Latest news – Page 730
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Embrace electronic working, criminal law solicitors told
The Law Society has called on criminal law firms to embrace electronic working, as the Crown Prosecution Services seeks to become completely digital by April 2012. Both bodies want to see more firms sign up to use secure email, to enable information to be shared between ...
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ACS:Law cannot drop filesharing cases – judge
The Patents County Court yesterday stayed the hearing of actions for alleged illegal file-sharing, brought by London firm ACS:Law on behalf of its clients MediaCAT. His Honour Judge Birss refused to discontinue the cases in the manner requested by the claimants, saying the notices of ...
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Recession-hit firms dispute government contracts
More recession-hit businesses are complaining about how government public sector contracts are awarded, according to research by law firm EMW. There was an 84% rise in complaints made to the Office of Government Commerce in the year to the end of September 2010, to 57 complaints, ...
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Law Society launches legal aid campaign for the public
The Law Society is to launch a high-profile campaign, ‘Sound off for justice’, this week – aimed at harnessing public opposition to legal aid cuts. The initiative will seek to raise awareness of what the cuts could mean for members of the public, in advance of ...
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New planning proposals risk ‘uncertainty and chaos’ in property market
Proposed changes in the government’s Localism Bill could bring uncertainty and chaos to the property market, the Law Society has warned. The bill proposes changes to planning rules, including strengthening the power of local authorities to tackle abuses of the system. It ...
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Surge in disputes over trusts, figures show
Legal disputes over trusts have soared by 238% during the recession, according to City firm Wedlake Bell. Figures from the Ministry of Justice show the number of claims in the High Court in London involving trusts rose to 44 in 2009, up from 13 in ...
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Marketing collective for brain injury specialists to launch in April
A nationwide network of specialist brain injury lawyers, The Brain Injury Group, is set to launch this April, the Gazette can reveal. The Brain Injury Group will work in tandem with other professional services that provide medical, rehabilitation, welfare and financial support to people who have ...
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Libel tourist problem
Steven Heffer asserts that there is no evidence of a real problem of libel tourism. Here it is: in Akhmetov v Obozrevatel [2007], a Ukrainian oligarch sued in the English courts a Ukrainian website published in Ukrainian because it was accessed a few times in the UK.
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ProcureCos add insult to injury
I welcome Avtar Bhatoa’s assessment of the threat posed by the use of ProcureCos to obtain contracts from the Legal Services Commission. The Ministry of Justice proposals threaten the very existence of our firms.
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Embracing new business models
Avtar Bhatoa’s article is an interesting contribution to the debate about ProcureCos and their role in allowing the bar to bid directly for Legal Services Commission contracts (see [2011] Gazette, 27 January, 12). But his characterisation of the two sides of the legal profession as being at loggerheads is ...
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Row erupts over police interpreters
Detainees at police stations in four areas of the north-west are at risk of miscarriages of justice due to the police forces’ use of inadequate interpreters, the Gazette has been told.
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Supreme Court widens definition of violent abuse
Solicitors have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that domestic violence extends beyond physical contact to include other forms of violent conduct.
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Council cuts reprieve for legal advice centres
The High Court has quashed a decision by administrative body London Councils to cut £10m from its £26.4m grant scheme for voluntary organisations across the capital, including legal advice centres. The decision would have left more than 200 groups, including the Mary Ward Legal Advice ...
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Citizens’ advice bureaux in Birmingham to close
Five citizens’ advice bureaux in Birmingham are expected to close their doors next week, unless they can raise £50,000 per month to continue, after the city council withdrew all of its £600,000-a-year funding. Without new money, the City Centre, Northfield, Tyseley, Handsworth and Kingstanding services ...
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Appeal court backs CFA costs agreement
Solicitors must be allowed to shoulder the risk of adverse costs orders on behalf of their clients to ensure proper access to justice, the Court of Appeal has ruled, in a judgment welcomed by the Law Society. Giving judgment in Sibthorpe and Morris v London Borough ...
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MoJ drops bill to modernise law of damages
The government dropped proposals to modernise the law of damages last month. The Ministry of Justice has decided not to proceed with the Civil Law Reform Bill published in December 2009. The bill had put forward several amendments to the law on damages, as recommended ...
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Law firm not liable to loan losses, says appeal court
A law firm that gave negligent advice to a bank before the bank lost £28m in loans advanced to two local authorities does not have to reimburse those losses, the Court of Appeal ruled last week. Overturning a High Court decision, the appeal court ruled in ...
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Fears grow over EU contract law 'confusion'
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy warned that a pan-European contract law could create ‘confusion and uncertainty’ for business, as the deadline for submissions to a European Commission consultation on the issue passed this week. The firm also criticised a lack of business representation on the ...
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LoveFilm acquisition, steel demerger, fencing sponsorship and shoe sale
In the picture: City firm Hogan Lovells advised internet retailer Amazon on acquiring £200m worth of shares in film rental company LoveFilm, giving it a majority stake. City firm Stephenson Harwood advised LoveFilm. ...
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Supreme Court issues guidance on courtroom twitter use
The Supreme Court has today given the ‘green light’ to allow people to ‘tweet’ from inside the courtroom. It has issued guidance on the use of live text-based communication by legal teams, journalists and members of the public of what is going on in court. ...