The Practice Direction on Case Management in Civil Litigation handed down on 24 January 1995 contains much that will be applauded by members of the public and profession alike. Its twin objectives are to speed up civil litigation and cut costs. However, the question remains will it do so in practice, particularly as regards discovery, […]
Roger Pearson looks at the High Court battle that will attempt to untangle the Saatchis web The High Court is set for a clash of the advertising titans. Three of the top Saatchi & Saatchi advertising companies are preparing for a battle with the organisation’s former chairman Maurice Saatchi in a bid to prevent him […]
DAVID ROBIN JOHN HARBRIDGE, 40, admitted 1979, practised in partnership at Christchurch, Dorset, struck off and ordered to pay u1,050 costs. Tribunal told he pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court in June last year to five specimen counts of theft and was jailed for 42 months. For 14 years prior to discovery of offences he […]
A son alleged to have influenced his elderly mother into giving him money is being sued in a bid to make him return more than u34,000. Richard Betteridge, administrator of the estate of the late Alice Betteridge, of Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, has launched the High Court claim against Arthur Betteridge, of London N14. Mrs Betteridge […]
Roger Pearson finds that ‘seed’ addresses in databases are acceptable evidence of copyright abuse The computer industry is one of the fastest growing areas of business. But the speed with which it has grown has in many ways left it without legal machinery to protect its products and by-products. That fact was brought home by […]
GEOFFREY MICHAEL DIXON, 48, admitted 1973, practised as G B Dixon, Normandy, Guildford, struck off and ordered to pay u4,497 costs. Allegations substantiated he wrongly drew and used client money, failed to disclose material information to client, failed to honour professional undertakings given by him, failed to reply to correspondence from Solicitors Complaints Bureau. Tribunal […]
Soccer boss Lou Macari is heading for the High Court seeking ordinary and aggravated damages with a libel claim over two stories which appeared in The Sun newspaper last November.
Contract interpretation John Mowlem & Co v Eagle Star Insurance Company & Ors (1995). (CA (Nourse LJ, Hirst LJ and Sir Ralph Gibson) 20/3/95) Summary: The use of ‘or’ in a building contract conjunctively and not disjunctively. Plaintiffs’ appeal by John Mowlem & Co against the Official Referee’s rulings on two questions on the construction […]
Roger Pearson on two personal injury cases which highlight the need to prove causation in negligence actions The need to prove causation in addition to negligence in personal injury actions has been brought into focus by two recent medical negligence settlements in the High Court. Both cases involved children with broadly comparable conditions, but the […]
Former England cricket captain Mike Gatting is heading for the High Court with libel complaints over a biography of fellow cricketer Imran Khan. Gatting claims passages in the book, called ‘Imran Khan’ could be taken as indicating he was racially prejudiced and says they also cast a slur on his sense of sportsmanship, honour and […]
The GATT agreement and the lifting of trade restraints in the European Union is a major opportunity for UK companies to expand their export markets. However it has long been recognised that it is one thing to be able to sell goods abroad, it is another to be able to recover the price of those […]
Livestock litigation seems to be in vogue with the current beef scare. But cattle are not the only animals at the centre of court action – ostriches are also legal flavour of the month. The fate of the beleaguered Ostrich Farming Corporation (OFC) is now to be decided by a High Court judge after it […]