Legal Features

Articles

Double grovel, toil and trouble

My bank has just bounced one of my client account cheques. Just a few words but the consequences are horrific. Why did they do this? In 31 years of practice no client account cheque of mine has ever been dishonoured. At the time that the cheque was not met I had in the region of one million pounds in the client account. So why was the bank behaving in this very curious fashion? We live in strange times but surely some things remain sacred?

The promised land

The House of Lords' ruling in Thorner provides a welcome return to orthodoxy in relation to proprietary estoppel, says Mark Pawlowski

The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007

Awareness of the damage that forced marriage can cause to individuals has grown in recent years, and now the Forced Marriages Act recognises for the first time the abuse of power by those enforcing their wishes against family members. Cris McCurley reports

Being unreasonable

Why are the mentally ill so very unreasonable?

Update: family (children)

Lord Laming's latest report on England's child protection system highlights ongoing deficiencies in the system and advocates, among other recommendations, the abolition of court fees. Noel Arnold reviews the findings

Making the most of mediation

Gary Webber shares his tips on how, as representative of a party at a mediation, you can help the mediator help the client

The recovery position

The current climate is likely to create more work for litigators but lawyers themselves could increasingly end up as defendants in professional negligence claims brought by lenders, says Georgina Squire

Update: local government

Justin Bates discusses the strained relations between local authorities and government over the move towards unitary authorities, and disputes between authorities over provision of services to asylum seekers