Civil

The EP has supported the Commission’s 2008 proposal to extend copyright protection for performers and phonogram producers, from 50 to 70 years. See:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P6-TA-2009-0282 

A “tolerance” fee for personal injury work, and a separate preparation fee for in-house advocates working on family public law care and supervision cases would be introduced under plans to amend the civil fee schemes.

The Government must return funding of the civil courts to a “realistic level”, the new President of the Association of District Judges has warned. 

Professional negligence cases are soaring as the recession takes hold.

The Ministry of Justice has proposed new measures to control costs in defamation proceedings, including setting maximum or fixed recoverable hourly rates; mandatory cost capping; and requiring courts to consider the proportionality of total costs in costs assessments. More information is available in the Ministry’s consultation paper, Controlling Costs in Defamation Proceedings. The closing date for responses is 6 May 2009.

Post-nups are valid and enforceable, but pre-nups are not—yet.Philip Perrins examines the impact of MacLeod 

A thanksgiving ceremony will be held at Middle Temple Hall on 4 March at 6pm for the life and work of Professor Sir Hugh Laddie, who died in November 2008 after a long illness.

An appeal on behalf of an independent charity which provides free services for people who go to court has been backed by the Attorney General, the Lord Chief Justice and the Bar Council. The Personal Support Unit, based at the Royal Courts of Justice, gives emotional and practical support from experienced and trained volunteers to litigants who are unfamiliar with the court environment and procedures. 

Set up in 2001, the Personal Support Unit was the subject of the weekly Radio 4 Appeal on Sunday 18th January 2009 at 7.55am, when Lord Woolf spoke in support. 

Baroness Scotland QC, Attorney General, said: 

"I have seen the Personal Support Unit at work and am very impressed by its professionalism and the way in which it meets a significant need. 

At the end of 2008, the JHA Council adopted a report on the Common Frame of Reference for European contract law (“CFR”), reiterating its April 2008 position that the CFR would be a non-binding legal instrument, shaped as a set of guidelines to be used by lawmakers at Community level, on a voluntary basis, as a common source of inspiration or reference in the lawmaking process. See:
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st15/st15306.en08.pdf
The European Commission is expected to issue a White Paper in 2009 setting out its plans, including what it is keeping of the Academic CFR, finalised in 2008. 

The Council has adopted a Decision approving the conclusion of a new Lugano Convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, bringing the rules of the Lugano Convention into line with those of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 (Brussels I) in order to achieve the same level of circulation of judgments between the EU Member States and the EFTA States concerned.