All News articles – Page 1370
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News
Patents - it’s not over after all
Those of you who are following the twists and turns of the European patent saga should know that the fat lady has not yet sung. The Gazette wisely said in their recent article that the saga ‘appears to have been settled’. But appearances are known to be deceptive, and the ...
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Freshfields and Linklaters dampen magic circle celebrations
Magic circle rivals Linklaters and Freshfields have recorded modest financial results to end a week of announcements by the UK’s biggest firms.
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Claims managers get the blame for PI spike
The legal profession has rounded on claims management companies after a sharp spike in personal injury claims following road accidents. Figures from the Institute of Actuaries released this week show the proportion of accidents involving bodily injury rose by 18% last year. This was at a ...
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Spreading the word
Devon & Somerset Law Society welcomes the president’s call for local law societies to reassess their role. DASLS has just launched its business plan for the next three years. Part of our strategy is to put junior and in-house lawyers at the centre of the plan. We are also committed ...
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Time to rebuild the small print
Speaking in the House of Lords on 25 July 1988 in the debate on what was to become the Housing Act 1988, the Earl of Caithness, on behalf of the then government, said: ‘One of the points frequently made about the old-style shorthold tenancy procedure [i.e. the protected shorthold under ...
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Plain speaking
Here is a test for your readers. Read aloud, without pause, the full names of the following (all taken from a single edition of the Gazette): LDP, ABS, SDT, RTA, ABI, APIL, CLS, ADR, CBA, CFA, COLP, COFA, ALS, MoJ, LSB, CQS and SRA. Of course, as a profession we ...
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Partisan position
It was disappointing to read the statement by Law Society president John Wotton expressing, in thoroughly ‘right-on’ terms, the official Society line that it is supporting gay marriage.
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Unintended outcomes
‘First, do no harm’ is an injunction generally attributed to the medical profession, and it is a useful one. The phrase sprang to mind in examining the SRA’s plan to scrap the requirement for solicitors to refer clients only to wholly independent financial advisers. As SIFA ...
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Right message
Camden Community Law Centre was pleased to see the Law Society’s support for equality in the item about same-sex marriage. We congratulate the Society on speaking out. We believe that the Society should speak out on issues of equality in the law. ...
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Party line
Last week’s Law Society Summer Party at the Wallace Collection in Marylebone took place in what can only be described as London’s grandest conservatory. Any number of the great and good turned up, including Ken Clarke, whose cheerful insouciance amid a throng not universally well disposed to his policies can ...
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Jurisdiction
Conflict of laws - Whether proceedings should be stayed Joint Stock Company Aeroflot Russian Airlines v Berezovsky and others: Chancery Division (Mr Justice Floyd): 18 June 2012 The Commercial Court ...
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Intellectual property
Patent - Infringement - Validity of patent - Novelty Molnlycke Health Care AB v Brightwake Ltd (trading as Advancis Medical): Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justices Ward, Etherton and Lewison): 24 April 2012 ...
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Intellectual property
Petition for revocation - Obviousness - Defendant company holding patent Smith & Nephew plc v Convatec Technologies Inc: Chancery Division, Patents Court (Judge Birss QC (Sitting as a Judge of the High Court)): 13 June 2012 ...
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Our work needs to be informed by the views practitioners
This is my last opportunity to write to the profession as president of the Law Society, so I shall use this column to thank all those who have supported me over the past year and to reflect on the issues that seem most important as I hand over to my ...
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Immigration
Leave to enter - Refugee - Asylum SK (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division: 19 June 2012 The Court of Appeal, Civil ...
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Immigration
Leave to remain - Indefinite leave to remain - Claimants applying for judicial review R (on the application of Gurung and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) (Mr Justice Eady): ...
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IFA rule under scrutiny
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has signalled that it is likely to scrap the requirement for lawyers to refer clients only to wholly independent financial advisers, as opposed to advisers contracted to sell the products of one or more providers.
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Taking a view on gay marriage
I confess to having been taken aback that a committee of the Law Society has responded to the government’s consultation on ‘gay marriage’ at all, but the more so because its response is prefaced by a reference to the Society representing solicitors in England and Wales, thus giving the impression ...