Legal News

Security boss escapes jail over Ugandan bribes

Posted on September 26, 2008
The boss of a UK security consultancy convicted of paying Ugandan officials tens of thousands of pounds in bribes was spared jail today.

Jean Charles de Menezes officer had two hours? sleep before shooting

Posted on September 26, 2008
One of Britain?s most senior anti-terrorist policemen told the inquest into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes yesterday about the personal strains experienced by officers during July 2005.

IVF watchdog lifts ban on Mohammed Taranissi to avoid challenge in High Court

Posted on September 26, 2008
Mohammed Taranissi, Britain?s most successful fertility doctor, has been cleared to continue running his London clinic by the IVF watchdog, after it agreed to rescind a disciplinary ban imposed last year.

Justice is done as trainee women advocates equal men for first time

Posted on September 25, 2008
It has been described as the ultimate old boys' club, an elite bastion of a very formal male establishment. But the Faculty of Advocates passes a significant milestone next week with the arrival, for the first time, of as many female trainees as male ones.

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Bar battles won, but no top triumphs

Posted on September 25, 2008
Women have already broken the glass ceiling of entry to the Bar in England and Wales and now make up the lion's share of new entrants to the profession. In 2006-07, 1,792 students graduated from the Bar Vocational Course, the one-year practical course that all would-be barristers must take before seeking a training place, or pupillage, in chambers...

Fathers? groups are wrong: most men are winning right to see children, study shows

Posted on September 25, 2008
The vast majority of disputes between parents over contact with children end with fathers having access, contrary to claims by campaign groups, new research shows.

In court today: Sentencing for murder of Mohammed Raja Shafiq

Posted on September 25, 2008
Manchester Crown Court

GE Money Home Lending fined for 'overcharging' on home loans

Posted on September 25, 2008
GE Money Home Lending short-changed hundreds of its mortgage customers for more than two years by failing to rectify systems failings.

£450m aid for councils struggling to find cash to settle 400,000 equal pay cases

Posted on September 25, 2008
Emergency funding of £450 million will be given to town halls struggling to meet the cost of equal pay settlements for tens of thousands of low-paid women, The Times has learnt.

Police chasing Jean Charles De Menezes 'had no picture' of wanted man

Posted on September 25, 2008
Police officers who tailed Jean Charles de Menezes suspecting that he was a suicide bomber did not have a picture of the man they were actually looking for, an inquest was told yesterday The block of flats where Mr de Menezes lived was staked out after police found evidence linking the address to Hussain Osman, one of the men who tried to set off bombs in London on July 21, 2005...

FBI investigates Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and Lehman Brothers

Posted on September 24, 2008
The FBI is investigating Lehman Brothers and three other contributors to America?s financial crisis to determine whether they put pressure on ratings agencies to award top ratings to securities they issued.

Retirement blow to campaigners, is relief to employers

Posted on September 24, 2008
The battle over the UK?s compulsory retirement age is not yet over, according to specialist employment lawyers today after a first-round ruling from the European Court of Justice.

Can America - legally - attack Iran?

Posted on September 24, 2008
Whether the United States will launch an attack on Iran?s nuclear facilities remains an open question ? at the very least until after the November election. There are recent press reports that the arrival of three new US flotillas in Middle Eastern waters represents an unprecedented build-up since the crisis over Iran?s potential nuclear programme began.

Lawyer of the Week: Mark Emery

Posted on September 24, 2008
Mark Emery, an associate at Bindmans LLP, acted for Halima Aziz, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyer who was awarded a record £600,000 after being wrongly accused of inciting a riot, expressing anti-American sentiments and associating herself with Osama bin Laden...

In the City: tips from the Serious Organised Crime Agency

Posted on September 24, 2008
Clean sheets

Lawyers? feeding frenzy after the crash

Posted on September 24, 2008
When times get desperate, the desperate turn to the lawyers. Only sometimes the lawyers are desperate, too.

Advocacy that even Carlos the Jackal found too unconventional

Posted on September 24, 2008
John Mortimer?s Rumpole of the Bailey tells his wife, Hilda, that he ?will accept any client, however repulsive?. She replies, unconvinced: ?That?s not a principle, that?s just a way of making money from the most terrible people.? What are the moral responsibilities of the advocate who represents terrible people because of sympathy with their conduct? That is the question posed by Barbet Schroeder?s documentary, Terror?s Advocate, about the French lawyer Jacques Vergès, released on DVD last month (Artificial Eye, £19...

A fly on the wall at the Bar - for the first time in 800 years

Posted on September 24, 2008
?I don?t care what you think. I don?t care what your opinion is. I don?t give a monkey?s. You?re the advocate.? Master John Leslie, who deals daily in the High Court with advocates making procedural submissions, was putting an aspiring barrister through her paces...

UBS and Terra Firma settle debt dispute

Posted on September 24, 2008
A lawsuit in which UBS sued Terra Firma Capital Partners, the private equity firm, over its right to sell on buyout loans has been postponed while the two sides agree a settlement.

RAB Capital sues over Lehman collapse

Posted on September 24, 2008
RAB Capital, the UK-listed hedge fund manager, has begun legal action to recover $50 million ($£27 million) of assets frozen when Lehman Brothers, prime broker to one of its funds, was put into administration last week.

FSA to get tough on short-sellers

Posted on September 24, 2008
The Financial Services Authority (FSA), the City regulator, is threatening to name and shame or fine short-sellers that fail to disclose their bets against the UK financial services sector in the wake of last week's ban, it emerged today.

Short-selling new rules are under review

Posted on September 24, 2008
Gordon Brown has said there will be new rules governing the practice of short-selling in four months' time, when the temporary ban imposed last week by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on short-selling financial stocks expires.

FBI investigates Fannie Mae and Lehman Brothers

Posted on September 24, 2008
The FBI is trying to pin down whether executives at four American financial institutions, believed to have triggered the $700 billion proposed bailout of Wall Street, lied to shareholders, it emerged yesterday.$

Financial Services Authority threatens heavy fines for short-sellers

Posted on September 24, 2008
The City's regulator has threatened to impose unlimited fines on investors that breach its new rules on betting against UK bank shares amid a flurry of late disclosures by hedge funds.

Jean Charles de Menezes had ?always found British police to be very polite?

Posted on September 24, 2008
Jean Charles de Menezes told a cousin after the July 21 bomb attempts in London that they should ?pray and hope not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?, an inquest was told yesterday.

Time to curb the ?asset strippers and robbers? who ruin the financial markets, say archbishops

Posted on September 24, 2008
Articles of Faith blog: Karl Marx 'right' to condemn capitalism, says Rowan

Setback in battle against compulsory retirement age

Posted on September 23, 2008
Hundreds of workers who want to work beyond the age of 65 were dealt a blow yesterday after campaigners lost an important round in their legal battle to banish Britain's compulsory retirement age.

Enduring appeal of life at the Bar

Posted on September 23, 2008
Taryn Lee can remember her first contact with a barrister. Her parents, who had a pub on the seafront in Cleethorpes, had a dispute over the premises, where they ran a cabaret nightclub.

EU setback for workers fighting retirement at 65

Posted on September 23, 2008
UK employees hoping to keep their jobs beyond the age of 65 suffered a setback today when an adviser to Europe?s top court said Britain?s mandatory retirement age was acceptable under EU law.

Top ten tips for Lehman Bankers

Posted on September 23, 2008
It might get saved - it might collapse.

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