Lawyer news

• European parliament must seize its chance to stop trade in conflict minerals

  18-05-2015 21:14
  
  On 20 May, the European parliament will vote on a proposed regulation to tackle the trade in conflict minerals. The trade in tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold (3TG) is fuelling conflict which has had devastating consequences for people in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Colombia.We are gravely concerned that the regulation proposed by the European Commission does not envision any real change. It makes it merely optional for importers to source these minerals resp
  
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• Unregistered surrogate-born children creating 'legal timebomb', judge warns

  18-05-2015 20:19
  
  Children born through surrogacy who lack a court’s parental order could become ‘stateless and parentless’ with birth mother remaining legal parent, says TheisThe failure by parents to register the majority of children born through surrogacy agreements has created “a ticking legal timebomb”, a high court judge has said.Addressing a conference on the rapid expansion in the number of surrogate births, Dame Lucy Theis said that without a court-sanctioned parental order and improved interna
  
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• Is the Egyptian state using sexual torture against women?

  18-05-2015 19:57
  
  The Arab spring promised freedom and justice to the 2011 protestors in Tahrir Square, but a damning new report claims that women are being brutalised by police, military and security forces at an unprecedented levelFour years ago, Cairo was a giant billboard for human rights; the words “freedom”, “justice” and “dignity” were graffitied across the city, with the high hopes of Tahrir Square writ large on city streets. What remains today is a patchwork of paint covering up any hint of p
  
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• The abuse of disabled people is a hidden crime we must face up to | Frances Ryan

  18-05-2015 17:36
  
  Almost 5,000 disabled adults have been sexually abused in England in the past two years. With cuts to services biting, more must be done to protect themAlmost 5,000 disabled adults – across 106 councils – have been sexually abused in England in the past two years, new figures show. As the NSPCC put it, this is the “visible peak” of what could be a bigger problem of sexual assault against disabled people. People with learning difficulties were the victims of almost two-thirds of reported
  
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• Insurers’ pre-med settlements create ‘environment of easy money’

  18-05-2015 17:05 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Groups respond to government’s call for evidence on how to cut insurance fraud.
  
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• Insurers’ pre-med offers ‘encourage opportunism’

  18-05-2015 17:05 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Groups respond to government’s call for evidence on how to cut insurance fraud.
  
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• Court takes bite out of Apple's $930m trademark verdict against Samsung

  18-05-2015 16:53
  
  Federal appeals court upholds patent infringement violations but asks lower court to reconsider $382m portion awarded for ‘trade dress’ dilutionA US appeals court on Monday reversed part of the $930m verdict that Apple won in 2012 against Samsung, saying the iPhone maker’s trademark-related appearance could not be protected. In a highly anticipated ruling stemming from the global smartphone wars, the US court of appeals for the federal circuit in Washington DC upheld the patent infringemen
  
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• UK Energy Minister Announces Law Against Wind Farms - Canada Free Press

  18-05-2015 16:33
  UK Energy Minister Announces Law Against Wind Farms
  Canada Free Press
  Local residents will be able to block all future onshore wind farms under new measures to be fast-tracked into law, the new energy secretary has announced. “It will mean no more onshore wind farm subsidies and no more onshore wind farms without local ...en meer »
  
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• Qatar's PR efforts on labour scandal backfire with BBC team's detention

  18-05-2015 16:23
  
  Expensive efforts to improve wealthy Gulf state’s image wasted as repressive instincts win out over modern communications strategyProfessional public relations advice doesn’t come cheap and it is a tribute to the Gulf state of Qatar that it has invested in one of the best providers in the business, London-based Portland Communications, which began working for the Doha government a year ago for what is widely rumoured to be an eye-watering amount of money.In per capita terms Qatar is the weal
  
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• Thomas Cook donates payout for Corfu hotel deaths to charity

  18-05-2015 16:18
  
  Firm denies it received £3.5m from Corfu hotel in compensation for children’s carbon monoxide poisoning and says it has given full sum of £1.5m to UnicefThomas Cook says it has donated to charity £1.5m of the compensation it received from a hotel in Corfu where two young holidaymakers died from carbon monoxide poisoning.Bobby and Christi Shepherd, aged six and seven, died at the Louis Corcyra Beach hotel in 2006 when they were overcome by fumes from a faulty boiler. On Sunday, Thomas C
  
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• Lawyer: Doctor who gave wrong diagnoses has brain damage - Yahoo News UK

  18-05-2015 16:00
  
  Lawyer: Doctor who gave wrong diagnoses has brain damage
  Yahoo News UK
  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The lawyer for a Dutch neurologist convicted of deliberately giving inaccurate diagnoses of illnesses including Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis to several patients says his client has brain damage that could ...en meer »
  
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• Drug trials firm to challenge plans for greater transparency over results

  18-05-2015 14:29
  
  A judicial review will examine Health Research Authority plans for firms to publish all results, even when a drug is not shown to be beneficial
  The long-fought battle for greater transparency in human drug trials is facing a major setback following a legal challenge against full disclosure from within the pharmaceutical industry.Related: Drug companies accused of holding back complete information on clinical trialsContinue reading...
  
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• Judgment prompts review of thousands of housing cases

  18-05-2015 13:59 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Supreme Court widens scope of vulnerable applicants who are considered homeless.
  
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• The Human Rights Act spells peril for Cameron | Matthew d’Ancona

  18-05-2015 08:00
  
  The risk of a rebellion by the Runnymede Tories exposes the insecurity of the party’s slim majorityMeet the “Runnymede Tories”. The most prominent of their number, David Davis, likes the label, so it might just stick: shorthand for those Conservatives compelled by a strong belief in civil liberties and the tradition of ancestral freedoms, enshrined in Magna Carta on the meadowed banks of the Thames eight centuries ago.As an animating force, this conviction is more than the heritage-loving
  
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• UK government quietly rewrote law to allow its spies to hack - ZDNet

  18-05-2015 07:55
  
  ZDNet
  UK government quietly rewrote law to allow its spies to hack
  ZDNet
  crime.jpg The bill went into force earlier this year, amending computer misuse laws (Image: Wikimedia Commons). The UK government "quietly" amended a law exempting intelligence agencies from prosecution for hacking computers, phones, and networks.
  UK Government Quietly Amends Law Allowing UK Intelligence Agencies To ...Techaeris
  UK Gov't Quietly Changing Cybersecurity Law Undemocratic - Rights GroupSputnik In
  
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• NGO exposes contradictions at the heart of Putin's foreign agent law

  18-05-2015 06:00
  
  Accusing an anti-torture group of trying to change state policy tangled Russia in a legal catch-22. After all, is torture a state policy? Elena Milashina reportsThe human rights group Committee Against Torture has been declared a “foreign agent” by a Russian judge, who accused the group of trying to change state policy. It’s become a dreaded label for the NGO sector in Russia since Vladimir Putin introduced a law clamping down on organisations who receive funding from abroad. Related: Hara
  
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• How one NGO exposed contradictions at the heart of Putin's foreign agent law

  18-05-2015 06:00
  
  Accusing an anti-torture group of trying to change state policy tangled Russia in a legal catch-22. After all, is torture a state policy? Elena Milashina reportsThe human rights group Committee Against Torture has been declared a “foreign agent” by a Russian judge, who accused the group of trying to change state policy. It’s become a dreaded label for the NGO sector in Russia since Vladimir Putin introduced a law clamping down on organisations who receive funding from abroad. Related: Hara
  
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• Solicitor owed £40k in fees accuses SRA

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Andrew Williams, a director of Essex firm Lillywhite Williams, was wrongly intervened into last October without notice.
  
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• Shake on deal, then go to legal – survey

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Only a third of in-house legal teams cite the application of legal or technical expertise as adding the most value to divestments.
  
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• SDT: Rodney William Noon

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The SDT ordered that the respondent should be suspended from practice as a solicitor for three months to commence on 7 April 2015.
  
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• SDT: Nigel Guy de Laval Harvie

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The SDT ordered that the respondent should pay a fine of £305,000 within 12 months of the date of the judgment.
  
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• SDT: Mark Stanley Agombar

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The SDT ordered that the respondent should pay a fine of £15,000.
  
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• SDT: Malcolm Ronald Hannaford

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The SDT ordered that the respondent should be struck off the roll.
  
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• SDT elects new vice-president

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Hartlepool criminal lawyer Alison Banks has been elected solicitor member vice-president of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
  
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• Olswang announces new CEO

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Paul Stevens is new chief executive.
  
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• New rules herald US-style class actions

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  The Consumer Rights Act gives competition tribunal the power to hear opt-out collective action.
  
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• New justice team takes helm at the MoJ

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  All change at the Ministry of Justice since the general election.
  
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• Magna Carta: stitch in time

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Prison inmates contribute to a 13 metre-long embroidery forming part of the British Library’s Magna Carta exhibition.
  
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• Junior lawyers retain trainee code link

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Solicitors Regulation Authority has withdrawn as signatory from voluntary code of good practice in the recruitment of trainee solicitors.
  
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• How to: work in China

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  While China offers stimulating opportunities for UK lawyers, its language and culture present formidable challenges.
  
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• Gateley bullish ahead of £130m float

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Chief executive: ‘There is no difficulty pitching a business which has been profitable and increased revenue for the past 10 years.’
  
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• Contract chaos fear as France rewrites civil law

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Reform of the 1804 ‘Code civil’ was announced by justice minister Christiane Taubira pictured in February this year.
  
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• Civil procedure: costs recoverability

  18-05-2015 01:01 via lawgazette.co.uk
  
  Do the provisions under the Civil Procedure Rules concerning costs recoverability in Aarhus Convention claims apply to public bodies?
  
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