SocGen writes off Kerviel as a footnote in history

The rogue trader who cost Société Générale almost €5 billion was dismissed as an historical footnote today by executives seeking to draw a line under France’s biggest financial scandal.

Witnesses ‘lied to hide Prince’s involvement,’ court told

Witnesses in the Chelsea Barracks case “concocted an untrue story” to cover up the involvement of the Prince of Wales and the Emir of Qatar in the cancellation of an £81 million modernist housing project, the High Court was told yesterday.

Lord Saville — an outstanding legal mind defined by Bloody Sunday inquiry

It is an irony of the Bloody Sunday inquiry that the most expensive and long judicial investigation in history was chaired by a judge chosen for his efficiency.

Thousands detained unlawfully in police stop-and-search blunder

Home Secretary's anger, Crime Central

Barristers turn brokers as credit crunch hits divorce

The wife of the celebrity chef Marco Pierre White was due to enter the divorce courts on her own next week, without lawyers, to battle for a share of her husband’s estimated £50 million wealth. But publicity in The Times about her case has prompted a potential rescuer — in the unlikely shape of a criminal set of barristers’ chambers.

Hague court sentences Bosnian Serbs to life for Srebrenica genocide

Two Bosnian Serbs were today convicted of genocide and sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.

Oil spill brings BP trouble from all corners

Down in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is not just fighting to contain the massive oil leak from the explosion on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. It is also trying to absorb a build-up in litigation that is threatening to come ashore and overwhelm the courts — possibly on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lawyer of the Week: Amjad Malik

Amjad Malik, a solicitor-advocate at the Rochdale firm Amjad Malik Solicitors, acted pro bono for three Pakistani students in a deportation appeal hearing at a Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in London and won the appeal against deportation in the case of Shoaib Khan.

Michael Jackson bodyguard in libel trial challenge

A controversial decision that a high-profile libel trial must go ahead without a jury is to be challenged in the Court of Appeal today.

Rogue trader: ‘I acted like a complete idiot’

The rogue trader who lost his bank almost €164.5 billion told a French court that he had acted in a "completely idiotic" way when he staked tens of billions of euros on the stock market.

President of the Supreme Court defends terror rulings

The judge who heads Britain’s top court last night defended the Human Rights Act and recent rulings by courts that terrorist suspects cannot be sent home to their own countries.

The Academies Bill - a simple idea, complex problems

Academies are a hybrid: independent schools funded by central government. Those that exist – about 200 – were created because of population growth, parental demand or closure of a failing school.

An open letter to Ken Clarke, the Lord Chancellor

Congratulations on taking on responsibility for civil litigation.

Rogue trader prepares for court battle

He earned worldwide notoriety as the rogue trader who lost €4.9 billion (£4 billion) and his name became a by-word in his native France for the excesses of global capitalism.

Business Doctor

PENALTIES FOR LATE TAX PAYMENT

Michael Jackson bodyguard’s libel trial to be heard without jury

A judge has ordered that a libel trial being brought by the bodyguard of Michael Jackson against Channel 4 is to be heard without a jury.

Gaza-Israel conflict needs balance and a sense of proportion

Israel forcibly boarded and diverted six foreign flag vessels on the high seas bound for Gaza. Was it entitled to proclaim a blockade, to use force to implement it and if so, was the level of force appropriate?

FSA loses first insider dealing case

An accountant and two lawyers accused of insider dealing walked free from court today, marking the first time the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has lost such a prosecution.

Pleading guilty to police should mean lighter sentence, judge says

Suspects who plead guilty in the police station should benefit from a hefty cut in their sentences, the judge in charge of sentencing has told The Times.

Lawyer of the Week: Neil Johnson

Neil Johnson, a partner at Thompsons, acts for the union Unite in the dispute involving cabin crew and British Airways.The Court of Appeal overturned a ban on a series of strikes that were the subject of an injunction granted earlier in the High Court.

Is ‘Tesco law’ heading for the long grass?

It was years in the making and the centrepiece of Labour’s radical shake-up of legal services but the highly touted “Tesco law” phenomenon could be heading for the long grass, kicked there by less enthusiastic ministers in the new coalition Government.

Sentencing Council: judges told that justice is safe from ‘tramline’ sentencing

It must be the toughest judicial brief going: tasked with overseeing sentencing in England and Wales, when prisons are full to bursting and there is no money to build any more. But Lord Justice Leveson is firm about one thing: “I have not considered this as a brief to produce guidelines that are going to reduce the prison population.”

Vivendi’s master of the universe lands in Parisian court

Jean-Marie Messier, the dashing Frenchman who proclaimed himself a master of the universe while chief executive of Vivendi Universal, will stand trial for criminal fraud in a courtroom in Paris today.

Gaza fleet raid raises questions over legality of Israel’s blockade

We do not yet know all the facts about what happened aboard the Marvi Marmara. We do know that Israel boarded it to enforce its blockade of Gaza.

Hedge fund star faces FSA questions

Guillaume Rambourg, the Gartmore fund manager who was found to have breached regulations in an internal inquiry, is being investigated by the Financial Services Authority.

Will lawyers find the iPad useful?

May 28, 2010. I’m a suit among jeans and, at 49, double the age of most of my fellow hopefuls. But I have a job to do. Buy an iPad find out how useful it will be for lawyers.

Try not to see your customers in court

James Morley was fed up with being paid three, four or even six months late by customers of his Newtownards company, which supplies staff uniforms for restaurants and care homes.

Free speech – the gloves are off

In the 1960s, when I began to practise law, there was no positive right to free speech in English law. Free speech was a strong British political value, but as a matter of English law it was merely the space left by the criminal and civil law — official secrecy, fair trials, contract, confidentiality, copyright, defamation and the rest.

Business Doctor

MEN CAN HAVE FLEXI WORK

City surprised by surge in Eversheds’ profits

Eversheds opened the results season for Britain’s biggest law firms yesterday by recording a surprising 28 per cent jump in partners’ profits.