Latest Legal News

Articles

24 Jun 2008

Update: professional negligence

Spike Charlwood reviews cases on the test of dishonesty in civil proceedings, loss of a chance claims, the first case on limitation after Sephton, and claims against barristers

24 Jun 2008

Civil litigation brief

This month Gordon Exall looks at guidance to litigants when the court is asked to exercise its discretion to grant relief from sanctions imposed under the CPR

24 Jun 2008

Charity begins at the new Tribunal

Alison McKenna, first president of the new Charity Tribunal, talks to Jean-Yves Gilg about her priorities ahead of the new tribunals service roll-out

17 Jun 2008

Knife through the stereotypes

ARound about the time I was still doing juvenile court crime – like delinquency, a practice one hopes to grow out of – the fashion was to blame all society's ills on single mothers. As far as the tabloids and government policy ( often indistinguishable, then as now) was concerned, their general fecklessness , indolence and irresponsibility was to blame for everything. Specifically, their pig headed refusal to have truck with the absent heroes who had fathered their children was the root cause of 'Britain's Breakdown'. It was always a surprise to go to court and meet the reality – worried, hard working, committed women trying to keep their families together against the odds. Not all of course – the odorously pissed mama, a stranger to education, employment or indeed soap, who swigged cans of loopy juice while letting rip to her strongly held views about immigration and shouting obscenities at her 11-year-old wasn't a particularly great advert for motherhood, or indeed our species. Her mantra was that Britain was no longer a place for the decent white working class, like her. After an afternoon of this I did mutter 'Well, one out of three ain't bad' but by then she was too drunk to hear it. But I remember her as a glorious exception to the norm – the majority were wilfully misrepresented.

17 Jun 2008

Update: licensing

Roy Light reviews the latest practice and recent cases under the Licensing Act 2003

17 Jun 2008

Joined by the HIP

Imran Khan explains how one firm of solicitors took the introduction of Home Information Packs as a commercial opportunity by setting up its own HIP company

17 Jun 2008

Interest: are you getting enough?

Claims for interest on late payment are straightforward and judges will not look favourably on parties who do not play by the rules, says District Judge Paul Mildred

17 Jun 2008

An active regulator

The SRA's tough new approach to regulation is too intrusive, says David Mayhew