“It is hoped that the new mediation stage will reduce legal aid costs by up to £100 million, while fewer expert witnesses would be required to testify before the courts. … Judges would also be able to advise parents early into legal proceedings what the likely outcome would be, in an effort to force through an agreement and avoid long and expensive cases. ” [Telegraph]
Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’
Timeless mysteries of rights-assertion: images of Stonehenge
“English Heritage claims it owns every single image of Stonehenge, ever” [Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, TechDirt]
October 14 roundup
- Gulf spill fund flooded with dubious claims [Fred Smith, CEI]
- If these cases go forward, it will make it economically unfeasible for anyone to make vaccines in this country” [NYT quoting Beck on Bruesewitz v. Wyeth preemption case now before SCOTUS]
- Barney Frank’s evolving views on Fannie/Freddie oversight [Mankiw, Globe]
- $5.2 million legal bills to Michael Jackson estate [TMZ]
- Frederick, Maryland pizzeria owner asked to pay $200K for unsolicited faxes [Gazette; my WSJ take four years ago]
- UK: “Migration Watch” may sue critic [David Allen Green via Richard Wilson, more]
- Parody of cheesy law firm promotes TV series “Breaking Bad” [“Better Call Saul“, autoplays video/audio]
- N.J.: “Drowns while fleeing cops, family sues for $50M” [five years ago on Overlawyered]
U.K.: “School ‘no touch’ rules to be scrapped”
“‘No touch’ rules discouraging teachers from restraining and comforting children are to be scrapped, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said.” [BBC] And the incoming Cameron government is proceeding with a previously signaled broad effort to roll back excessive health and safety rules that discourage harmless goings-on in schools, workplaces and the community [BBC, earlier] On the other hand, the Conservatives intend to go forward with most of a package of new measures devised by the previous Labour government that would expand discrimination and harassment law in the direction of wide-open U.S.-style rights to sue [Telegraph, Daily Mail]
U.K.: “Council outlaws mother-in-law jokes”
At least for its employees: the London borough of Barnet admonishes staff that mother-in-law jokes, “as well as offensively sexist in their own right, can also be seen as offensive on the grounds that they disrespect elders or parents.” [Telegraph]
P.S. Notes SiouxsieLaw, in reference to this case: “In the US, we sue over mother-in-law jokes.”
UK: Not with my daughter you don’t!
British attorney Nick Freeman “is notorious for using legal loopholes to successfully defend celebrity clients accused of motoring offenses. But Mr. Loophole, as he is nicknamed, last week refused to use his expertise to get his daughter off a speeding charge…. ‘Sophie had to understand the consequences of breaking the law,’ [he said].” [Patrick Kingsley, Guardian]
UK: Student goes to court to appeal university grade
“A Belfast graduate has taken his university to court after they awarded him a 2:2 degree. … [Andrew] Croskery claimed if he had received better supervision [from Queen’s University] he would have obtained a 2:1, the High Court was told on Monday.” [BBC]
U.K.: Woman who made up rape story is jailed
“A woman who falsely claimed she had been raped has today been jailed for a year. Elizabeth Wilkinson’s allegation resulted in the arrest of an innocent father of two.” [Lancashire Telegraph]
“Tory blitz on compensation culture is revealed”
“Health and safety regulations which burden Britain and lead to good samaritans facing prosecution are to be swept away in a blitz on ‘compensation culture'”. Among the measures are rollbacks of liability for volunteers, emergency service responders and school recreation. “A coalition source said: ‘What we are determined to see is a great extension of personal freedom, at the same times as a rolling back both of the state and the power of the courts.'” [Telegraph]
Can a 7-year-old cross the road unaided?
Authorities in the Lincolnshire village of Glentham, U.K., are threatening action based on “child protection” if a couple continue to let their daughter walk 40 yards to her school bus stop. The couple say the road isn’t particularly busy and that Isabelle is good about looking both ways before crossing. [Daily Mail]