All News articles – Page 1786
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News
Life on the inside
A scathing report of Paddington Green police station deals a blow to the 42-day lobby. The prospect of Parliament backing 42 days’ pre-charge detention in terrorist cases seems to have receded even further this week with the publication of an inside account of conditions at ...
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Tories ready for HIP replacement
I have just read your news item speculating that the Conservative Party may abandon its pledge to scrap home information packs (HIPs) (see [2008] Gazette, 2 October, 2). This is not true. At the party conference, shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: ‘The government is in ...
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Local government
Council tax – Motorwatys – Noise pollution – Tax bans – Valuation Charlton-Merryweather v Hunt & ors: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Waller, Rix, Dyson): 19 September 2008. The appellant ...
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Wall Street task force
The American Bar Association (ABA) is to establish a high-level task force on financial services regulation in response to the crisis on Wall Street. In an exclusive interview with the Gazette, President Tommy Wells said the initiative is partly aimed at defending the principle of ...
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Missing water features
Legal professionals must not overlook plumbing systems when producing home information packs. Home information packs (HIPs) have been with us for a number of months. We at the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors have noticed a number of errors in the practices of some ...
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Family law
Care orders – Children – Parental contact Re H (a child): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Ward, Lloyd): 25 September 2008 The appellant mother (M) appealed against a care order ...
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Family law: forced marriages
The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 is due to come into force on 25 November, White Ribbon day, when people will be encouraged to wear a white ribbon to show that they do not condone violence towards women. The act will insert a new part 4A into the Family ...
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First year of OPG dogged by delays and disruption
A damning report into the first 12 months of the body charged with protecting people lacking mental capacity to make decisions for themselves has revealed a track record of delays, inaccurate information and inefficiency. The body, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), came into being ...
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Personal injury: definition of work equipment
Spencer-Franks v Kellogg Brown and Root Limited and others (2008) UK HL46: Lords Hoffmann, Rodger, Carswell, Mance and Neuberger.
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Run, corporate restructuring specialists, run
John Potts, Claire Javelea, Paul Williams, Rebecca Warner, Andy Stoneman, Nicola Harnor and Jason Godefroy are some of the staff and clients of corporate restructuring specialists MCR who will be sweating buckets by running – or walking – the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. ...
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Online complaints plan on hold
Controversial plans to publish complaints against solicitors online have been shelved. In a long-awaited decision, the Legal Complaints Service (LCS) this week said it still favours the idea – but passed responsibility for any scheme to its successor body, which comes into being in 2010.
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Council law teams get commercial
Local authority legal departments are increasingly competing with private firms for public sector work. Earlier this year, one law practice proudly opened new premises in Chelmsford, while another, based in Maidstone, turned in a handsome 24% increase in revenue. Nothing very unusual in that, except ...
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News
Law in a cold climate
In response to our inquiry about solicitors braving the Arctic (see Obiter, 25 September), we have been sent a chilling tale. In fact Alistair Duff, a partner at HBJ Gateley Wareing has a number of stories to tell. It all started in 1987, when Duff, along ...
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Litigation cash woe
Increased demand for litigation funding amid the current financial crisis may not be met because backers are taking on more lucrative work, an expert has warned. Hedge funds and private equity houses – which were providing more and more cash to the emerging third-party funding market ...
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The case for the defence
As Graham Zellick steps down as chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, he tells of his fears that budget cuts could seriously impede the body’s work. ‘I do not think we feature very much on the radar,’ says Professor Graham Zellick, retiring chairman of the ...
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Personal injury interest calculation
Rodney Nelson-Jones presents his annual update on calculating interest for personal injury claims.
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Two men in a boat
Charles Russell solicitor Charlie Marlow has launched his bid to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic (see [2008] Gazette, 5 June, 8) by winning a race in the stormy waters off Plymouth. Marlow and friend Matthew Mackaness are to row alternate two-hour shifts for the ...
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Blue collar
District judges sported their new Betty Jackson-designed robes as they processed from Westminster Abbey to the judges’ breakfast in the Palace of Westminster to mark the opening of the legal year last week. To fit in with their judicial colleagues they wore barristers’ wigs for the occasion, but these will ...
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Claimants are being short-changed
I write in response to your recent news item headlined ‘lawyers blamed for negligence fees rise’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 2).