CHILDREN AND COSTS

At long last the Court of Appeal is to hear this vexed issue on January 23 and 24 .

THE PI AWARDS

After a vicious week of work it was a great relief to attend the awards on Thursday evening .

Stuart McKechnie won the prestigious barrister of the year award , open to all in England and Wales (QCs included).It was a joy to see one so talented and modest succeed . His amazing wife , Lou, was there to see his moment of glory .
Andrew Twambley was a superb chairman and it was lovely to see legends like Geraldine,Hilary and Nick Bevan appear.
There are always surreal moments and this year it was the goody bag which consisted of mints and a screen scraper. What could have been wilder ? A kipper yoghourt and map of Scunthorpe was the best I could conjure up.

THE SUPREME COURT

Well i spent yesterday morning there to listen to the opening of the nuclear limitation appeal. The building and staff are lovely apart from one security lady with a metal detector wand who was like Sooty on steroids, waving it frantically .
Lord Phillips was the boss and one could tell. Elegant and with a MacBook whilst the remaining 6 scribbled furiously.
It ends on thursday.
i spent a lively 45 minutes arguing referral fees for a Lexis broadcast in the afternoon .

MY DAY IN COURT

I have 2 this week.
On monday morning i am in the Supreme Court to see the opening of the nuclear test veterans appeal and then i am on the 4pm Eurostar to Paris on the !7th to go visit the European Court on friday.

SWALLOW SWALLOW AND SWALLOW

If it is your birthday this week and you have a Sainsburys nearby (or even if it isnt and you don't ) go and buy the Laurent Perrier champagne which they are selling for £17-49 , less than trade price.It is lovely and Prince Charles and Kerry Underwood sip it together at Highgrove (really ).

THE CURSE OF P.I.

Mr Quinn went bankrupt yesterday.
The respected insurer, Admiral , has seen its share price halved as a result of concerns over claims and the end of referrral fees.If you are interested in referral fees then do watch the free New Law Journal webcast on monday at 2pm.

EPIQ

The free Barbican event yesterday was a sell out and it was so kind of His Honour Michael Cook to appear as guest of honour.Electronic disclosure is to form an integral part of the efficiency drive that Jackson will require if firms are to thrive .

VICARIOUS LIABILITY

The decision of Macduff J in the child abuse case of JGE ,handed down yesterday, is exemplary.He held that a catholic diocese was answerable in law for the alleged activities of a priest even though the relationship between them was not that of employer- employee. Spot on. The decision is already on the British and Irish legal website.

THE LEONARDO SHOW

All newspapers are raving over the Da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery.As an acknowledged authority on art might I point out that his second most famous work is not in the show ? The absence of the fallen madonna with the big boobies has left me mystified.

REFERRAL FEES - THE FREE WEBCAST

On monday november 14th at 2pm the New Law Journal is to present a live discussion featuruing David Greene , Andrew Twambley Ph. D. and myself.See newlawjournal.co.uk

Phil King

Last night at Thompsons 90th birthday party i was reunited with my mentor, Phil King (see pic ) , the greatest litigator on earth. Ever.

HAVE ANOTHER GUESS!

Here is a hard one .Which Government department , making massive strides toward making the legal profession more efficent , has ,since March 2010 , lost 127 laptops/hard drives, 71 blackberrys and 293 other items of IT equipment? What a farce.

HAVE A GUESS!

Which Ministry took on a man with a conviction for credit card fraud and promptly gave him a credit card upon which , over 7 months , he  ran up a bill of £3,427 for personal spending?
You will not believe it but it was the Ministry of Justice.A one off .

STRESS AT WORK

The newspapers today report that the head of Lloyds Bank has stopped work due to stress. How ironic that he went off on National Stress Day.
Lloyds  has announced that it had secured him a place in a medical facility where he would have no contact with bank.Isnt that grand ? I wonder if the 45,000 people who have lost their jobs with the bank in the last 3 years were treated similarly?
 Last week i saw a great friend who is a solicitor running a healthy practice. Last year was dire because his bank (Lloyds ) reduced his overdraft by 75% at a stroke . Perhaps when he recovers the head of Lloyds will reflect that others will have suffered as he has done because of bank policy.What goes around ....

THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

It needs to appoint 2 people to join the Prison Service Pay Review body. Each one will be paid £6,000 a year for 20 days work.
If you were taking someone on for £6,000 would you take out a full quarter page ad (IN COLOUR ) in 'The Guardian ' (today at page 41) and hire recruitment consultants at Lord knows what expense to deal with their appointment ? And they say lawyers are wasteful.
I hope that i will have calmed down by the time i take my rollers out and head off to the birthday party of the year; happy 90th to Thompsons.

INTERIM PAYMENTS ARE NOT OFFERS TO SETTLE

I knew that ! Well the Appeal Court in ALI V STAGECOACH has just affirmed that this is so. Where a claimant recovered less than a prompt interim payment made on account by D the correct order was that there be no order as to costs.
Thanks to Ruth Graham (the Burnley bombshell who once appeared on page 3 in the Sun ) for sending me the transcript.

MESOTHELIOMA

The Court of Appeal has just handed down judgment in WILLIAMS V UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. It is a superb decision inthat it analyses the component parts of liability and also sets out a helpful summary of the key dates on knowledge.Essential reading for disease practitioners.