All News articles – Page 1411
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News
Intellectual property
EU - Trademarks - Community trademark Fruit of the Loom Inc v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Markets (Trademarks and Designs): Court of Justice of the European Union (Fifth Chamber) (Judges Papasavvas (president), Vadapalas (rapporteur), O’Higgins): 21 June ...
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Intellectual property
EU - Trademarks - Infringement - Defendant company importing claimant’s goods into UK without consent Oracle America Inc (formerly Sun Microsystems Inc) v M-Tech Data Ltd: SC (Justices of the Supreme Court, Lords Walker, Clarke, Sumption, Reed, Carnwath): ...
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Odious legislation
I am a Legal Executive and in a month’s time I will ‘celebrate’ having worked for 25 years in the legal profession, handling mainly legal aid cases.
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Spousal maintenance - part two
In my last article I considered the courts’ approach to the quantum of periodical payments (see [2012] Gazette, 24 May, 16). Recent decisions have seen an increased focus on needs as the prevailing factor when quantifying such payments. In a similar vein, and perhaps reflecting a less generous approach to ...
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Salford proceedings
In response to Alexandra Adam's letter, I spoke to someone at Salford Business Centre about limitation on the day that the new procedure came into force. I was advised that if you are up against limitation, then you need to prepare proceedings to issue out of the Northampton County Court ...
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Support for shot solicitor
Wiltshire solicitor James Ward (pictured) remains in a serious condition after being shot in his office last week. The principal partner at Morris Goddard & Ward began breathing on his own on Tuesday for the first time since the attack but remained in a coma, local colleagues said. ...
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ABS pioneer condemns ‘over-qualification’ in firms
Law firms have for too long relied upon 'closed clubs of equity partners' to keep fees artificially high, a speaker from one of the first wave of alternative business structures told the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) Symposium in Manchester today.
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LSC improvements fail to satisfy auditor
The National Audit Office has qualified the Legal Services Commission’s accounts for the fourth year running due to overpayments made to providers. The LSC’s annual report, published today, revealed a substantial drop in expenditure in 2011-12, in large part reflecting the fact it funded almost a ...
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Don’t cut corners, LeO warns firms
Competition from new market entrants is forcing law firms to offer services and prices they cannot hope to deliver, according to the Legal Ombudsman. In his second annual report, Adam Sampson (pictured) raises concerns that under-pressure firms are cutting corners and making unrealistic promises. He ...
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World Pride 2012
Photo gallery - New Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff was among the marchers at World Pride 2012 in London last weekend. The event saw the legal sector continue its tradition of marching together for equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around ...
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Djanogly: QOCS applies to all
Qualified one-way costs-shifting (QOCS) will apply to all personal injury claimants no matter what their financial means, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed. In a written ministerial statement today, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) said there would be no financial test to determine eligibility. The new ...
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Bar-solicitor divisions ‘music to government’s ears’
Two leading criminal lawyers have called for solicitors and barristers to stop arguing among themselves and unite, to promote their clients' interests and the justice system. President of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association Jim Meyer said both branches of the profession are struggling due to ...
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Cuts opponents fuelled by self-interest, says Clarke
The lord chancellor has accepted that not enough progress has been made to increase judicial diversity - and labelled the profession’s lobbying over the legal cuts ‘predictable’ and not client-centred. Talking to Justice director Roger Smith last night in an event hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, ...
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IRA interviews judgment - history is the loser
This week a US appeal court was asked to choose between the value of law and justice on the one hand, and the value of political stability and academic history on the other. In ordering Boston College to hand over interviews conducted for an oral history project with a convicted ...
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Mix and match
First let me say how pleased I am the Law Society backs the idea of a standard professional indemnity insurance proposal form. The process of getting quotes for indemnity insurance is made much more time-consuming by having to fill out a form for each broker or insurance company. I would ...
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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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SRA eases insurers’ disclosure rules
Professional indemnity insurers will not be required to tell solicitors if their credit rating changes during the year of cover, regulators have decided. Following lobbying from the insurance industry, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has eased rules regarding insurers’ disclosure. Under the Qualifying Insurer’s Agreement approved earlier ...
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Are GCs prevented from forcing down fees?
I heard a depressing tale last week that will be familiar to many lawyers working in the in-house sector. A general counsel was dealing with a substantial piece of litigation. He had chosen to give the job to a good silver circle firm, and was very ...
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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 ...