The Circumlocution Office

"Reform" of legal fees - four centuries of chicanery ... Tulkinghorn awards prizes for "reforms" that increase legal costs ... Jacking-up revenue by replacing "necessary or proper" costs with "fair and reasonable" costs ... Looks like the Circumlocution Office has got hold of the Marfording Report 

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Lawyers in the witness box

New national solicitors' conduct rules dilute traditional approach to lawyers giving evidence in court for their clients ... Rules that will lead solicitors down the garden path ... Ethical eclipse ... From Neil Watt at the ethics desk 

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Denis Thatcher's Kilmuir moment

Leverhulme on The Iron Lady ... Tales from the Court of Queen Margaret ... The Kilmuir Rules ... Sentencing of race killers ... Plymouth judge makes a prat of himself, with no help from Fowler ... London Calling 

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Happy birthday Gitmo

Milestones and millstones ... Guantánamo's tenth birthday, as Bill of Rights turns 220 ... National Defence Authorisation Act allows for exciting possibilities - including military detention of US civilians ... The new Reichstag Fire Decree ... Latest from US Supremes ... Habeas - British courts step-in where DC Circuit fears to tread

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Slater & Gordon bastes itself in Turner Freeman victory

Slater & Gordon accused of trying to snitch commercial benefit from Turner Freeman's High Court victory in asbestos case ... Angry rebuke ... All a terrible misunderstanding 

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Voyager victims fleeced by pirate

Solicitor for Voyager victims loses his ticket ... Double billing and lack of candour means that David Forster is not a fit and proper type ... Nearly $1.5 million in receivership and LSB costs ... No joy from the fidelity fund 

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The Republican dream

Congressional fat cats ... Corporate crime and financial defalcation ... Constitutional violations ... Gridlock on judicial and ambassadorial nominations ... Roger Fitch surveys the Washington landscape 

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Horseplay won't bugger-up the football dollars

Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State football coach up on child sex charges, has a very helpful lawyer with a sparkling media strategy ... Trial will be a needless formality ... Stand-by for extensively legalled media portraits of the Iron Ore Queen ... Pillsbury Flom files 

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He kept off the front page

While no Lionel Murphy, Robert McClelland will be remembered as a decent, reforming attorney general ... His stature will grow with the years ... Marcus Priest, who was McClelland's senior policy advisor, dictated this piece to Polly Peck in Canberra 

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Litigation prophylaxis

William Collins on Victoria's vexatious litigants ... Goldie Collins and Constance Bienvenu look like being outshone by Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight, a resident of Port Phillip Prison ... Persistent resort to civil justice ... Tireless struggle against the state 

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Keddies must be kidding

New law year blasts off with contempt trial of three Keddies' partners … Cheque signed by Roulstone prime facie a breach of court order

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The mad dash to mediocrity

The new conduct rules for solicitors appear to be more notional than national ... Large Law Firm Group sets the tone ... It's all about what we can get away with ... The "right thing to do" went missing in action  ... Neil Watt, who sat on the LCA's ethics committee, experienced a dashing of expectations 

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"Grave disapproval" of Keddies

Further delays in "bring them to heel" proceedings against Keddies ... Defendants want formal charges for contempt of court case ... Breach of ordinary tenets of professional courtesy ... Possible cross-examination set for Monday

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Those pesky typos

Judges being unkind to each other ... History of poor grammar and typos in judgments ... Forgiveness for some ... Crucifixion for others ... Defamatorium

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Order to Keddies: show cause

Contempt of court … Intrusion into overcharging proceedings … Prime facie breach of undertakings and injunctions … Raising fingers of scorn at Supreme Court ... Keddies Three expected to be cross-examined by Stitt QC 

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Let them eat handbags

Cakes mistaken for handbags … Louis Vuitton attacks cake shop … Crisis in world of sugary designs … Intellectual property under siege … Customer confusion 

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Braveheart's last stand

Scottish Supremo tries to quell northern rebellion ... English accused of eroding Scottish law ... "You can't take our freedom" ... Conflicts for horseracing barristers ... Leverhulme with London Calling 

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Reptiles and shysters

Littlemore peddles loosely-stitched thesis to Fink … Human Rights Commission beds down with Rio Tinto … Sound and fury from a Murdoch editor, signifying nothing … Styles v Clutz - parties issue peachy settlement sentiments … State media invaded by Poland 

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Judges fooling themselves

Judges and their reasoning ... Politics and precedent ... How judges use reasons as window dressing ... Tulkinghorn explores those extralegal criteria 

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Ambition swirls around AG's chair

Stepping up, stepping down ... Who's who in a prospective new year Canberra reshuffle ... Poor Harry Jenkins falling on his parliamentary cutlery is just the beginning ... Polly Peck suggests there is more knife work to come 

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