LexisPSL E-burst April 2012
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What’s new in the world of...
Private Client
Dealing with one jurisdiction’s estate rules is complex enough but the complexities become multiplied when individuals or assets straddle borders. That is why Wills & Probate and Private Client LexisPSL’s sub-topic Cross-border estates now includes practice notes on the following jurisdictions: France, Jersey, South Africa, Republic of Ireland, USA (New York), Switzerland and India. Each practice note is written by leading experts in the relevant jurisdiction. Toolboxes are now available in both LexisPSL Wills & Probate and LexisPSL Private Client. These provide practitioners with a wealth of additional resources and in the case of LexisPSL Private Client these include both on and offshore resources Click here to read the practice notes.
Dispute resolution
On 19 March 2012 a new concept 'the designated money claim' was introduced in the county courts. All designated money claims can only be issued by sending the claim form to the Salford Business Centre at County Court Money Claims Centre, PO Box 527, M5 0BY. The County Court Money Claims Centre will deal with all aspects of the claim until allocation questionnaire unless a hearing in person is required. New CPR provisions have been brought into force to deal with these new types of claims. Various issues have arisen in relation to eg limitation issues and ‘preferred courts’.
Family
Court of Appeal clarifies civil partner finances In the first reported civil partnership appeal, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that financial provision upon the breakdown of a civil partnership is to be treated in exactly the same way as financial provision on divorce. Personal Injury
The Supreme Court has dismissed (by a majority of 4-3) the veteran claimants' appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had held that all nine lead claims in the group action were statute-barred and were not to be given discretion to proceed under the Limitation Act 1980.
What’s new on LexisPSL
Commercial – new practice notes on the Olympics and Data Protection plus inaugural board meeting
The LexisPSL Commercial team have drafted over 66 new documents this month, including a set of practice notes on the regulations surrounding advertising using the Olympics and associated trademarks during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The team has also produced a set of detailed tables comparing the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation with the existing Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, which includes commentary on the proposed changes. The team will continue to monitor the draft regulation and update the tables accordingly. LexisPSL Commercial held its inaugural board meeting in mid-March. Members of the board include Allen & Overy LLP, CMS Cameron McKenna LLP, Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Hogan Lovells LLP, Olswang LLP, Radcliffe Chambers, SJ Berwin LLP and Slaughter & May. As leaders in their field, their expertise will be used in shaping and developing the module in conjunction with our internal PSLs to ensure it is at the forefront of practice for those involved with commercial law..
Dispute Resolution – new content on Pre action protocols and Evidence
The LexisPSL Dispute Resolution team continue to provide a weekly roundup document in the weekly alert (also available from the home page). This provides information about forthcoming changes eg CPR changes or changes to forms, updates to practice notes and precedents due to changes resulting from judgments etc and all the news analysis for that week with quick links through to the relevant reports. In addition we have added new content: Pre action Topic/Pre action protocols – has four new practice notes and two new drafting notes addressing issues in relation to the construction and engineering pre action protocol called: • Pre action protocol for construction and engineering dispute • Pre action protocol for construction and engineering disputes: letters, replies and meetings • Pre action protocol for construction and engineering disputes: effects on non compliance • The future for the Construction Pre Action Protocol • Drafting note for Pre action protocol for construction and engineering disputes: Letters of claim • Drafting note for Pre action protocol for construction and engineering disputes: Letters of Response Litigation Topic/Emergency relief: has a new practice note on Non disclosure orders ADR Topic/Other forms of ADR - the practice notes on Early Neutral Evaluation and Expert determination have been extensively revised to provide additional practical content and a new practice note has been called Challenging an expert’s determination Arbitration Topic/Evidence – the existing content on this subject has been revised and updated and new practice notes have been added including: • The role of documentary evidence • Privilege and Disputes over documentary evidence • Arbitration Topic/The arbitration agreement – has two new practice notes: • multi party and multi contract arbitration – which covers how the key institutional rules address this complex area • examples of common mistakes in arbitral agreements - which provides guidance as to how the courts interpret ‘pathological’ arbitration clauses
Family - new practice notes and procedural guides added
LexisPSL Family have added the following new Practice Notes and Procedural Guides • Service of applications for matrimonial and civil partnership orders within the jurisdiction The new series of LexisPSL Family Procedural Guides will be expanded in the next few weeks to include step by step guides including details of court fees and forms on relationship breakdown, children and finances, adding to the existing wide ranging content in these areas. The LexisPSL Commercial team have drafted over 66 new documents this month, including details of court fees and forms on relationship breakdown, children and finances, adding to the existing wide ranging content in these areas.
Practice Compliance – new precedents published in COLP and COFA plus the addition of new compliance checklists
The SRA has recently announced what documents and information it’s likely to require as part of the COLP and COFA nomination process. This includes: • the firm’s governance structure showing the position of its compliance officers—we’ve already covered this in our Governance sub-topic • job description/role responsibilities for the compliance officer—we’ve immediately written and published two new precedents, one for each of the COLP and COFA, plus we’ll shortly be publishing a combined version to cover firms that intend to appoint one person to both roles. We’ve also doubled the number of compliance checklists. We now have 26 checklists (and counting), which help firms to quickly assess their own compliance status in many different areas. |