Solicitors and barristers up and down the country are coming together and threatening strike action over the Government’s proposed reforms to the legal aid system in England and Wales.
Approximately 80 lawyers in Devon and Cornwall have become the latest legal professionals to make a stand against the proposals that would see criminal lawyers having to compete for a contract in order to be allowed to take on legal aid cases.
The family drama involving France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, took a dramatic twist on Monday 17 October as a judge rules she is no longer fit to manage her financial affairs.
The judge in Paris ordered the 88-year-old heir to the L’Oréal fortune to be placed under the guardianship of her eldest grandchild, Jean-Victor Meyers, and her fortune to be placed under his and his brother Nicolas’s guardianship. (more…)
Kweku Adoboli, the UBS trader who is accused of losing the Swiss bank a record £1.5billion, is due before Southwark Crown Court in November 2011 to face charges of fraud and false accounting.
The 31-year-old ‘rogue’ trader was arrested on Thursday 15 September after the loss was discovered by UBS on Wednesday 14 September afternoon. (more…)
Nabila Nanfuka, from North London, was crushed to death in a “stampede” in Lava Ignite in Northampton early on Wednesday 19 October 2011.
Northampton Borough Council’s licensing committee has suspended the St Peter’s Street nightclub’s licence due to “serious disorder breaking out.” (more…)
The UK’s most senior judge has said that the UK’s courts are not bound by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, raising doubts on the court’s power.
Lord chief justice Lord Judge was giving his opinion to the Lords constitution committee when he said: “maybe Strasbourg shouldn’t win and doesn’t need to win.” (more…)
Six million tax payers will receive a refund of £400 from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) this weekend as it has made the decision to settle discrepancies from as far back as 2001.
However, 1.2million will be told that they owe £600 as HMRC has to find £620million. (more…)
Riot police entered the Dale Farm site by knocking through a rear fence just after 7am BST, clearing the way for bailiffs to clear the illegal part of the travellers’ site.
The police were able to enter the site after the residents’ last attempt to stop the eviction failed at the Court of Appeal on Monday 17 October. (more…)
Jonathan Djanogly, the justice minister, has been stripped of the responsibility to regulate claims management companies after it was revealed his two teenage children are minority shareholders in his brother-in-law’s firms of the same nature.
Djanogly announced in September that referral fees were to be banned for personal injury cases to stop “ambulance chasing”. However, his brother-in-law’s two companies deal with employment law claims, and are thus excluded from the referral fee ban. (more…)
An independent review conducted by a former Court of Appeal judge has found that the extradition treaty between the UK and the USA is fair and not biased against Britons.
Home Secretary Theresa May commissioned the review by Sir Scott Baker, who found that the treaty “does not operate in an unbalanced manner.” (more…)
Stephen Birrell, 28, from Glasgow has been jailed for eight months for posting sectarian comments on Facebook on a page called “Neil Lennon Should be Banned”.
He admitted posting the religiously prejudiced comments earlier this year. He was caught after a police crackdown on sectarian internet campaigns. (more…)
