Info in brief

- COMBAT TERROR THREAT, URGES IT LAWYERUK business and industry need to invest more in measures to combat the threat of catastrophic damage to their IT systems through terrorist attack, Andrew Rigby, head of technology and e-business law in the City office of Addleshaw Booth & Co, said last week.

He said that the companies at risk are mainly, although not exclusively, in the financial sector.

'It is all very well having the latest computer systems, but if a bomb destroys communication lines or cripples servers on or off site, or a catastrophe occurs on the scale of 11 September in a UK city, then businesses will need clear continuity and recovery plans in place,' he said.

- FIRM TAPS INTO VALLEY NETWORKCity firm Charles Russell has launched a Web site for members of the Blackwater Valley Business Network, which has helped more than 18,000 clients throughout Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.

The Web site - which is an added service on top of free legal advice clinics run in the firm's Guildford office - provides legal information on a range of business issues.

Meanwhile, Mediation UK, a national charity that represents and supports mediation in the community, has launched a Web site.LINKS: www.charlesrussell.co.uk; www.mediationuk.org.uk

- MINISTER WIDENS COURT FACILITIESThe roll-out of a high bandwidth, wide area network to magistrates' courts in England and Wales is scheduled to be completed in April, Lord Chancellor's Department minister Yvette Cooper said recently in response to a Parliamentary question.

She said only 5% of Crown Courts have access to such a network at the moment, but the Court Service hopes to cover them all by April 2006.

'We are currently considering plans for extending access to the county courts of England and Wales,' she added.