Legal News

M&S manager Tony Goode sacked after leaking e-mail

Posted on May 11, 2009
A former Marks & Spencer employee leaked an internal memo to The Times about plans to cut redundancy pay severely because he ?despaired? about the direction the retail giant was taking and feared that job losses were looming, an employment tribunal heard yesterday.

Failing Serious Organised Crime Agency to be overhauled

Posted on May 11, 2009
Crime Central blog: nice timing from Soca

Lawyers sound alert about rising Japanese fraud

Posted on May 10, 2009
Japan has become Asia's foremost hotbed of fraud, possibly concealing financial deceptions on the scale of the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme, senior lawyers have warned.

Queen?s bank ran £1bn tax dodge

Posted on May 09, 2009
THE Queen?s banker, Coutts, has been caught operating an unlawful £1 billion tax avoidance scheme for some of its wealthiest clients.

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Mother denied all access to her children

Posted on May 09, 2009
A COURT has denied the former wife of a rich City financier all access to their three children after she was found to be turning them against him.

The making and breaking of Mr £20m, Raj Gill

Posted on May 09, 2009
When Priyanka Gill got an e-mail from her new fiancé telling her tha t he?d made £900,000 in a day, she thought he?d typed in a few extra noughts by mistake. The daughter of a landowner in Punjab, she had been brought up to believe wealth was built through the steady accumulation of assets - like her father?s orchards...

Lord Justice Jackson raises concern about rising legal costs

Posted on May 08, 2009
Going to law has become so expensive that ordinary people or small companies who lose a case face financial ruin, a landmark report published today concludes.

Weird Cases: noisy neighbour

Posted on May 08, 2009
How noisy can sex get before it is illegally loud? A jury in a forthcoming case in Newcastle Crown Court will soon have to decide this challenging question.

Taxman could lose 'billions' after landmark VAT ruling

Posted on May 08, 2009
The taxman is facing more than £1 billion in legal claims after a judge today paved the way for companies to receive higher rates of interest when claiming back overpaid VAT.

Buncefield criminal case moved to Crown Court

Posted on May 08, 2009
A criminal prosecution against five companies for their role in the explosion at the Buncefield oil terminal was transferred to a higher court today.

Would Marshall Hall?s performance cut much ice in court now?

Posted on May 07, 2009
Scarcely is the latest intake of Queen?s Counsel into their new silk robes when a new exhibition, The Sound and the Fury: The Power of Public Speaking, has opened at the British Library.

Credit-crunch victims turn to no-win, no-fee for help

Posted on May 07, 2009
Mention the name Carter-Ruck and media law springs to mind. The firm that has launched a thousand libel writs has long held an enviable ? among other claimant firms, at least ? reputation as the bête noire of publishers and editors. Carter-Ruck has also drawn criticism as being too ready to use the no-win, no-fee regime ? introduced in defamation claims by Lord Woolf in 2000 ? to act for people who could otherwise easily afford their slice of access to justice.

Teacher Matthew Wren wins battle to have DNA records deleted

Posted on May 07, 2009
A teacher has won a High Court battle to have his DNA destroyed after he was unlawfully arrested by police when accused of assault by a pupil.

Mayfair nightclub Annabel?s fined over tips system

Posted on May 07, 2009
A prestigious Mayfair nightclub lost a court battle with the taxman yesterday over a tips system that benefited customers and staff.

Paedophile gang preyed on children of close friends

Posted on May 07, 2009
A paedophile gang that carried out a series of attacks on children and infants, including a three-month-old baby, were found guilty yesterday at the High Court in Edinburgh in a groundbreaking legal case.

Betfair takes Netherlands to court over blocked access

Posted on May 07, 2009
One of Britain?s biggest betting companies is taking the Dutch Government to court over its attempt to block Dutch banks from processing the payment of bets made over the internet.

Honours system is flawed ? but it?s better than any alternative

Posted on May 07, 2009
Quick, someone call a structural engineer: the honours system is, and has been for some time, a crumbling edifice, with bits of masonry constantly falling off and the whole thing looking as if it is in danger of collapse. The question is, do we try to shore it up ? or knock down the whole thing and start all over again?

Queen?s Trinity Cross honour deemed unlawful by Privy Council

Posted on May 07, 2009
An honour established by the Queen has been declared unlawful after Muslims and Hindus complained that its Christian name and cross insignia were offensive.

EU widens inquiry into Northern Rock revamp

Posted on May 07, 2009
The scope of the legal inquiry into government plans for Northern Rock was widened yesterday when the European Commission demanded more information about the splitting of the lender into ?good? and ?bad? banks.

The murky, mysterious world of the Queen?s Privy Council

Posted on May 07, 2009
The Privy Council is one of the most obscure and murky corners of the British constitution ? yet its powers are far from antiquated or redundant.

Shock jock Michael Savage and others on UK ban list had not applied for entry

Posted on May 06, 2009
A majority of the people who were named and shamed by the Home Office as being banned from entering the country have never sought to travel to Britain, it emerged today.

Clifford Chance's Signy to join Simpson Thacher

Posted on May 06, 2009
Adam Signy, a highly-regarded corporate partner at Clifford Chance has quit the City firm to join the London office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the US law firm.

Supreme Court: new building, new look, new way of working?

Posted on May 06, 2009
The scaffolding is down and the stonework cleaned up. Passers-by can now get their first glimpse of the supreme court. And the verdict on the building from the man who will lead the judges through its doors this October is positive.

Bernard Madoff: what the secretary saw

Posted on May 06, 2009
Bernard Madoff was a sexist egomaniac who frequented massage parlours and insulted his staff, according to Eleanor Squillari, secretary to the convicted Ponzi swindler for more than 20 years.

MF Global faces £20m bill for defrauding client

Posted on May 06, 2009
MF Global, the brokerage spun off from Man Group, the London-listed hedge fund, has been ordered to pay as much as £20 million in compensation to a day trader who says he was deceived about the value of his investments.

Q & A: how do DNA profiles work?

Posted on May 06, 2009
What is this number?

Wrongly accused people could have DNA on database for 12 years

Posted on May 06, 2009
The DNA profiles of people released without charge or found not guilty by a court could be stored for up to 12 years on a national police database.

Lawyer of the week: Will Pearce

Posted on May 06, 2009
Will Pearce, a partner at Herbert Smith, is leading a team advising JJB Sports on its restructuring, including new financing arrangements and a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). The CVA is the first of its kind for a leading UK-listed company.

What will the Jackson report say?

Posted on May 06, 2009
All we know for sure is that it is a mammoth 1,000 pages long. But the contents of Lord Justice Jackson?s initial report on reforming civil litigation costs have been a well-guarded secret before publication tomorrow.

The European rights courts has its uses - to keep us on our toes

Posted on May 06, 2009
In 1950 Lord Jowitt, the Lord Chancellor, advised Cabinet colleagues against the ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights, ?some half-baked scheme to be administered by some unknown court?.

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