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05 February 2009
Issue: 7355 / Categories: Features , Local government , Constitutional law
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Civil way: 6 February 2009

Featured this week

Court in recession
Of high interest

For how much longer can the 8% judgment debt interest rate be justified? Easily the best investment on the globe at the moment—so long as the debtor ultimately pays up. Debtors may soon be asking for pre-judgment interest, on which the court has discretion, to be awarded at less than 8% or over a shortened period. The commercial debt late payment rate of 8% over base coupled with late payment compensation of £40 to £100 are even better bets for the creditor. And what of the hapless former wife saddled with a statutory charge attracting 8%? That rate has remained constant for over three years. Time for a reduction.

The economic gloom may have overtaken the policymaking on intestacy limits. The Family Provision (Intestate Succession) Order 2009 (SI 2009/135) on which consultation closed over three years ago increases the statutory legacy in favour of the spouse or civil partner from £125,000 to £250,000 where there are children and from £200,000 to £450,000 where there are

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
he abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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