BREAK UP BONANZA Russian millionaire’s ex says she has been forced to live ‘frugally’ while hubby has enjoyed holiday homes, yacht and helicopter AN oligarch’s son who bought himself a helicopter and partied on his family’s yacht to celebrate separating from his wife is fighting to get her “over-generous” £7million payout cut. In the pair’s divorce settlement, agreed in Russia in 2014, Boris Zimin, 47, was ordered to pay ex-wife Mrs Zimina £6million. Champion News Boris Zimin … 47-year-old is trying to slash £7million payout to ex-wife She was also awarded a £1.15million top-up payout in the High Court after […]

Expert evidence is useful in derivatives mis-selling litigation but not always prized by the judges. Anton Balazh The debate around the use and benefits of expert witnesses in litigation has been a long-running issue for the court. Two recent High Court cases have demonstrated the complex and somewhat contradictory approach that the court has adopted towards the use of expert witnesses in derivatives mis-selling litigation.  Refused permission  In Darby Properties Limited & another v. Lloyds Bank PLC [2016] EWHC 2494 (Ch), the court recently refused permission for the use of derivative expert witnesses at the trial. The […]

The Group and  its brief Under the leadership and joint chairmanship of Mr Justice Francis and His Honour Judge Edward Hess, the “Pension Advisory Group” (“PAG”) has been formed. With the imprimatur of he President of the Family Division, the PAG’s brief is to conduct an interdisciplinary review of how pensions are treated on divorce and to produce a Family Justice Council pension guide for the profession and divorcing public. It is hoped that this may encourage a consistency of practice which is currently lacking. As with the Family Justice Council and its guidance on financial needs, the PAG has no […]

Home > News Some solicitors are “treating the new law like a box-ticking exercise,” says NFM Three years after it became compulsory for separating couples to consider mediating agreements before taking their cases to court, it has emerged that only four out of ten are complying with the landmark legislation. Introduced in April 2014, the law made it compulsory for separating couples to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before they can apply for a court order to settle disputes over parenting, finance and property. However, figures obtained by National Family Mediation (NFM) show that in 2016 over […]

Lawyers handling drug-defect suits say New Jersey courts could see an uptick in volume of pharmaceutical and medical device suits in light of this week’s Supreme Court ruling in a California case that narrowed access to jurisdiction for out-of-state plaintiffs. The justices’ holding on Monday in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California, that California courts lacked general jurisdiction over suits by nonresident users of the blood thinner Plavix, will send some plaintiffs scrambling for new venues, lawyers said. And they added that New Jersey’s status as home to numerous major drug companies could prompt more plaintiff lawyers from around […]

Starting about five years ago, LexisNexis began reinventing its technology stack, and in the time since, has undergone a series of technology developments and company acquisitions to adopt to the changing nature of laws. Among those acquisitions was that of Lex Machina, a company that started as a Stanford University project and has since grown into a popular analytics suite. Over the past year, the company has engaged in an effort to expand its technology into all areas of federal practice, and on June 20, it announced its expansion into commercial litigation. As noted in a release announcing the expansion, […]

Home > News Queen’s Speech includes draft legislation to transform approach to domestic violence In the Queen’s Speech, delivered today, the Government has committed to bringing forward legislation “to protect the victims of domestic violence and abuse”. Briefing notes produced by the Government on the announcements in the Queen’s Speech state that the purpose of the Bill is to “transform our approach to domestic violence and abuse to ensure that victims have the confidence to come forward and report their experiences, safe in the knowledge that the state and justice system will do everything it can to both support them […]

New Delhi: With the National Litigation Policy in a limbo for years, the government remains the biggest contributor to litigation in India despite Narendra Modi-led government’s resolve to bring down such cases. The latest statistics reveal that at least 2000 new cases, instituted by the Central government and its various departments, add up every week to docket of courts across the country. The information furnished by the Legal Information Management and Briefing System (LIMBS) states that 133,059 government cases were pending as on June 8. Approximately 46 per cent of the total pending cases in courts pertain to the government, […]

Fewer people are getting divorced in England and Wales than at any time since the law was liberalised in 1971, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday. In total, 101,055 opposite sex couples got divorced in 2015, the lowest number since the number of divorces shot up from 74,437 in 1971 to 119,025 in 1972. The decline is partly because fewer people are getting married but the rate of married couples getting divorced is also the lowest since the Divorce Reform Act came into force. There were 8.5 divorces per thousand married men and women […]

Home > News Consultation on the draft guidelines runs until 13 September 2017 The Sentencing Council has published proposed new guidelines for sentencing offenders guilty of child cruelty.  The guidelines cover three offences: cruelty to a child, causing or allowing a child to die or suffer serious physical harm, and failing to protect a girl from the risk of female genital mutilation (FGM). The draft guidelines, which are now subject to a public consultation, comprise: revised guidance for the offence of cruelty to a child which will replace an existing guideline; and the introduction for the first time of guidelines […]