Lawyer news

• Oklahoma judge threatens state mental health official with jail for ignoring order

  05-02-2015 22:04
  
  Commissioner did not transfer man to mental health facilityWaiting list for center 100 people long but judge says: ‘That’s not my problem’An Oklahoma County judge threatened to jail the state’s mental health commissioner for ignoring a written order to commit an inmate to a state mental health facility.District judge Ray C Elliot admonished commissioner Terri White for not transferring 35-year-old Ricky Norman Edwards to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita per his 24 July order, The O
  
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• The Guardian view on the failed FGM prosecution: right idea, wrong case | Editorial

  05-02-2015 20:40
  
  Alison Saunders, the DPP, has all the right instincts but caution can be the better part of valourThere are three things to be said about the failed prosecution of Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena on a charge of committing female genital mutilation, a trial that concluded after the jury deliberated for a mere 30 minutes on Wednesday. First, it was a prosecution that should never have been pursued. By being so wide of the mark, it will probably damage the campaign against FGM and make a future prosecution
  
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• British man who ran US company sentenced to four years in prison for fraud

  05-02-2015 20:19
  
  Paul Dunham, president of electronics company Pace, and his wife, director of sales and marketing, must repay $1m as part of plea dealA British man who was extradited to the United States with his wife to face fraud charges was sentenced on Thursday to four years in federal prison.Paul Dunham, the former president of the electronics company Pace, and his wife acknowledged in guilty pleas in December that between 2002 and 2009 they stole $1m from the company by charging personal expenses to corpo
  
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• British man who ran US company sentenced to four years for fraud

  05-02-2015 20:17
  
  Paul Dunham was president of Pace USA and his wife Sandra Dunham was the director of sales and marketing. As part of plea agreement couple ordered to repay $1 millionA British man who was extradited to the United States with his wife to face fraud charges was sentenced Thursday to four years in federal prison.Paul Dunham, the former president of the electronics company Pace, and his wife acknowledged in guilty pleas in December that between 2002 and 2009 they stole $1m from the company by chargi
  
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• Dismissed Woolworths and Ethel Austin staff look set to lose compensation fight

  05-02-2015 18:45
  
  Hopes for redundancy payout fade after justice court’s advocate general backs UK governmentNearly 3,500 former employees of Woolworths and Ethel Austin look likely to to lose their battle for compensation after a ruling at the European court of justice.The majority of former staff at Woolworths and Ethel Austin won compensation from the government in 2012 after a tribunal found that the two companies had failed to consult properly before making mass redundancies after their collapse. Continue
  
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• US supreme court suspends execution of Texas murderer Lester Bower

  05-02-2015 18:23
  
  Court will decide on 20 February whether to hear his appealBower argues three decades on death row are cruel and unusual punishment The US supreme court on Thursday put on hold the execution by Texas of convicted murderer Lester Bower as it considers whether to hear his full appeal including the assertion that his three decades on death row amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Bower, 67, was sentenced to death for murdering four men in 1983 in an aircraft hangar near Sherman, Texas. Prosecut
  
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• Lower number of City deals – report

  05-02-2015 18:12 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  City Legal Index figures could indicate slowdown in overall UK economic growth in 2015.
  
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• Reversal of UK collective redundancy law likely - Financial Times

  05-02-2015 18:03
  Financial Times
  Reversal of UK collective redundancy law likely
  Financial Times
  The law on collective redundancies in the UK looks likely to revert to the more employer-friendly version that existed before 2013, prompting dismay from trade unions and relief from businesses. Nils Wahl, advocate-general of the European Court of ...
  
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• Legal aid should have been granted automatically to bereaved sister, court told

  05-02-2015 17:59
  
  Joanna Letts, who was initally denied access to representation at inquest into brother’s death, challenges government policy on legal aidA single mother should have been granted legal aid automatically to help her discover whether her brother’s death was due to hospital failures, a court has been told.Joanna Letts, 39, from Lambeth in south London, was initially denied access to representation by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) at the inquest into the death of Christopher Letts in August 2013.I h
  
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• Prosecutors shouldn't have immunity from their unethical – or unlawful – acts | Alexa Van Brunt

  05-02-2015 17:26
  
  Law enforcement officers only receive qualified immunity against legal liability for their actions on the job. But getting lawyers to amend the law isn’t easyIt’s a tough thing to keep prosecutors accountable to the public, but some people are trying very hard to do just that in the aftermath of Ferguson. One of the grand jurors who failed to indict former police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, for example, wants to make public what happened in the grand jury room. But g
  
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• Grayling kicks joint-enterprise review past election

  05-02-2015 15:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Lord chancellor says any review is a decision for the next parliament. 
  
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• Wonga escapes criminal action over letters scandal

  05-02-2015 14:50 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The company was ordered to pay £2.6m in compensation last summer to around 45,000 customers.
  
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• Mental capacity

  05-02-2015 12:56
  
  The defendant disputed the costs that related to the period when the claimant had been acting through a deputy appointed on her behalf.
  
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• Limitation of action

  05-02-2015 12:55
  
  In claims by many hundreds of Iraqi civilians against the defendant Ministry of Defence for damages for their allegedly unlawful detention and ill-treatment by British armed forces, the preliminary issue was whether the claims were barred by an applicable statute of limitations.
  
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• This FGM trial should never have happened | Lisa Avalos

  05-02-2015 11:12
  
  Female genital mutilation is abhorrent and must be confronted, but there is no quick fix – as the acquittal of a London doctor showsThe jury got it right – Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena was not guilty of performing FGM on an adult who had just given birth. In fact, as a physician who had never seen a case of FGM before, he certainly was no perpetrator, and he never should have been prosecuted. Although FGM is an abhorrent practice and Britain is right to take necessary measures to end it, this pros
  
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• FGM is better tackled by grassroots work than prosecution | Lisa Avalos

  05-02-2015 11:12
  
  The UK is right to target female genital mutilation, but botched legal proceedings against a London doctor did nothing to further that causeThe jury got it right – Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena was not guilty of performing FGM on an adult who had just given birth. In fact, as a physician who had never seen a case of FGM before, he certainly was no perpetrator, and he never should have been prosecuted. Although FGM is an abhorrent practice and Britain is right to take necessary measures to end it, thi
  
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• CPS defends decision to bring FGM case against doctor acquitted in 30 minutes

  05-02-2015 10:41
  
  Alison Saunders says there was enough evidence to try Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena but leading consultant says prosecution was ludicrousAlison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, has defended her decision to bring Britain’s first FGM case against a doctor who was cleared of committing the crime on a woman he stitched after the birth of a child.A leading hospital consultant has accused the prosecution of being ludicrous after a jury took less than 30 minutes to clear Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena
  
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• MP’s libel costs claim slashed by a third

  05-02-2015 10:19 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Judge approves costs budget of £370,000 for Conservative Tim Yeo against Times Newspapers.
  
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• Stowe Family Law welcomes new lawyer to Wilmslow office - Wilmslow.co.uk

  05-02-2015 09:24
  Stowe Family Law welcomes new lawyer to Wilmslow office
  Wilmslow.co.uk
  Stowe Family Law adds to its impressive line up of nationally recognised legal professionals with the appointment of Cheshire-based solicitor Helen Miller to its Wilmslow office. Helen is a family law specialist with over twelve years experience across ...
  
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