WINE!

You know you want it. Waitrose, for the first time since Xmas 2010, is running a buy 6 get 25% off promotion. Top buys include Sonoma Cutrer chardonnay which is already on sale so the deal means you get it for half the price it was last week. Their own label champagne is superb and if you want to push the boat out you can buy the stunning 2002 Moet vintage for about £30.
I am off to Venice so shall be quiet for a few days.

ASSANGE

As i indicated at the weekend Mr Assange has lost his appeal. The judgment published this morning was a 5-2 majority one.

IMMINENT DEVELOPMENTS

Om Tuesday and Wednesday this week the RSA repairs bill litigation is in the Commercial Court with an indication already that judgment will be reserved for 21 days . On Wednesday Mr Assange gets his bad news from the Supreme Court.

THE DISCOUNT RATE

A consultation paper of 188 pages is ready for publication.

EDDIE STOBART TAKES UP LAW

This crazy story has already reached Australia . I had a note from Liz Harris , the great costs expert.
What will frighten some advocates is not the bizarre entry of this entity into the market but rather the company insistence that chaps wear a decent shirt and tie. Hermes will make a killing.
Other companies are thinking laterally. In the United States FedEx , the parcel delivery company , has started Tech-Connect , a subsiduary that repairs i -pads , blackberries and the like. The company invented the handheld package tracking device and has now moved with the benefit of that knowledge into what is a $15 billion dollar market. Clever .See 'Fortune ' magazine may 21 at page 107.

DUBIOUS DEAFNESS CLAIMS

You might expect the most expensive newspaper in the country to produce a sensible story but the 'Financial Times' of saturday 19th may at page 4 produced a dire piece.It claimed that spurious deafness claims were the new whiplash con. And how were these despicable dodgy claimants being enticed into making claims for non-existent injury ? They were being offered hearing aids!
I must concede that these incentives work. i was not going to do anything about my breast implants but now that i have been offered £500 to spend on lingerie for myself at La Perla i will be litigating with the rest of them.
There was , buried in the FT piece , a serious point made by the highly regarded John Latter of Zurich. There is a big rise in claims and perhaps a sensible scheme , agreeed by all parties , might help.

BUDGETING -THE FIRST JUDGMENT

Look out this week for HENRY V NEWS GROUP INTERNATIONAL , a defamation case where some costs went well over the approved budget set 10 months before thev trial.What is a good reason for exceeding the budget ? The thoughts of the Senior Costs Judge will be appealed , i believe , whoever wins.

THE ACL CONFERENCE

I am just back from the Association of Costs Lawyers which was a staggering succcess.Judges, QCs and normal people too turned up in their hundreds and there wasn't a dull moment.Lord Neuberger MR gave a punchy talk and intimated that the hourly charging rate is doomed . Furthermore, if Jackson doesn't work the next step is to abolish costs between parties altogether.His warm up man was His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC who stunned the audience by conducting a costs management hearing before the masses. i heard so many pennies drop. Brilliant.
Michael Bacon , the Godfather of costs, was there to see his trainee win the award for highest marks in the exams (again ).
Dr Friston had the happy glow of a man who has just delivered the final text of his updated costs bible and Erica 'disco nap' Bedford explained to me her confusion over going on honeymoon to Vienna not Venice ; good job she is so clever to know that Vienetta is not a popular destination.
Iain Stark as chairman was hyper -active , ensuring that it all went to plan.
I had a long chat with the newly appointed Distict Judge McIlwaine , living proof that the MOJ can get something right. So thoughtful , so decent.