All News articles – Page 1305
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News
Dubai legal links strengthened
Legal links between the courts of England, Wales and Dubai have been strengthened by the signing of a memorandum of guidance between Dubai’s International Centre (DIFC) Courts, the leading English-language commercial court in the Middle East, and the Commercial Court of England and Wales. The memorandum, designed to assist investors, ...
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Thumbs up for DPAs
Legislation is expected in the first quarter of this year on deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs); and in view of the string of financial scandals in the wake of the economic crisis typified by the Libor scandal, not before time.
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A dissenting Judge
Lord Judge, as we all know, has a wonderfully apt name. Not as good as the anaesthetist from Essex called Doctor De’ath but certainly enough to raise a smile. However that’s not the main reason why I’ll miss the Lord Chief Justice when he hangs up the gown and retires ...
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Degrees of learning
Of a cohort of 2,174 who sat the Part II Qualifying Examination in February 1967, 48 passed all seven heads, in one sitting, with distinction in two or more subjects. The group comprised 25 ‘five-year men’ (they were all men!) and 23 graduates, mainly from ...
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Defending strict liability for workplace safety
I write with reference to the government’s latest move in its overhaul of health and safety legislation. At the last minute, the proposal to remove strict liability in respect of duties imposed on employers under health and safety legislation has been slipped into the Enterprise Regulatory ...
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Defendants and principles of fairness
I would like to share my recent experience of the Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPR) danced to the tune of Ministry of Justice training. Acting for a defendant who had no recollection of the incident, or what he had said in interview, I was faced with a single statement and a ...
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Rational debate needed over EU crime laws
So the big Cameron speech on Europe has come and gone. He devoted precisely 12 words in it to the most pressing EU issue which will arise before his beloved referendum even takes place: that of the opportunity for opt-out by the UK government from the EU crime and policing ...
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Jackson reforms ‘undermined’ by landmark costs ruling
A judgment on costs today by the Court of Appeal will have significant ramifications for litigators preparing for the Jackson reforms. The court found there was ‘good reason’ for a claimant’s original costs estimate to go over budget by more than £268,000. The appeal, in Henry ...
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How the right words can slay European Convention myths
by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, president of the Law Society ‘Yes we can’ helped propel a rank outsider to the White House; Gerald Ratner wiped half a billion pounds from his company’s value after an unfortunate choice of words. Equally, we ...
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Contempt of court
Orders in family proceedings – Enforcement Young v Young: Family Division (Mr Justice Moor): 16 January 2013 The Family Division imposed a sentence of six months’ imprisonment for contempt of court, in circumstances where the husband had failed, in certain very important aspects, to comply with an order of the ...
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Simplify complaints procedures, OFT tells profession
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has urged the legal profession to simplify its complaints procedures, following the publication of research showing that only one in eight dissatisfied customers goes on to make a formal complaint. Responding, the Legal Services Board (LSB) said it was making ...
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Solicitors face sanction threat over COLP/COFA forms
Solicitors who failed to disclose relevant information about their past on compliance officer applications could have their licences removed, regulators have warned. The Solicitors Regulation Authority plans to pursue hundreds of applicants who failed to declare facts such as criminal convictions or a previous ...
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DWF rides to rescue of Cobbetts
National firm DWF has announced its intention to acquire troubled firm Cobbetts.
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Changing the tenor
Readers will know that in Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, soldier Don José falls for the gypsy Carmen, leaving his sweetheart and the army, before losing Carmen to a toreador and killing her in a jealous rage. Obiter finds this ...
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Ombudsman predicts more cases as compensation limit rises
The Legal Ombudsman is expecting to increase the number of investigations it carries out under new powers coming in to force today. The new rules lift the ceiling on compensation awards from £30,000 to £50,000 and allow the ombudsman to accept complaints from prospective as ...
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DBA caps set by government
Damages based agreements (DBAs) are to be capped at 25% for personal injury and 50% for any other claim, the government confirmed in a statutory instrument setting out how the civil litigation reforms will work when they come into force on 1 April. As expected, DBAs ...
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Lord Judge ‘troubled’ by court camera plan
The lord chief justice has voiced opposition to the government’s plan to allow the filming of sentencing in the Crown court. Lord Judge said today he was ‘troubled by cameras swanning around court’. Appearing before the House of Lords constitution committee ...
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SRA calms referral fee fears
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will try to appease firms worried about the lack of ‘safe harbour’ advice on coping with the ban on referral fees by publishing genuine case studies of acceptable business models. The regulator last week repeated it will not pre-approve models that ...
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Call for care failings disclosure laws
NHS trusts and their lawyers should be forced by law to reveal when care providers have made serious mistakes, campaigners have said in the run-up to the report of the inquiry into alleged failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Peter Walsh, chief executive of ...
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Costs budgeting: why judges need more training
Now that we are only two months from Jackson D-Day, solicitors are waking up to the prospect of costs budgeting. Costs budgeting will require lawyers to think carefully about the likely costs of a trial at an early stage, submit budgets to the court for approval, ...