Legal News

FSA insider dealing cases proceed

Posted on September 23, 2008
The prosecutions of a former Cazenove partner and a father and son accused of insider dealing by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will proceed to trial after an attempt to have the cases dismissed failed.

Jack Straw takes lawyers to task for their fees

Posted on September 23, 2008
Jack Straw has opened a ?new front for reform? - as the Labour Party press release put it - with a blistering attack on the fees charged by lawyers under ?no win, no fee? cases.

Jean Charles de Menezes inquest jurors visit Stockwell tube station

Posted on September 23, 2008
There is little to distinguish platform 2 at Stockwell Tube station from any other stop on the London Underground network.

In court today

Posted on September 22, 2008
Consett Magistrates? Court

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

FSA to turn focus on City's bonus billions

Posted on September 22, 2008
The billions of pounds paid out in bonuses to City workers each year could come increasingly with strings attached if the Financial Services Authority (FSA) gets its way.

Jean Charles de Menezes jury told to forget what they've heard, seen or read

Posted on September 22, 2008
The policemen who shot Jean Charles de Menezes believed him to be a suicide bomber and ?an instant killing was the only option open to them?, an inquest heard yesterday.

Shipyard workers must be compensated for asbestos exposure

Posted on September 21, 2008
Like all good stories this one starts on a bright, sunny, ordinary day. The phone rang and I found our GP was on the other end telling me that my husband?s latest routine blood tests indicated there was ?something going on in his chest?. As a former medic I knew this was doctor-speak, and, a little frustrated by the euphemism, I said, ?Please tell me what you mean,? or words to that effect...

Ex-wife wins new home and £50,000 a year maintenance - for her horses

Posted on September 21, 2008
Forget bitter divorce battles with wives seeking multimillion-pound maintenance awards for themselves and their progeny ? the latest arena for dispute could be a couple?s animals after a landmark ruling in which a wife has been awarded £50,000 a year in maintenance, just for the upkeep of her three horses.

In court today

Posted on September 21, 2008
Oval Cricket Ground, South London

Lehman Brothers' $8bn US transfer raises hackles$

Posted on September 21, 2008
A fresh spotlight has been thrown on the culture of American investment banks after the administrator for Lehman Brothers' European business asked for the return of $8 billion ($£4.4 billion) transferred from Europe to New York in the days before the bank's collapse.

Tax crackdown on offshore accounts

Posted on September 20, 2008
UP to 80,000 wealthy investors suspected of evading tax by using offshore bank accounts are facing investigation over the next two years, it can be revealed.

Another get-rich-quick scheme where criminals could quickly muscle in

Posted on September 19, 2008
Whenever there is a new money-making venture it does not take too long before the criminal fraternity moves in. It is particularly pertinent in difficult economic times when even more people will be drawn into get-rich-quick schemes.

Property market is too big a gamble for owners who are selling homes by lottery

Posted on September 19, 2008
Desperate homeowners seeking to move house are resorting to a novel way of bucking the becalmed property market: sale by prize draw.

The Times/Herbert Smith winners

Posted on September 18, 2008
First place: Hannah Klein has just graduated with first class honours from Bristol University, reading politics and French. She spent the year abroad component of her degree working as a UN Monitor for the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva...

A disgusting feast of filth?

Posted on September 18, 2008
The theatre is a watchword for unfettered artistic licence. Or is it? Dramatists and producers still engage in battles with state censors ? who can still determine what is fitting for public consumption. The official role of state censor, given to the Lord Chamberlain under the Licensing Act 1737, may well be dead ? but censorship is alive and well in other guises.

At the cutting edge of advocacy

Posted on September 18, 2008
Hannah Klein, a politics and French graduate from Bristol University, was the clear winner this week in the inaugural The Times/Herbert Smith Student Advocacy Competition with her compelling discussion of the proposition Diversity: a band wagon or real issue? Her advocacy style and strong arguments brought acclaim from the judging panel (Mrs Justice Rafferty, who presented the prizes, Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, Nigel Savage, chief executive of the College of Law, Frances Gibb, The Times, and Ian Gatt, QC, Herbert Smith).

'I do not remove a child unless it is the right thing to do'

Posted on September 18, 2008
The Afro-Caribbean father cut a lonely figure in his open-necked shirt as he faced the judge in the echoing court. He had not seen his children for two years. There were no lawyers and the mother could not attend.

Welcome to the world's newest bar association

Posted on September 18, 2008
Efforts to move a hydro-electric power turbine across 100 miles of hostile territory in Afghanistan earlier this month proved to be one of the most challenging and successful British military operations since the Army moved into Helmand province.

In the City: goodbye to authority without leadership?

Posted on September 18, 2008
Chins up

Italian Minister of Justice will not lay charges over Pope insult

Posted on September 18, 2008
Angelino Alfano, the Italian Minister of Justice, yesterday Thursday said he had refused a request by the public prosecutor in Rome for permission to charge the comedienne and satirist Sabina Guzzanti with insulting Pope Benedict XVI.

Falconer: Lehman collapse to trigger wave of 'mega disputes'

Posted on September 18, 2008
The collapse of Lehman Brothers in an already struggling world economy will trigger an explosion of ?mega litigation? according to the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton.

Ban on speculators who could break the banks

Posted on September 18, 2008
Comment: Gerard Baker | Comment: Leading article | Comment: Camilla Cavendish | The speculators who made millions

The Water Cooler

Posted on September 17, 2008
* Never one to miss an opening, Anthony Gold, the senior partner of Herbert Smith, took full advantage of the inaugural awards at his firm?s City offices this week for the first Times/Herbert Smith Student Advocacy Competition. It was a chance, he said, to put advocacy by solicitors on the map ? and he urged winning contestants to consider forging a career in the solicitors? branch of the profession, rather than the Bar...

OJ Simpson returns to court to fight for life as a free man

Posted on September 16, 2008
Thirteen years after he was acquitted of murder O. J. Simpson was back in court yesterday defending himself against a possible life sentence.

Slaughter and May to open Beijing office

Posted on September 16, 2008
Slaughter and May is opening an office in China in a rare move for the City law firm that has traditionally eschewed overseas expansion in favour of referring work to local partner firms.

Councils lose VAT ruling on carparks

Posted on September 16, 2008
Local councils suffered a setback today when they lost a long-running legal battle over whether they should have to pay VAT on their takings from off-street car parks.

'To keep a prisoner on death row, waiting to kill him for 32 years is undoubtedly torture'

Posted on September 15, 2008
The longest-serving prisoner on death row in the United States has won a reprieve — thanks in part to eleventh-hour interventions over the weekend by UK lawyers, campaigners and legal professional bodies.

Law firms line up for Lehman advisory work

Posted on September 15, 2008
A clutch of law firms have been drafted in to advise on the insolvency of Lehman Brothers, which this morning became the world's largest ever corporate collapse.

British lawyers fight to halt ‘obscene’ US execution of Jack Alderman

Posted on September 14, 2008
British lawyers will make an eleventh-hour attempt to save America’s longest-serving death-row prisoner from execution this week.

City big guns turn on planned bank rescue laws

Posted on September 14, 2008
The Government will come under pressure today to rewrite its controversial plans for dealing with ailing British banks as some of the City's most powerful fund managers claim that the new rules would ride roughshod over their rights.

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.