Category: Legal

Daily Mirror claim important legal costs victory in Naomi Campbell case

The Daily Mirror claimed an important victory yesterday in a ruling from The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The decision is likely to hasten the calls for reform of the rules governing legal costs.

In 2004 The House of Lords found that The Daily Mirror had breached the supermodel’s privacy in an article about her drug addiction. However, the supermodel’s lawyers represented her on the basis of a so called “No Win-No Fee” Agreement. As a result the newspaper had to pay legal costs in the region of 1million, which included a success fee payable to Naomi Campbell’s lawyers. The ECHR has now ruled that the 1million the paper had to pay was too much and that the Daily Mirror’s freedom of expression was violated by the legal costs it had to pay when it lost the privacy case. The newspaper will now consider a claim for compensation with the government.

The government had already published a green paper recently on reforming legal costs. This follows the Review of legal costs by Lord Justice Jackson. One of the main proposals in the recent green paper is that “success fees” will no longer be recoverable from the losing side in litigation.

This ECHR decision is likely to add to the pressure on these reforms going through sooner rather than later. It will also be interesting to see whether any parties involved in litigation seek to use this ruling to attack legal costs bills by arguing they infringe other human rights, such as the right to a fair trial.

Trethowans is a leading regional legal practice in the South of England. Our strong team of lawyers excel in their respective fields led by Commercial Services, Personal Injury and Commercial Property. Our commercial services include; property, corporate and litigation work, intellectual property and e-business/IT, licensing, employment, business recovery and insurance litigation.

Legal costs basics Understanding the role of legal costs draftsman and their responsibilities

Legal costs consultants can help individuals caught up in legal proceedings deal effectively settle the financial implications of their proceedings. Contracting cost reduction consultants can give you the peace of mind that these experienced professionals will deal with your case and guide you towards reaching appropriate agreements.

Ideally, a legal costs draftsman, according to UK law, deals with everything revolving around the cost aspect of any Lawsuit. Usually, they deal with detailed assessment of costs that touches on three main areas: cost payable to the solicitor by the client, cost payable between parties involved in the case and publicly funded costs or legal aid.

Where litigation is involved, there is always the winning party and the losing one. The losing party is usually required to pay the inter parties or the winning party’s cost. In an event that the parties fail to agree on these costs, then the legal cost negotiators usually come in to facilitate the assessment of these costs until the court can determine the appropriate sum to be paid. This is often common when insurance claims are involved hence the need for legal insurance cost negotiators.

Lawyers who represent clients expect compensation for their services. These lawyers are usually expected to provide their clients with written information about the cost of their services so the clients can be aware of everything before signing any contracts. Again, a law costs draftsman can draw up the lawyer’s bill of costs, indicating the service charges along with any disbursements paid to third parties that are working alongside the lawyer on the case.

Sometimes, a lawyer may represent a publicly funded client. In such situations, costs consultants are tasked to prepare a detailed bill for the services provided by the lawyer for the court’s assessment. Once the bill is approved, the lawyer can then be paid from public funds.

Legal costs negotiators can make the process of assessing and computing accurate costs for group, family or civil action litigation quite easy and more convenient for clients who are often preoccupied with the events surrounding their legal proceedings. These legal experts provide professional guidance in a wide range of matters from retainers to complex disputes between clients and their solicitors.

Being involved in a legal proceeding can be very stressful. You need to contract the services of skilled costs consultants to help take care of the cost aspect of your case. With the help of a good law costs draftsman, you can expect to receive full support in the process of cost recovery and be charged only the correct considerable fees.

Robins Cost Consultants Ltd is a highly reputed and experienced Law Costs Consultancy based in Grays, Essex. Our legal cost consultants are highly qualified and experienced. We offer an inclusive bill drafting service. We have particular expertise in high value and complex legal costs litigation.

Legal Safeguards – Secrets Of Good India Property Management Revealed

Understanding your rights within the Indian legal system
When we think of letting our property, the first thing that occurs to us, What if the tenant does not vacate my property? In the past, this was a valid fear. The older law, The Bombay Rent of 1947 protected the tenant from eviction and rent increases. This led to landlords losing control of their property. Finally in 1999, the Maharashtra Rent Control act was passed this time to protect both parties involved.
Most people still cling to the old notions of the Indian legal system. Mr. Patel from Harrow who owns a flat in South Mumbai, put it best, I know that all tenants are not bad but what if I let my flat out to a tenant who then refuses to vacate. I have heard that filing a court case in India takes years. I dont want to spend 5 or 10 years paying legal fees and appearing in court. I want my flat available when I need it. It is true that a legal case can take longer than anyone would wish, but there are alternative solutions.
Good property management companies use leave and license agreements that cover the right of recovering possession under the relevant sections of both the Bombay Rent Act and the Maharashtra Rent Control Act. They also include clauses of arbitration in case of dispute. Ideally, Leave and License Agreements are valid for 11 month periods and are duly registered. Tenants details are also submitted to the local police station.
If the tenant does not vacate, good property management companies assist by issuing notices on behalf of the landlord. If that does not work, a police complaint needs to be filed. The police then assist in evicting the tenants. In majority of the cases, this is all that is necessary to reclaim the property. The last resort is to go to the small causes court armed with the registered agreement. Typically such cases are decided within 15 working days with all the right documentation.
The Indian real estate market and the Indian legal system are safe and fair for the majority of law abiding citizens. Good property management companies ensure that landlords are protected, making their property ownership a joyful experience.
Want to know more about the Indian real estate market? Unesta is a property services firm, with offices in London and Mumbai, offering letting, sales and property management services to NRIs owning property in India. www.unesta.com / +44 207 125 0425.

Using Software To Create Legal Forms

Legal matters are something that we can’t just ignore or take lightly. If we take wrong actions regarding these issues, we can find ourselves in trouble. Hence, it is advisable that whatever legal actions that needs to be taken; hiring an attorney is the best thing to do. But, there are times when we just can’t afford to hire the services of an attorney. After all, most attorney fees are just too high that it can literally rip off our pockets.

So what we can do is to know whether a legal matter is just a routine one. In which case, you can just rely on legal forms without having to hire an attorney. If you have some backgrounds with law, you can even make your own legal forms. But, without any knowledge of law procedures, this is not an option since you wouldn’t know the right legal words used in a legal form.

Don’t lose hope just yet. With the technology continuing to evolve, you still got another options. The internet. Yes, there are lots of legal forms available online for free downloads. Or if you want, you can create your own even without proper law education. How? By using legal forms software.

Legal forms software products are basically programs which can make your legal forms creation as easy as 1, 2 and 3. Most of these come with kits of forms that are easy to fill up and come with instructions. Hence, even if you’re not a lawyer, you can do this without trouble. Now, if you’re a lawyer, legal forms software can do a lot of good to you. Imagine, with this software, you can create legal forms for your clients in a matter of minutes. You can also accomplish filling up hundreds of forms with it.

Different Legal Forms Software Available

For your appropriate needs, there are different legal forms software products available. Here are some of them;

Legal Forms Software for Bankruptcy – this is what you need when you are in need of forms for filing bankruptcy

Legal Forms Software for Divorce – you don’t have to worry about getting forms and filing for the dissolution of your marriage

Software for HR and Employee Manual Legal Forms – if you own a business or works as HR Manager, this software is for you. You can use this to create handbooks for employees, contracts, arbitration, employee assessment forms, etc.

Software for Living Will Legal Forms – for family attorneys, this is a handy tool for you. If you are planning to create your own living will, this will be useful.

Software for Legal Forms used in Home Sales – with these, you can create your own forms whenever you need to sell your home so you can transfer to a new one.

Software for Creating Power of Attorney Legal Forms – this will help you save on high prices of hiring an attorney to create power of attorney forms for you.

Depending on what you need, these software products should be helpful. There are still lots of software available on the internet. However, you should be aware that you need to be careful when looking for software on the web. You know, there are some hoaxes out there and you want to avoid these. But, if you know what and where to look, you can even get the best deals on legal forms software on the internet. You can find discounted or even free software for legal forms creation.

Glossary Of Legal Terms And Definitions

Are you interested in learning more about legal terminology and other things related to the laws where you live? If you are you will need a legal glossary and you should make sure to choose a good one. The reasons why you need a legal glossary can vary, maybe you’re a law student and need to write an essay or maybe you’re just interested in learning more about the applicable law in the place where you live.

You can learn many legal definitions by looking in the black’s law dictionary and the good thing is that you will be able to do this without spending any money on an expensive book. Instead of buying a book with all legal definitions you can use a legal online dictionary. It’s just as good and it’s free, which makes it a popular alternative.

Being a student can be quite hard since there are many expenses that needs to be paid but few incomes. It’s always good to save some money and this is one of the opportunities to save money without missing important information.

If you’re interested in legal terminology you should start searching the net for good information about the laws where you live. You will find plenty of useful information and you will also find links to more than one legal glossary. It’s important to remember that you should always use the best one though since it will be difficult to work with a legal online dictionary in which some important words are missing.

If you’re a law student you’re probably aware of the fact that law studies are very interesting and fascinating. It’s probably one of the most interesting subjects to study and it’s always good to have some knowledge regarding the law since there might come a day when you will have use for it, at work or in your private life.

You can study a legal glossary and learn a lot more than one legal definition even if you’re not a law student. Maybe you would like to learn a little bit more about this topic for personal use or maybe you’re just fascinated by the topic.

Start using the black’s law dictionary today and gain more knowledge quickly. You will most likely enjoy your studies and you will surely enjoy learning all the new things that a legal glossary can teach you. This is a great way to learn much without having to pay anything at all for it.