If you manipulate a market unlawfully (benefit to another) and thereby gain a bonus (from the beneficiary) , will the bonus be proceeds of crime under POCA?

There was a report in the metro this week about a New York couple locked in dispute about how the value of the wife's $1million shoe collection should be treated within their divorce settlement.



The report claims that although the couple reached a settlement some time ago, the wife failed to declare the value of her extensive collection and that as a result, her husband now seeks to reopen financial matters on the basis of non-disclosure.

Whilst English and American…

We were delighted to have a guest post on Data Protection from Riverview Law.

Its a big area for us and we are keen to get the message out as widely as possible to business.  I'll post a bit here and a link if you want to read the whole thing.

From Peter Hartham…

News that the GMC is deploying 15 new Regional Officers to identify underperforming Doctors at an earlier stage is welcome. This is an attempt to take a proactive approach to Healthcare rather than simply reacting after the event where serious problems have arisen. With the Health Service becoming increasingly fragmented, there is a danger of accountability lacking. Once of the tasks of the Officers will be to liaise with both NHS bodies and companies employing Doctors to uncover problems…

Another day: another survey about shifting consumer attitudes to the provision of legal services.

Another survey, but the overwhelming evidence is that law firms who do not devote time and energy to their websites risk being overlooked altogether.

The latest survey released by LexisNexis in the US…

Continued support for shared parenting was demonstrated recently by the announcement that the Government intends to set up a £14million fund to provide practical help and support for parents going through acrimonious separations, with a view to increasing shared and collaborative parenting.

The Department for Work and Pensions explained that the fund would be used to provide services encouraging parents to work together in raising their children following a separation, and would…

Nobody likes to think about death and will go to great lengths to avoid any discussion around it. As a lawyer it is my job to talk about death on a daily basis and I never give it a second thought. However, I fully understand that for most people the making a Will is something they may never have done before and can be a daunting prospect.

Lawyers are no different from the rest of the population, the same percentage of lawyers as the general public don’t have a will. Really, they…

There are reports in the press recently that following confirmation of their separation, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis have provisionally agreed a division of their assets, which would see Paradis receive £100million. Despite being together for around 14 years, they never married. As a result, some newspapers are describing the settlement as the "biggest pay-out/settlement" given to an unmarried partner of a…

The Health and Social Care Bill will transform the landscape of our NHS hospitals. Will it ensure greater patient safety and fewer avoidable Medical Negligence errors?

One of the problems in our Healthcare system is the under reporting of ‘adverse incidents’. Whilst most NHS staff are dedicated, conscientious and careful, mistakes will happen. Without proper reporting it is difficult to identify where things go wrong and how to avoid errors. It is the task of The National Patient…

It has been reported that IPad video calls with Children are being used by parents to sneak a peak at the lives of their former partners or spouses.

There has been a rise in the use of Apple’s FaceTime and Skype in contact cases which offer free video calls on tablets and smartphones. Webcams can also be used on computers to…

Eugene Kolomiyets, associate of Lavrynovych & Partners Law Firm, received on June 21 a certificate for the right to engage in advocate’s activity.

Eugene Kolomiyets is an experienced expert in corporate and contract law, litigation, bankruptcy and debt restructuring. Mr. Kolomiyets is a graduate of Odesa National Law Academy, Master of Law and member of the Ukrainian Bar Association. The clients to which Eugene provides legal support include NPC “Ukrenergo”, Dneprovsky Iron &…

In recent weeks, I have been hearing more and more concerns from firms that are struggling to deal with commercial clients such as banks and other large corporates who at least outwardly eschew all attempts to develop a relationship, add value and differentiate the offering. They are simply telling firms that they are either the lowest bidder or they’re ‘out on the street’.

As one colleague put it to me a few nights ago; “How the hell do you deal with that attitude…

With another 8 t-shirts going out this week, you need to act quickly if you want to get in on the

LegalRSS charity challenge.

What is it?

If you wear our legalRSS t-shirt…

At the British Medical Association conference, GP’s criticised the Government’s plans to replace NHS Direct with a new national ‘111’ service - a telephone service for patients with urgent but not life-threatening problems. They expressed concerns at the design of the scheme and not learning lessons from the evaluation of pilot schemes. They fear that lack of trained staff will lead to more referrals and poorer outcomes especially for vulnerable patients.

 

At the heart of this issue…

Research suggests that patients admitted to hospital at the weekend are more likely to die within 30 days than patients admitted during the week. For 100 deaths among patients admitted on a Wednesday, 116 admitted on a Sunday die. The research is based on analysis of 14.2 million admissions in England and Wales during 12 months in 2009 and 2010. This is therefore a very significant study and its results are consistent with similar research in the USA.

 

The obvious conclusion may…

The Kings Fund, an independent heath watchdog, recently released figures that 226,000 people waited more than four hours in Accident and Emergency in the last 90 days analysed. This is an 8-year high and an 18% rise on last year.

 

The sharp rise reflects the difficulties many hospitals are facing in keeping up performance while under extraordinary financial pressure. Waiting times are an issue my colleagues and I regularly encounter as…

As a law firm that has a specialty in divorce law, we at The Law House are always keen to see our clients sign pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreements.  Divorces can often be messy, painful and particularly unpleasant matters and while such agreements may at the time seem unromantic they can make the divorce process considerably less stressful.

There is now a section of society – farmers – whose industry is changing so quickly that pre-nuptials are becoming more necessary and much less…