Lord Justice Longmore said it was a ‘great pity’ that appliance supplier Indesit, instructed by Plexus Solicitors, had not pursued the option of mediation as advised by Lord Justice Toulson in a personal injury case. Indesit had successfully defended a personal injury claim by employee Ali Ghaith, but Ghaith was subsequently given permission to appeal.

It was then that the appeal judge encouraged Indesit to pursue the option of mediation.

The company opted not to follow that advice on the grounds that costs had already exceeded the likely amount at issue. In a judgment given today, LJ Longmore said this was an ‘inadequate response’ that will ‘inevitably result in a substantial increase in costs’.

He added: ‘Indesit’s reaction is all too frequent and the court has, since April of this year, decided that any claim for less than £100,000 will be the subject of compulsory mediation.

‘It is devoutly to be hoped that such mediation will mean that these comparatively small claims will not have to be adjudicated by this court so frequently in future.’

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It had taken the last two years to build the £4 million retreat, made from cedar wood and equipped with solar panels on Green Island in Poole Harbor. The Island was bought for £2.5 million in 2005.

The Owners plans for the building were rejected by Purbeck District Council in 2009 – even though there were no objections and the design had been praised by conservationists! A planning appeal allowed the development to go ahead the following year.

The house, which was to be powered by solar panels and diesel generators, and use log burners, was nearly completed when the blaze was reported last week.

Flames spread quickly through the log-walled three-storey building as the blaze took hold on its two upper floors before an atrium collapsed. The Millionaire who owns has pledged that it will be re-built.

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Key measures will include a six-month statutory time limit for the completion of care cases; requiring parents to consider resolving disputes using mediation; and the introduction of ‘shared parenting’ principle to help ensure children maintain a relationship with both their parents after family separation. The government will consult shortly on how legislation ‘can be framed to ensure that a meaningful relationship is not about an equal division of time but the quality of time that a child spends with each parent’.

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Many of the changes form part of the Crime and Courts Bill, which the government promises will modernise the criminal justice system. The Ministry of Justice wants to ‘demystify’ the court process, but insists there will be no broadcasting of witnesses, victims or defendants.

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The Law Gazette revealed earlier this year that 1,200 posts had been cut by HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The union aims to expose managers’ reliance on staff increasing their workloads to cover shortages. Last summer, the service relied heavily on overtime workers to cope in the aftermath of the August riots and any repeat in the next two months would put severe pressure on courts. Stakeholders were warned by HMCTS this week to expect priority to be given to urgent business if the strike goes ahead.

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Lord Justice Gross and Mr Justice Treacy will consider whether current sanctions and judicial case management powers are adequate to secure compliance with disclosure duties, and whether there are options for strengthening them. The move follows an earlier year-long review, Disclosure in Criminal Proceedings, conducted by Gross and published in September 2011, which concluded that there is no ‘quick fix’ to the concerns.

Announcing the new review, Clarke said: ‘The continuing policy objective in this important area is to safeguard fair trials by ensuring the legal framework requires appropriate disclosure to the accused.’ But he said the ‘resource burden’ which the arrangements impose on the criminal justice system ‘cannot be ignored’.

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A Local Authority Search is a vital link in the conveyancing process and can reveal important information about the property you wish to buy.
It is carried out by referring to information and records held by the Local Authority in whose borough or parish the property is in (i.e. the Local Council for that area)

The Local Search is comprised of up to four parts:
The main part (usually a minimum requirement) is a form called the LLC1, which will provide a list of all of the relevant entries held in the Local Land Charges Register.
The second part (usually referred to as the Con29R) will provide information on, amongst other things, details on planning applications relevant to the property (whether granted or refused), building control history, any enforcement action, restrictions on permitted development, nearby road schemes, contaminated land and radon gas; in all a total of 13 subject areas. These two elements together are often referred to as a ‘basic’ or ‘standard’ Local Search.
Thirdly, you can also ask optional additional questions relating to public rights of way, areas of outstanding natural beauty, pipeline, pollution notices, or town and village greens. These questions (18 in all) are contained on an optional form, which is usually referred to as the Con29O.
Lastly, you can use the Search Application to ask the Council anything else which you think may be useful to know about, such as whether there are any planning permissions on adjacent land. These questions, in common with the optional enquiries mentioned above, will be at additional cost. The cost varies from Council to Council.

Whilst it is rare for a Local search to reveal anything too serious, when an entry is found it can sometimes prove expensive to remedy – and may affect your decision on whether to continue with your purchase.

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Proposed sanctions against states that persistently fail to execute the court’s judgments were scrapped, as were plans to appoint more judges to help handle the caseload, lawyers said. The Brighton declaration on the future of the European Court of Human Rights, adopted by the 47 member states of the Council of Europe last week, sets out a framework for ensuring that states properly implement the European Convention on Human Rights within their own jurisdictions.

A proposal to amend the convention to include the principles of ‘subsidiarity’ and the ‘margin of appreciation’ was rejected.

However, the conference adopted the declaration’s least controversial proposal – to reduce the time limit to apply to the court from six months to four. It also adopted a tightening of admissibility criteria.

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