Homeowners Sue over Unfair Mortgages

8th October 2009
In England a group of over 300 homeowners have won the right to sue Barclays and Bank of Scotland over allegedly unfair "Shared Appreciation Mortgages" mortgages, whereby the customers undertook to pay an additional charge on redeeming their mortgages of up to 75% of the increase in property value in exchange for low or zero intitial interest rates.

By reason of the housing market boom of before the recession, some customers would have to repay up to almost 4 1/2 times the original loan, constituting an equivalent effective interest rate of over 35% per annum.

It is estimated that ...

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Legal Services Bill

1st October 2009

The Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, nicknamed "Tesco Law", has been introduced into the Scottish Parliament.

It proposes the introduction of socalled alternative business structures, i.e. firms made of lawyers and other busines professionals, like accountants, who have previoulsy not been allowed to practise together except in certain limited circumstances, e.g. company in-house legal advisers. Based on recommendations by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the Bill is intended to offer the public more choice of legal services.

The idea is that clients (or customers) may access a range of services under the same roof, while professionals from different ...

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Gill Report Published Today

1st October 2009

Lord Gill's Report on his Review of Scottish Civil Justice was published today and is available to view online on the Scottish Court Website at: www.scotcourts.gov.uk/civilcourtsreview.

The Report's aim is to recommend means of improving civil justice by making it faster, cheaper and fairer. Having taken almost 2 1/2 years to prepare, it examines, among other issues, costs of litigation to parties and to the public purse, mediation and other methods of dispute resolution, modern methods of communication and case management, and specialisation of courts or procedures.

The Report is rather lengthy, comprising ...

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