Update: 22 December 2007
Legal Blog Watch's Carolyn Elefant predicts:
'2008 will be a banner year for single-issue blogging, like David Rossmiller's coverage of "everything Richard Scruggs," Above the Law's coverage of Aaron Charney's lawsuit against Sullivan & Cromwell or Durham in Wonderland, covering the Duke lacrosse team rape case.'
Dickie Scruggs, an American lawyer, and others pleaded [...]

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A Sydney silk took his computer into work at the Department of Public Prosecutions to be fixed. The repairman mentioned the child pornography on the hard disk to his superiors, and the Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor was suspended on leave with pay and has said he will plead guilty to a charge of possessing child [...]

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Thanks to Overlawyered I bring you the story of the US plaintiffs' lawyer who has advertised for personal injury work arising out of car accidents on a 15% contingency fee basis instead of the normal 33%. The mischievous quirk of behaviour has not been particularly warmly accepted by his peers. This post looks at that [...]

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There is no doubt that mere negligence cannot constitute misconduct in the traditional concept of that expression: Myers v Elman [1940] AC 282 at 288; Re Hodgekiss (1959) 62 SR(NSW) 340 at 351; Re Veron (1966) 84 WN (Pt 1) (NSW) 136 at 143 (CA); Re Miles (1966) 84 WN (Pt1) (NSW) 163 at 173 [...]

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The following passage from the NSW Court of Appeal's decision in Lindsay v Health Care Complaints Commission [2005] NSWCA 356 (Hunt AJA, others agreeing) casts some doubt on whether a medical disciplinary tribunal presided over by a judge had power to stay a disciplinary proceeding as an abuse of process. The issue arose in the [...]

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In "Whistleblowers and the Law of Defamation: Time for Statutory Privilege?" [2005] 3 Web JCLI, David Lewis cites More v Weaver [1928] 2KB 520 as authority for the general proposition that lawyer-client communications are absolutely privileged, that is, that they may not be sued upon in defamation. I have not read the case to check [...]

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In Sexter & Warmflash, P.C. v Margrabe, 2007 NY Slip Op 00065, a woman hired lawyers to represent her and her brother in a dispute with a cousin. The lawyers charged a reduced fee but could charge a 50% premium upon resolution of the dispute. The dispute was settled, but the woman thought the lawyers [...]

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Kenneth Nguyen's analysis in The Age about the importance, from the point of view of the composition of the High Court, of the next election, is worth reading. He says the next federal election is expected some time after September this year, the same month Callinan J must retire by. The Chief Justice must retire [...]

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Courtesy of Legal Blog Watch, here are three US law bloggers' best and, more interestingly, worst of lists for 2006:

Blogger Christopher Taylor, serves up the year's top 10 outrageous legal moments.
At the CNN Law Center, lawyer and commentator Kendall Coffey shares his picks for the best and worst in legal news for 2006.
Dahlia Lithwick's 10 [...]

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In Grego v Great Western Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd [2006] WASC 284, Justice Peter Blaxell of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, gave this little account of the duty of confidentiality owed by a non-lawyer professional to his or her client:

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