Libel actions will be “improved and simplified” by Lord Mackay’s Defamation Bill, introduced into the House of Lords last week. Improvements in the Defamation Bill include a new summary procedure, allowing judges to dispose quickly of simpler and less serious claims and avoid the need for a trial. Judges will be able to make awards […]
Judicial review used to be just an esoteric part of constitutional law studied by law students and usually forgotten once they qualify and practise in more lucrative areas of the law. But that no longer seems to be the case. Judicial dissent now seems to be the order of the day. Judges are often accused […]
Derek Wheatley QC is taking a second shot at the private Bar after 17 years working as an in-house barrister. Wheatley has begun practice at Michael Edward QC’s Verulam chambers. Since leaving private practice 17 years ago, he has been chief legal adviser at Lloyds Bank for 15 years and a legal adviser for London […]
At its December meeting, the Law Society Council passed the Solicitors’ Investment Business Rules 1995 (SIBR). These rules have won the approval of the Master of the Rolls and will come into force on 1 June 1996. One of the purposes of the new rules is to simplify the wording and make it easier for […]
LONDON firm David Wineman has issued a writ on behalf of five members of the hit seventies band Showaddywaddy, which continues as a successful touring group. The writ claims the three defendants are passing themselves off as Showaddywaddy. The trio, original band members who split away from the other five between 1984 and 1995, have […]
Recent research by Executive Travel magazine and Visa International has established that one in three business travellers is deterred from visiting countries which are considered unsafe. The survey, which involved 1,000 UK frequent flyers, found that over half of the men and three quarters of the women questioned felt vulnerable when travelling overseas and over […]
IF CROWN court judge Barrington Black’s views on sentencing are typical, then the Lord Chief Justice got it spot on when he opted to greet Michael Howard’s populist sentencing reform plans with a swift counter punch. Within an hour of unveiling proposals at the October Tory Party conference to force courts to impose longer prison […]
The complications which can arise when lawyers in the same office have affairs has caused management problems for many managing partners over the years. It is such a delicate subject that most firms do not have clear policies on how to deal with the situation when it actually occurs. The way in which practices have […]
The Home Office is in talks with lawyers over plans to toughen up the law on stalkers. It is understood the discussions are centring on examples of specific anti-stalking laws in the US, Canada and Australia. In a letter to The Independent earlier this month, Home Office Minister Timothy Kirkhope said: “There are real difficulties […]
MEP Anita Pollack will be giving an update on EU food law issues, including novel foods, nutrition labelling and unit pricing to the Law Society’s Food Law Group. The meeting will take place on 4 March 1996 at 5.30pm. Enquiries should be made to the group’s chair Margaret Murray on 0181 944 1335.
GOULDENS and Norton Rose could be in the frame for work on the giant Hanson demerger, even though the company is initially handling its legal work in-house. Hanson’s surprise announcement to break up into four separate companies, thought to be worth £2 billion or more apiece, is likely to involve demerger costs of at least […]