (Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Scott of Foscote, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury): 25 June 2008 ...

  • News

    Grandee of the law wades in

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Lord Woolf has witnessed ‘the transformation of almost every aspect of the legal scene’ For many people, the name Lord Woolf will always be synonymous with the revolutionary reform of the civil court code in the late 1990s: the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). ...

  • News

    Long road from the LSA

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Leading figures from the profession recently debated the likely shape of a post-Legal Services Act world. The Gazette was granted exclusive access. It is some consolation for the legal profession that Professor Richard Susskind, the leading commentator, has put a question mark at the end ...

  • News

    In-house beautiful

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Almost a quarter of practitioners now work in-house, and very few of them appear to have any intention of returning to private practice. As the old days of aiming for partner and owning a stake in a law firm slowly pass away in favour of ...

  • News

    In defence of the victims

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Matthew Hickling’s criticism of the Criminal Procedure Rules does not stand up to scrutiny I write as one who prosecutes daily in the magistrates’ court.

  • News

    Court calamities

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    I feel compelled to respond to Majid Shafiq’s ‘challenge’ to find ‘a bigger failure by a court to conduct business in an acceptable way’ (see [2008] Gazette, 26 June, 11). My recent experiences of various courts include: A telephone ...

  • News

    Silver lining?

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    In the light of recent turmoil on the stockmarket, there would appear to be scope for charities to gain substantially from estates which include shares in companies that have declined dramatically in value (such as banks, builders and property companies). Where there is a taxable estate ...

  • News

    Immigration issues

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    As an immigration consultancy based in Sheffield we recently read with great interest an article published in March concerning the quality of advice for Turkish workers (see [2008] Gazette, 6 March, 4). While we agree that the quality of immigration services is high, we do not ...

  • News

    Correction

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Dr Ann Barker, the Bar Standards Board’s new complaints commissioner, was wrongly named Parker in last week’s issue. Apologies.

  • News

    Showing the way

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Our changes to guidance on the transfer system safeguard the public interest while minimising any adverse consequences An area of our work that has attracted considerable interest is the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) recent decision to improve the arrangements which allow lawyers qualified in a number ...

  • News

    Matters of discretion

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    A new sentencing commission could make those responsible for policy more accountable Lord Justice Gage’s report on sentencing will make interesting reading – not so much for what he says but more for the degree of restraint with which he says it. The appeal judge – ...

  • News

    Fox on the gun...

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Has legal legend Ronnie Fox finally unveiled the secret of his success as a top partnership law and employment lawyer? Talk about shock tactics. Sadly, Obiter cannot reveal that Ronnie – who runs Fox Lawyers in London – attends meetings with the opposition in a Sherman ...

  • News

    Sole practitioners

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Yet more news of fast lady lawyers – and Obiter believes the fastest lady lawyer in the land may finally have been chased down.

  • News

    State of the nation

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Just after the poor darlings at Queen Mary College, University of London got their degree marks, the results of something far more important came up – those of the first Field Fisher Waterhouse Essay competition for the QM law students who help out at the university’s London Legal Advice Centre. ...

  • News

    Breaking down the barriers

    2008-07-10T00:00:00Z

    Here’s a thought: the law is to be fully exposed to the unfettered free market, yet the neo-liberal orthodoxy which has dominated government policy for three decades – and which gave birth to the Legal Services Act – is suddenly tainted. Does this matter?