All News articles – Page 1802
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News
Balancing act
I am writing to respond to last week’s letter from Dawn Chapman, chairman of the Institute of Legal Cashiers and Administrators (ILCA) (see [2008] Gazette, July 17, 9). The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s board received a number of valuable responses to all the consultations. Numerous changes were ...
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Pre-nup absence
I take to heart the advice of the District Judge that we could be guilty of negligence in failing to advise our clients about pre-nups. However, there is one problem – they have to come to see us pre-nup! This is just what they do not do.
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News
£32k copyright dispute
The dispute with two silks over copyright issues related to the Society’s Code of Conduct cost the Law Society more than £30,000, council members were told last week. Chief Executive Des Hudson said the total spend on the litigation – which was settled in April on ...
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News
Spurred on
Solicitors think nothing of traversing the world in the name of ‘charidee’ – hopping across the Sahara blindfolded with a small dry cracker for sustenance, that sort of thing. But one of the more fun-sounding activities was that undertaken by a team of six from Salisbury ...
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Pleural plaques threat
A government consultation on whether people with pleural plaques should be able to claim damages has been criticised by a leading insurance lawyer as threatening to undermine the ‘constitutional separation of the judiciary and executive’. The government announced the consultation last week after the House of ...
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News
Long and short of it
The annual report of the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner has always been a slightly odd document in our view – for its length, if nothing else. You wonder why a 20-person organisation whose sole task is to oversee the Law Society’s complaints-handling activity has to ...
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News
US legislators resist libel laws
‘UK should not impose free-speech standards on rest of world’ Washington will make moves to prevent the enforcement of English libel judgments against American authors unless UK defamation laws are brought into line with those of the US, a New York State legislator warned this week. ...
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Panic and rough justice
Government legislation relating to witness anonymity could seriously damage a defendant’s right to a fair trial Following the House of Lords judgment in the case of R v Davis, the government is rushing through legislation in relation to anonymous witnesses with indecent haste. There clearly is ...
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Immigration
Education – Courses – Examinations – Extensions of time – Leave to remain – Students G Omerenma Obed & 7 Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Sedley, Longmore, Moses): 1 July 2008 ...
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Health and Safety
Accidents – Breach of statutory duty – Employers’ liability – Oil rigs – Scotland – Work equipment Spencer-Franks v Kellogg Brown & Root Ltd & Ors: HL (Lords Hoffmann, Rodger of Earlsferry, Carswell, Mance, Neuberger of Abbotsbury): 2 July 2008 ...
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Feeling flushed
We have all heard of the Seven Wonders of the World – the Colossus of Rhodes, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon etcetera, but Obiter has learned of a new addition to the monumental list – the Fertility Toilet of South Wales. It is to be found in the Crown Prosecution ...
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News
Falconer fiction
It is worrying that Lord Falconer should believe that: ‘We are a country that plays by the rules’ (see [2008] Gazette, 26 June, 16). Many of us have long suspected that New Labour inhabits a different planet from the rest of the country and his comment tends to reinforce that ...
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News
Discrimination: possession proceedings and landlords
The House of Lords decision in Lewisham LBC v Malcolm [2008] UKHL 43, concerning the effect of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 on possession proceedings, will come as a great relief to landlords (see [2008] Gazette, 10 July, 23). Although the decision may be seen as wholly sensible in a ...
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News
Early days for flexible working
Many firms have flexible working policies, but take-up remains relatively low. Is a decent work-life balance possible in the legal profession? There is often a time lag between policy and reality. Despite legislative changes and the fact that many firms now have work-life balance policies, ...
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News
Day In The Life
Solicitor Anthony Edwards tells Catherine Baksi why, after 36 years in practice, he still enjoys going to work Anthony Edwards is a solicitor-advocate and senior partner at East End of London crime and family firm TV Edwards, which recently merged with Finsbury firm Taylor Nichol. He ...
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Data deal
City firm Macfarlanes and Guernsey’s Carey Olsen advised the PFB Data Centre Fund on a joint venture with e-Shelter, a German data centre developer and operator, to develop a campus of data centre buildings near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. It is projected to be the largest data centre in the UK ...
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News
CPS trial plans slammed
New measures allowing non-legal Crown Prosecution Service staff to conduct trials at magistrates’ courts were this week condemned as dumbing down the service by a leading criminal defence practitioner. Section 55 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which came into force this week, allows ...
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France unveils Clementi-style review
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has set in motion a Clementi-style review of the country’s legal profession so that French practices can compete with their Anglo-Saxon rivals. In a letter to Jean-Michel Darrois, who is heading the review, Sarkozy said it was necessary to give French firms ...