All News articles – Page 1376
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Party politics
Ronnie Fox is quite right to say that Law Society specialist committees should be wary of being drawn into party politics. The employment law committee does not take sides in the employment relationship, acknowledging that the Society's membership comprises both employers and employees, and includes a number of the kind ...
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Reputation is key
As a solicitor of over 50 years’ qualification, I have a very different take from that expressed by 360 Legal Group’s Viv Williams in a recent blog. Mr Williams is the latest in a long line of doom-mongers.
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Intellectual property
Validity - Novelty - Defendant holding patent concerned with therapeutic agents for treatment of range of diseases by preventing growth of associated blood vessels Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc v Genentech; Bayer Pharma AG v Genentech: ChD (Pat) (Mr Justice ...
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Intellectual property
Petition for revocation - Obviousness - Defendant company holding patent for a sustained release formulation of an anti-psychotic drug Teva UK Ltd and other companies v Astrazeneca AB: ChD (Pat) (Mr Justice Arnold): 22 March 2012 ...
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Super grass
Obiter cannot be alone in experiencing a minor thrill from the annual permission bestowed by the annual Legal Charities Garden Party to walk past Lincoln’s Inn north lawn’s ‘Please keep off the grass’ sign.
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Let things get worse
I refer to the news item ‘City aid sought for post-LASPO project’. The scheme intends to seek the help of City firms to address the lack of funding in the legal aid sector. Although the initiative is well meaning, should the Law Society get involved? To me the answer is ...
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No pain, no gain
I write in relation to the letter from Max Hill QC concerning a unified approach by solicitors and barristers to tackling the threats posed to the criminal justice system by funding reforms and cuts.
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Plans drawn up to expand patent opinions service
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has set out proposals to expand its patent opinions service and is seeking views on improving its mediation service to help cut the costs of resolving patent disputes.
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Theresa May is improperly cutting corners
Ministers could benefit from a short induction course on the constitution. Theresa May might then have been reminded of what she probably already knows: it is odd to threaten the judiciary in the terms that she just has on immigration. ‘If they don’t [pay heed to non-statutory provisions] then we ...
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Costs confusion
As a non-specialist, I hope some claimant personal injury practitioner will explain just what (apart from the unearthly phraseology) is novel about the government’s latest bright idea on costs - qualified one-way costs-shifting ('QOCS rules "will deter valid claims"'). Surely it always used to be the case that if a ...
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Healthy competition
I should point out the irony contained in your report of the comments of Alasdair Douglas (London ‘boosted’ by foreign competition), in which he spoke of the fillip to London from foreign competition. He is reported as saying that EU attempts to introduce a single contract law could undermine the ...
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‘Huge mistake’ in College of Law exam paper
The College of Law is investigating an apparent error in one of its exam papers after students claimed that one question was impossible to answer. A student in the second year of the Legal Practice Course at the College of Law in London’s Bloomsbury contacted ...
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Outcry over family court closure plan
A group of 160 leading family lawyers and social workers has written to senior judges raising concerns over the proposed closure of a court rated a ‘centre of excellence’. HM Courts & Tribunals Service is considering plans to close the Inner London and City Family Proceedings ...
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Mortgage funding change
Mortgage funds must be transferred directly from the lender’s to the seller’s solicitor where conveyancers act only for the lender under new instructions published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
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Law firms' collaboration helping to combat climate change
by Desmond Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society This week business and political leaders are meeting for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development – dubbed ‘Rio+20’.
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Shifting the burden: support for stress
The suicide last year of a senior local authority solicitor who felt unable to cope with the demands placed on him following a 30% cut to his department’s budget shocked the profession. The pressure to do more with less is evident across all areas of practice, ...
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Broader picture
I write in response to the article ‘End traditional training, says watchdog’. The part that concerns me is the suggestion to ‘end the "general practitioner" model’.
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Banking giant faces landmark mis-selling case
Key defences relied on by banks in interest rate swap (IRS) mis-selling claims are set to be tested in court this October when the claim of business-owner Sara Pearson against Barclays comes to trial.
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Strasbourg holds a whip-round to clear backlog
The European Court of Human Rights has called for voluntary financial contributions from member states to fund extra lawyers to clear its backlog of cases.
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A-Z of boundary disputes
‘I do not… accept that the days are gone when a party can litigate over a tiny strip of land, although I would certainly agree that it is usually economic madness to do so, but a person remains entitled in law to protect and preserve that which is his or ...