What a few months it has been!
I am not talking about erupting volcanoes and disrupted airline schedules, the General Election (although I see from Twitter that “Doing a Rochdale” is likely to rank highly in the litany of public gaffes alongside President Ford’s “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” and Gerald Ratner’s less than flattering description of his jewellery), the Greek economic crisis (now extended to Portugal and Spain, where next?) or the debacle over swine flu, the “pandemic” which never was (the use of the word was unnecessary and silly, designed to cause fear and anxiety).
For once, I mean something more prosaic and mainstream, although as someone with an interest in e-disclosure, I have to admit that I have found it quite exciting!
Continue reading ‘The name and shame blame game’
Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb were two bad mice. Beatrix Potter conceived the story of how they both created mayhem in the dolls’ house belonging to Lucinda and Jane, while the dolls were out in their pram. When the little girl who owns the dolls’ house discovers the mess, she gets a doll dressed up as a policeman while her more practical nanny sets a mouse trap. The two bad mice have to atone for their naughtiness.
Now we have a report in The Lawyer [Russian Retribution, 31 March, 2010] that two of Russia’s wealthiest men are to face one another in Court in 2011 after lawyers acting for Roman Abramovich failed to persuade Mr Justice Colman to strike out claims by Boris Berezovsky that Abramovich used coercive tactics against his former business partner which Berezovsky alleges caused him billions of pounds in losses.
Continue reading ‘Of mice and men’
What clients want is a fence at the top of the cliff rather than an ambulance at the bottom.
Richard Susskind’s analogy, accompanied by the appropriate slide, the contents of which I will leave to your imagination, was one of a number of catchy themes he used to describe the changing world of legal services last week at the Commercial Litigators’ Forum.
What came to mind as he spoke was an image of Starship Enterprise and a reminder of the most celebrated split infinitive in the entire universe. Whilst the opening credits of Star Trek talk of the ship’s mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before”, back on earth my mind was on the bold new frontiers facing those engaged in the business of litigation.
Continue reading ‘To boldly go’
The model and author Sophie Dahl, probably most famous not for being Roald Dahl’s grand-daughter but for her traffic stopping billboard appearances in an Opium ad for Yves St Laurent, is about to star in her own television series starting on BBC 2 on March 23rd at 8.30pm.
“The Delicious Miss Dahl” (and that is the title of the series and not just my opinion!) is to become the latest television cook as a result of the success of “Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights” (that’s the title of the book and not only my view. Do keep awake at the back!!).
Those of us who enjoy our food, both the eating and the cooking, are used to watching the sensual Nigella Lawson in her kitchen, and Sophie Dahl’s new show promises to be another visual and culinary delight.
Continue reading ‘Stevie is my dahling’
It happened to me again this morning! You will all be familiar with the scenario. You wait in the cold for many minutes for the one bus which will take you to your destination and having got thoroughly miserable and frustrated, not one but two buses turn up together.
It seems like that in the world of e-discovery!
In the last week, the judgment in Goodale v Ministry of Justice has been published and, excitingly, so has the draft of the Technology Questionnaire, currently in a subcommittee of the Rules Committee.
Continue reading ‘It never rains..’
The judgment in Gavin Goodale & Others v The Ministry of Justice & Others was delivered by the Senior Master, Master Whitaker, in November last year and is now available on BAILII [http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2009/B41.html]
Master Whitaker is well known as an advocate of proportionate e-disclosure in appropriate cases and also as a judge experienced in dealing with Group Litigation orders as in this case involving the Opiate Dependent Prisoners Litigation.
What makes this judgment of particular interest to those involved in the whole area of electronic disclosure is the fact that the Master saw fit to include in his judgement the ESI questionnaire which the Rule Committee decided recently to refer to another subcommittee.
Continue reading ‘The cat’s out of the bag’