Issue: Vol 160, Issue 7407

Strong, stable families are the “bedrock of our society” is the opening statement of the government’s Support for All—the Families and Relationships Green Paper (the green paper) published on 20 January 2010.

Professional negligence litigation comes in fashions. One of the latest arises from the vogue for after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance obtained, usually by claimants on conditional fee agreements, as protection against any eventual liability to pay the defendants’ costs.

Prasannan v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea [2010] EWHC 319 (Admin), [2010] All ER (D) 279 (Feb)

Teixeira v Lambeth London Borough Council and another C-480/08, [2010] All ER (D) 249 (Feb)

R v Thames Water Utilities Ltd [2010] EWCA Crim 202, [2010] All ER (D) 222 (Feb)

Contrary to popular belief, “litigation PR” is not a dark art: it is much better described as conducting PR in a strait-jacket—the key difference with litigation PR being that it operates in an unusual, highly regulated environment because of the various court reporting restrictions and sub judice rules and so forth.

Since the first edition of Duncan and Neill in 1978 the libel landscape has changed dramatically and looks set to continue doing so.

The inquest into the death of David Gray, who died in February last year after a visiting locum GP, Dr Ubani, gave him a lethal overdose of Diamorphine, attracted national publicity. William Morris, the coroner for North and East Cambridgeshire, sat without a jury and did not mince words in his summing up last month.