LIBEL lawyers are poised for a boom in business as opportunities for defamation escalate with the trend towards high-tech communication along information “super highways”. The potential has been demonstrated by a series of actions brought over offending material transmitted by computer or email. Last week, Lester Aldridge of Bournemouth became the latest firm to act […]
THE POLICE Federation is to consider recruiting in-house lawyers following a forecast that legal bills will triple to more than £12 million by the turn of the century. Treasurer Barrie Biddulph has written a report for this month’s conference which outlines the soaring cost of representing its 126,000 members. The federation has no in-house team, […]
Many law students are now facing the harsh reality that there are simply not enough training contracts to go round. Having sent numerous applications into countless law firms since the second year of their degrees, they have now resigned themselves to taking a year off and trying again in 1996. Most would like us to […]
One of the country’s best-known racecourses has become council-owned after two teams of solicitors struck a deal thought to be worth more than £1 million. Doncaster Council in south Yorkshire has complete ownership of the town’s course following its purchase of the St Leger Grandstand from receivers for its previous owner, AF Budge. An in-house […]
An East Sussex jeweller who designed and made a £160,000 golden gun encrusted with diamonds is being sued by a company which invested money in the gun. Goldsmith Edward Evans made the unique Colt .45 pistol with gold and diamond fittings, and sold a one third share in it to jewellery consultants Grant Walker for […]
Elaine Aarons Press reports on the Court of Appeal’s decision in the case of ex-parte Seymour-Smith and Perez have greatly exaggerated its effect. The impression is that all employees dismissed in the past, who have been employed for less than two years at the time they were dismissed, have a right to claim retrospectively for […]
Roger Pearson The recent High Court action in which Birmingham secretary Debbie Banks sued pop group UB40 was a battle against the odds. And with the aid of Beasley & Johnson, of Kings Heath, Birmingham, she triumphed. Banks claimed she was responsible for co-authorship of one of the group’s chart-topping hits. The ruling by Mr […]
LAWYERS must change their approach to legal practice and compete for work with paralegals if they want to retain the bulk of their business, a new report says. Released by the ABA commission on non-lawyer practice, the report says paralegals have a “greater role to play” in providing legal services and lawyers must find better […]
Any review of the consequences of introducing a degree of commonality into the vocational training of barristers and solicitors needs to take into account all parts of vocational training. It also needs to be a review set in the context of both a changing market place and changing professions. Direct access to the Bar and […]
CLIFFORD Chance is set to mount a legal challenge against the Stock Exchange on behalf of its client Tradepoint, the new City share dealing system, because of the exchange’s apparent attempts to strangle its new rival at birth. The stand-off between the exchange and Tradepoint, due to launch on 21 September, is at a critical […]
Solicitors generally have a good understanding of endowment policies and a great many have such policies themselves. Therefore, recent bad publicity regarding newly issued endowments, together with rapidly increasing numbers of home owners who find themselves saddled with negative equity will not have passed unnoticed for many solicitors who may handle the associated conveyancing transactions […]