All News articles – Page 1464
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Criminal evidence
Disclosure - Conspiracy to defraud electoral registration officer R v Khan and others: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Wilkie, Mr Justice Holroyde): 7 October 2011 ...
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Contempt of court
Civil Contempt - Committal - Claimant being responsible for motor accident involving defendants' car Lane v Shah: Queen's Bench Division, Divisional Court (Lords Justice Laws and Simon (judgment delivered extempore)): 5 October 2011 ...
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Solicitors confront online estate fraud
Fraudsters are increasingly targeting the estates of the deceased for valuable internet-hosted assets such as online bank accounts, private client lawyers have warned. Solicitors believe the trend reflects the way probate work has ‘changed beyond all recognition’. For the first time, people are trying to help ...
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News focus: property conference
Attendance at the Law Society’s property conference in London last week was the highest since 2008. Perhaps this demonstrates the need for firms to come together for support as they grapple with upheavals in the legal services sector and conveyancing market.
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Palamon’s investment in QS represents a calculated wager
Craig Holt, chief executive of QualitySolicitors, won’t say how much private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners has invested to buy a majority stake in QS, but the firm specialises in investments of around £10m-£60m. The money will be spent on marketing and on the creation of some shared back-office services ...
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Bring on ‘Woolf II’, top judge urges
A leading judge has called for a second wave of civil justice reforms, encouraging better use of IT, and greater efforts to promote UK legal services internationally. Mr Justice Vos said the UK’s law and legal system are highly respected overseas, but ‘not enough is done ...
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Solicitors beware of ‘piggy-backing’
There has been much recent publicity about claims management companies (CMCs) obtaining personal injury cases through such practices as data selling, referral fees, cold-calling and texting. However, little has been heard of so-called ‘free-riding’ or ‘piggy-backing’. This practice involves a CMC purchasing a competitor’s name as ...
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Barriers make 'diversity of minds' in the legal profession impossible
by Laura Hodgson, a professional support lawyer at Norton Rose Last week, the InterLaw Diversity Forum for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Networks held an event exploring the subject ‘Feminist judgments: how women can, and do, shape the law’.
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Excellence Awards winners revealed
Jo Cooper, chair of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates, was this week named Law Society Gazette Legal Personality of the Year in the Law Society’s annual excellence awards. The accolade recognises Cooper’s sterling efforts in promoting the interests of solicitor higher court ...
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The represented litigant is now at a distinct disadvantage when appearing opposite a litigant in person
The rise of the litigant in person is an inevitable fact of life, but their favourable treatment by the courts is beginning to ring alarm bells. While the judiciary are rightly seeking to ensure a ‘level playing field’, my recent experience is that the represented litigant is now at a ...
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Trademark infringement using Google ‘AdWords’
The Court of Justice of the European Union has handed down its long-awaited judgment in Interflora v Marks & Spencer (Case C-323/09). The final outcome remains to be decided by the High Court, but the judgment provides important guidance for businesses using competitors’ trademarks as Google ‘AdWords’. However, some parts ...
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How will the legal market adapt if it returns to the pre-recoverability era?
'I was a litigator before becoming an MP. I started in 1978,’ says Andrew Dismore, the former Labour MP who heads the Access to Justice Action Group. ‘Back then, a lot of people didn’t have the opportunity to bring their cases, pure and simple.’ There was the phenomenon known as ...
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Trade unions plan action over asbestos ruling
Trade unions are considering the implications for England and Wales of a Supreme Court ruling that sufferers of pleural plaques in Scotland can get compensation. Their legal departments are looking at what further action they can take to counter what they perceive to be a glaring geographical anomaly. ...
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Solicitor accused of money laundering
A solicitor who failed to answer bail after being accused of conspiracy to launder money and defraud mortgage lenders and banks of around £12m has been rearrested and charged. Ajayi Seun, 45, was held after his photograph and other details appeared on Crimestoppers’ list of ...
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Staring into the abyss
It’s far from clear how the legal landscape will look when the dust settles from the regulatory big bang. But we may well need a new toolkit of metaphors to talk about it. In Obiter’s opinion the collection in current circulation has lost its mojo, passed its sell-by date and, ...
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May’s gaffe illustrated the need for a debate about human rights
Theresa May produced a pretty controversial cat out of her speech to the Conservative Party conference. Maya the cat was intended as a metaphor in an attack on the Human Rights Act and a wayward judiciary. Alas, it all turned bad. The cat ended up as an illustration of the ...
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Senior partners cool on social media
About two-thirds of law firms cannot find the time and resources to build and maintain a strong online presence, even though more than 75% have committed to using social media as a business tool, a survey of 50 law firms has found. RTS Media ...
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Liberty attacks ‘baffling’ review of extradition law
The Extradition Act under which British subject and Asperger’s syndrome sufferer Gary McKinnon faces being sent for trial in the US for computer hacking is not biased against British citizens, a landmark review has concluded. The review, published today by parliament’s human rights joint committee and ...