All News articles – Page 1502
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News
This Life goes on
It all seems a world away now, but the mores of lawyers depicted in the 1990s TV drama This Life are still current. At least according to a survey commissioned to plug the series’ return to UK TV. The survey of 2,000 white-collar professionals found ...
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Third-party harassment
In March, the coalition referred to the current rules protecting employees from harassment by third parties as ‘unworkable’ and announced that it will be consulting on their removal from the Equality Act 2010.
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Solicitors have qualities to hold higher judicial office
Towards the end of last month I had the honour of presenting Lord Collins of Mapesbury, the first solicitor to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court, with the Law Society’s lifetime achievement award, recognising his long and distinguished career.
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Hood stuff
It looks as if someone at the Ministry of Justice is taking ‘hug a hoodie’ a bit literally. Newly released itemised details of government credit card purchases of £500 or more show that, in August, the department spent £655.20 at polo-shirts.co.uk, purveyor of ‘wholesale polo shirts, T-shirts and hoodies’. ...
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Methods of severing a joint tenancy
Quigley v Masterson [2011] EWHC 2529 (Ch) is an interesting case involving loss of capacity and methods of severing a joint tenancy. Mr Pilkington and Mrs Masterson had cohabited for more than 20 years. They had bought a property together which was conveyed into their names as joint tenants ...
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Trust judges on sentencing, says Law Society
The Law Society has criticised plans to extend mandatory life sentences, telling the government to trust judges’ discretion. The new regime, which would replace the indeterminate sentencing system with long determinate prison terms and mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent crime, was announced ...
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Libel and slander
Defamatory words - Words capable of defamatory meaning Kordowski v Hudson: Queen's Bench Division (Mr Justice Tugendhat): 21 October 2011 The Queen's Bench Division held that the claimant's claim for ...
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A wider problem
The case of Gary McKinnon and the unpopular US/UK treaty dominated coverage of the extradition review in the mainstream press. So it made a pleasant change to read Joshua Rozenberg’s piece in the Gazette. While I share concerns about the treatment Mr McKinnon might face if extradited, the problems with ...
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Rolls with it
biter had the chance last week to have a gander inside the newly opened Rolls Building for the launch of Unlocking Disputes, a campaign to promote London as the global dispute resolution centre. Still bearing that scent of new furniture, the spacious complex of no fewer than 31 courts, including ...
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Top secret
Does the lord chief justice object to TV cameras coming into his court? We don’t know. But how else might we explain why the Judicial Office refuses to divulge the contents of his letter on the subject to the Ministry of Justice?
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Social security
Housing benefit - Assessment Child Poverty Action Group v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) (Mr Justice Supperstone): 13 October 2011 The Administrative ...
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Sentencing
Principles - Sentence appeals - Sentencing in context of national public disorder R v Blackshaw and other appeals: CA (Crim) (Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Sir John Thomas (president), Lord Justice Leveson): 18 October 2011 ...
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Unqualified success
Simpson, my principal, was in good humour for some days after he learned of the dismissal of the managing clerk of the highly respected - and he thought snobbish - firm down the road. He wrote to the senior partner offering both condolences and help in the certain knowledge both ...
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Straw’s bid to make referral fees a criminal offence fails
Conservative MPs have voted down Jack Straw’s attempt to make referral fees in personal injury cases a criminal offence. The former justice secretary tabled an amendment to the ban, included as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which was debated in ...
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Courts for the foreign rich, not the indigenous poor
As the bill slashing civil legal aid speeds through parliament, a leading academic has exposed the ‘doublethink’ of the government, which appears to have one set of rules for the rich and another set for the poor. Dean of Laws at University College London, Professor Dame ...
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‘Pre-pack’ administrations rule changes face trouble
Businesses entering pre-packaged administrations (‘pre-packs’) have been grabbing headlines. Retailers Habitat UK, Alexon Group and Jane Norman are but a few high-profile examples. But there are examples in the legal sector too. Assets of top 50 law firm Halliwells were purchased by Hill Dickinson, HBJ Gateley Wareing and Barlow Lyde ...