Civil

Khadija Ali and Lynne Townley explain the background to the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 and consider what all sectors are doing to tackle the problem.  

Since the murder of Heshu Yones in 2002, the issue of forced marriage and other forms of honour based violence have been the source of media attention and more significantly that of the Government which brought the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 into effect on 25 November 2008. 

Professional negligence cases are soaring as the recession takes hold.

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

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 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. 

James Eadie QC, of Blackstone Chambers, has been appointed First Treasury Counsel. Eadie will join Jonathan Swift of 11KBW, handling the government’s complex civil law matters. Eadie, who was called to the Bar in 1984 and took silk last year, acted as counsel to Lord Woolf’s inquiry into BAe following the Saudi arms investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. He replaces Philip Sales QC of 11KBW.

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.