Recently in Litigation Category

A former SAS officer is to sue the Metropolitan Police after officers investigating an information leak arrested him at gunpoint, only to drop the charges later, reports The Independent.

The SAS officer, who has retained his anonymity for legal reasons, claims he was treated 'like a terrorist' after armed police surrounded his car to arrest him whilst he was out driving with his young child.

Police were investigating allegations that an SAS officer had leaked confidential information to Sky News.

The disgraced former cabinet minister was jailed last month after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice after lying about who was driving his car when caught speeding in 2003, reports the BBC.

It is thought Mr Huhne, who is currently serving an eight-month sentence in prison for the offence, could now be hit with a bill for more than £100,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service for the work they had carried out prior to him changing his plea to guilty.

Mr Huhne was jailed in March alongside his former wife, Vicky Pryce, who blew the whistle on their joint scheme for him to evade a driving ban. She had attempted to use the defence of marital coercion to avoid punishment for her involvement in the scam, but was convicted of perverting the course of justice by a jury, having pleaded not guilty to the charge.

A newborn lamb rescued from a river in Aberdeenshire has become the subject of a legal battle, after a farmer stepped forward to claim the 'pedigree' animal from the sanctuary that has looked after him, reports the BBC.

The lamb, now called River by the Willows Animal Sanctuary where he has been looked after, was found drowning by local schoolgirl Kirstie Finnie in a tributary of the River Dee near Banchory. Ms Finnie, 15, had then contacted Willows to ask if they could take care of the animal.

The sanctuary has looked after him ever since and has used him as part of an assisted therapy scheme for vulnerable adults, who they say have since formed a powerful bond with the animal.

Francoise Schein, the artist who created the £5.5m Millennium Clock in Coventry has threatened the council with legal action after it removed the clock for repairs without consulting her and then failed to complete the work, reports the BBC.

The city council removed the clock from Millennium Place last April, placing the clock into storage with the intention of having it restored. They insist the project is on track, but say local construction work has delayed the restoration.

However, the artist has spoken out to say she is contemplating legal action and is disappointed that the council has failed to consult her over their plans.

The family of radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada have won an anti-harassment injunction banning protesters from gathering within 500 metres of their family home in London.

The court intervention was aimed at preventing extreme right-wing groups from demonstrating near their home, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The High Court has ordered an anti-harassment order banning protesters from gathering within 500m of the home of the family of the radical Islamist cleric currently wanted under terrorism charges in Jordan.

A key legal case brought by school leaders, teachers' unions and councils to reverse controversial grade-boundary changes in last summer's GCSE English exams has been dismissed in the High Court after it ruled that the boundary changes may have been unfair but were not illegal.

The controversy began when GCSE results were released last August that appeared to show that grade boundaries for English exams administered by Edexcel and AQA had been changed since the January assessments.

Some 10,000 pupils were affected by the boundary shift, missing out on the crucial C-grade in English that has a major effect on applications for further education, employment and vocational training. In other subjects, 40,000 students were affected by similar grade-boundary changes.

UK families look set to face a tough legal battle with UK-based pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), after it announced that it will defend claims made against it over the now withdrawn diabetes medication Avandia.

Avandia is the trade name for Rosiglitazone, a type of diabetic medication prescribed to type 2 diabetics.

The medication increases the sensitivity of cells to circulating insulin; however, it is associated with significantly higher risk of heart attacks and heart failure in patients on the medication compared to controls taking a placebo drug.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled against tobacco giant Imperial Tobacco in a case concerning the legality of a ban on display cases for cigarettes in shops and supermarkets in Scotland.

Bristol-based Imperial Tobacco, producer of Davidoff, John Player Special and Lambert & Butler brands, has failed on two occasions to block the move in Scottish Courts, eventually being forced to take their appeal to the highest court in the UK.

Yesterday the panel of five Supreme Court judges delivered their unanimous verdict, finding against the tobacco company. The ban on display cases in Scotland, brought in by an Act of the Scottish Parliament two years ago, will stand.

One of the UK's largest growers of trees, Crowders Nursuries, is to sue the Government over its slow response to the killer ash dieback disease which looks set to cause the destruction of huge numbers of ash trees around the UK.

The company, based in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, has already destroyed some 50,000 of its ash trees after it was hit by dieback.

The company claims that it warned the Government three months ago that its trees had been affected and wanted advice on what it should do.

The Chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten of Barnes, has come under fire for appointing a law firm with strong links to the BBC as the secretariat in its independent enquiries into alleged sexual abuses conducted by Jimmy Savile when he worked at the Corporation in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Lord Patten has instructed law firm Reed Smith to act as the secretariat for the review into why a Newsnight investigation into Savile was dropped in December last year.

A subsequent investigation by ITV revealed abuse of several women by Savile spanning three decades; since the programme aired the police have been notified of further abuses by almost 300 victims.

British businessman Karl Watkins has failed for a second time in his attempts to launch a private prosecution against two terror suspects due for extradition to the United States.

It is said the private prosecutions are designed to entangle the pair in a legal battle over here to further delay their extradition.

Babar Ahmad and Syed Ahsan have been charged in America with providing material to support terrorism, conspiring to kill Unites States citizens and money laundering.

Plans to cull thousands of badgers across the UK look set to go ahead after a legal battle seeking to prevent the move failed in the High Court.

The plans will involve the shooting of some 40,000 badgers across the UK. Farmers and land owners will be able to apply for licences to cull the animals, but to do so must have at acess to at least 70%
of the land in a cull area.

The proposed slaughter of the much loved, but often maligned woodland creature is sanctioned by DEFRA because of the impact which badgers have on cattle.

A jury has cleared an Oxford law graduate of their role in last summer's London riots, after taking just 30 minutes to find him not guilty.

The accused, Fahim Alam, was arrested on day two of the riots after police believed he was part of a fifty-strong crowd on Mare Street in Hackney. The crowd had attacked police on that day, throwing bricks and bottles and setting off fireworks. At one stage during the unrest, a pit bull dog was unleashed and ran to attack officers in full riot gear.

Mr Alam, who also has a master's degree from the London School of Economics, received extensive television coverage at the time, with his story appearing on the front page of several newspapers.

An independent study into the legal services sector has revealed that as many as six of the country's top law firms could be big enough for the Financial Times Stock Exchange index of the 100 largest firms in the UK. This would become possible if the large firms decided to float and offer up shares for sale to the public.

The study, conducted by Europa Partners, an investment advisory firm, has revealed that Allen & Overy would lead the pack as the largest legal services firm in the UK.

Using traditional corporate finance methodology the survey revealed that Allen & Overy would be worth around £2.6bn. This places it ahead of magic-circle rivals Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Clifford Chance.

One of the key principles of legal doctrine has been brought into the 21^st century by a High Court judge, who ruled that legal claims can now be served on a defendant via the internet.

The judgment, handed down Mr Justice Teare, gives the go-ahead for solicitors to serve claims using social networking site, Facebook.

The case in question concerned a £1.3m High Court claim brought by investment management firms AKO Capital LLP and AKO Master Fund against a broker, TFS Derivatives and an employee of theirs Fabio de Biase. The claim was also brought against a former employee of AKO, Anjam Ahmed.