No duty owed by Scottish lenders to wives of borrowers Mumford v Bank of Scotland: Smith v the same (1995). First Division Inner House Court of Session (Lord Hope, Lord Weir and Lord Abernethy) 2/6/95. Summary: No duty owed by bank in Scotland to require wife to seek independent advice before entering into a mortgage […]
The introduction of new technology in UK entry ports will allow immigration officials to check for illegal immigrants in just 15 seconds. A computer which can read passports and process them against a central data bank of 400,000 suspects has been on trial at Heathrow, Gatwick and Dover for 12 months. Now the Home Office […]
In September 1994, our chambers’ computer system, originally chosen in 1990, was beginning to show its age. An unfriendly character-based front-end system seemed out of place when our 25 members were enthusing about Windows technology and Microsoft Word for their own word processing. Our requirement was for a fast, Windows database which both barristers and […]
Tanya Galbraith is a solicitor at Charles Russell, London. There has been considerable press coverage about international child abduction cases. Most of the comment has been about it being unfair that the parents have to return to the country they have fled from to fight a long and expensive custody battle. But it is the […]
US FIRM Mayer, Brown & Platt partner Peter Gaines has quit his post in the firm’s London office to join the UK banking team of rival Chicago practice Baker & McKenzie. Gaines, who worked for Mayer Brown for 20 years – including a five-year stint in London – last week started leading Baker & MacKenzie’s […]
Management consultants often recommend that businesses should diversify to survive, and this may be relevant advice for barristers in their working practices. Although parts of the Bar thrive on their particular specialisms, there are certain chambers which have diversified geographically and set up annexes or associated chambers elsewhere in the country. Individual barristers can also […]
Labour will legislate to force controversial changes to lawyers’ practices if the Law Society attempts to derail them. That was the warning legal affairs spokesman Paul Boateng MP delivered to Law Society president Martin Mears and his ‘profession first’ programme at last week’s Brighton conference. “There is no vested interest that Labour is not prepared […]
A New Addington man who lost most of his right hand in an accident at work last year has launched an action against his former employer, EE Brown of Croydon. The accident, in which Gerald Taylor, 33, trapped his right hand in the jaws of a machine used for cellophane wrapping bread rolls, happened on […]
Private corporations tendering for the contract to run the UK’s court computer systems could end up running most of the systems. The process is already under way for a planned handover around May next year but despite a statutory requirement the Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD) has not consulted the judiciary in full on its plans. […]
Leading Law Society figures have accused Martin Mears of hijacking the annual solicitors conference to pedal his own political agenda. The charge follows Mears’ tirade against the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality in his key note address to the conference last Friday. His suggestion that both bodies may have outlived their […]
John Irving is an associate director of BDO Stoy Hayward Management Consultants Chambers are waking up to idea of networking PCs to share database information Whenever I walk through one of the Inns of Court, a glance through the windows indicates that most of the offices, on the ground floor at least, are well equipped […]
High Court judges in New Zealand could be sent back to school after a report in the country recommended a judicial studies institute be established to educate judges and other court staff. The report, prepared by a committee of senior judges, said that at present newly-appointed High Court judges were forced to learn on the […]