The Northern Echo reported: “A month after losing his leg in a road smash 18-year-old Dennis O’Brien evaded police in Cleveland and County Durham for three days in a stolen £35,000 BMW.” It was declared that “A one-legged car thief out-ran police in a 130 miles an hour chase”

“When cornered on a motorway slip road, he reversed at speed along an embankment and footpath. He was caught sitting in the passenger seat of the car with the engine running …

It’s going to be a cold winter for Evershed’s associates with the enforcement of the firm’s new performance-related salary structure. On the back of a miserable summer, faltering economy and rising energy bills, this new structure is sure to have those associates stocking up on their Winter wares.

HR director Lucy Adams said “Performance related pay increases are common place amongst our clients and this builds on our move last year away from the traditional partner remuneration system of lockstep …

This week is turning into a bit of deluge. Cadwalader, in its second round of redundancies, is cutting back in a big way. Most of the carnage is happening across the pond, the worst affected offices being New York and Charlotte. However, the US firm’s London office is also affected, with a significant number of those being let go based in Cadwalader’s City office.

The cut will be across its capital markets and global finance groups, as revealed in a …

The Newcastle firm’s senior partner Hugh Welch said in a statement: “Muckle has presented a proposal to employees today to make a small number of people redundant due to the impact of the credit crunch and the ongoing uncertainty in the banking and property markets.”

“This decision has regrettably been taken as a consequence of our longer-term view of the economic climate that currently prevails. The proposal involves less than 20 people from business support and the commercial and property …

In June of this year, equalities secretary Harriet Harman announced plans for a new Equality Bill; controversially, the bill will include provisions for ‘positive action to open up opportunities.’ Employers will be bracing themselves…

Minister for equality Barbara Follett says it ‘will create a step change in opportunities in modern Britain. Ensuring diversity – both by protecting vulnerable groups where necessary and by building their capacity in the workplace – is essential if we are to create a wide pool …

BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have all signed up the deal, which will see hundreds of thousands of letters sent to net users suspected of illegally sharing music.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, which represents the music industry, said: "All of the major ISPs in the UK now recognise they have a responsibility to deal with illegal file-sharers on their networks," and added, "Conversations are ongoing between record labels and ISPs."

Mr Taylor continued: "The focus …

Clive Wismayer, of Wismayers Solicitors, Great Bookham filed a High Court order to force a county court to list a hearing on a landlord-tenant case in protest at what he claims is the ‘appalling’ level of administrative failures at courts.

HM Courts Service (HMCS) has declined to comment on individual cases although it did confirm that there has been a decline in complaints in recent years. In 2007-08, 8,556 complaints were made about county courts, 18% down on the previous …

Mr Justice Eady said: “The claimant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to sexual activities (albeit unconventional) carried on between consenting adults on private property.”

Eady went on to say: “Nor can it seriously be suggested that the case is likely to inhibit serious investigative journalism into crime or wrongdoing, where the public interest is more genuinely engaged.”

However the latter point has been vigorously contradicted by numerous representatives of tabloid media and the privacy v freedom of expression debate …

It has been reported that Linklaters senior partner David Cheyne and Slaughter and May corporate partner Nigel Boardman joined a discussion recently to consider what might be offered to those nearing retirement age and what help could be given to them finding positions outside the law.

Some of the City’s leading legal names have called for more options to be made available to partners as they approach retirement age. Whatever happened to the golf course or retirement villas in sun …

The bad news just keeps on coming in the world of property with job losses for lawyers and support staff across the country. Barnetts and Dickinson Dees are consulting on potential redundancies and Shoosmiths has seen 23 voluntary redundancies in its Northampton residential conveyancing team. Rumours abound about other ‘voluntary’ redundancies in some of the regional firms property departments.

As one agent put it: ‘We’re seeing both newly qualified and highly experienced residential property solicitors who’ve been made redundant. And …

Everyone seems to be getting in on the green bandwagon these days with oil prices hitting all time highs in the last few weeks and ’sustainable’ growth becoming the new mantra of business and politics but…

Lawyers John Steel QC and James Strachan, representing the Local Government Association, said an existing planning policy statement covered the concept of providing housing in new settlements in an environmentally sustainable way and that there was not clear justification for promoting eco-towns outside the …

Dickinson Dees has begun redundancy talks with three of the four departments in its volume business.

Approximately 165 staff, including a number of qualified solicitors, are employed by its volume arm ‘d3,’ which deals in remortgage, conveyancing, repossession and loss recovery and Home Information Packs (HIPs).

The legal costs in ­Formula 1 chief Max Mosley’s five-day privacy suit against the News of the World are likely to hit £1m.

Mosley took legal action against the newspaper after it managed to secretly film him participating in a sex orgy. Mosley’s legal team claimed that his privacy rights were breached.

Oh dear, the top 40 City firm per equity partner profits dropped to £755,000 from last year’s figure of £817,000, but the firm did manage a small increase in turnover, with revenue lifting through the £80m mark.

Less for more; looks like the credit crunch is really biting.

A Russian man was stabbed in the back after playing a variation of Russian roulette. The alleged attacker reported himself to the police.

The game involved drinking vodka, a fair bit one would assume, and dancing round a blindfolded man carrying a knife.

An announcement on the Clifford Chance intranet page “London Today” explained: “There will be an annual price rise in the restaurant, Deli, Budgie [bar] and vending machines of 6 per cent. The price of food served in the restaurant in the evenings will now be the same as during the day. These changes are against a background of rising food prices.”

A senior Clifford Chance partner said: “The restaurant is not a profit centre. Whilst I regret that we have to …