THIS story caught my eye yesterday and from a libel lawyer's point of view it is a very interesting case in view of the role played by Twitter.

In my opinion, it is the impact of Twitter and that of blogs and other social media which is of real note here as it unquestionably changed the nature of the case.

Jon asks whether we have we reached a stage where technology has overtaken the legal process?

ONE characteristic of the downturn in the property market is a swing in the balance of power towards business tenants involved in lease negotiations.

Unsurprisingly the last twelve months has seen a general decline in new commercial property tenancies coupled with an unfortunate but inevitable rise in tenant insolvencies.

The result has been a significantly reduced demand for business tenancies causing landlords to suffer lower rental incomes and increased rates for the empty properties, this is something tenants can exploit to their advantage.

KIRWANS solicitor Philip Gray replies to a comment left on his earlier post on the prospective reform of legal costs in libel actions, which can be found here.

Simon - Thank you for your comments. Dealing with your first point, the principal of proportionality implies that unless there is good reason, costs should not exceed the value of a claim.

Of course there are a number of reasons why it may be just to allow costs to exceed the value of the claim, a good example being libel actions, where the claimant is primarily concerned with vindicating her reputation rather than receiving limited damages.

A RECENT decision by the High Court which will affect bloggers everywhere was handed by Mr Justice Eady last month.

This was the judge, you may recall, who awarded Max Mosley £60,000 plus costs in his privacy claim against News Group Newspapers, thereby incurring the wrath of many journalists.

Well this time Mr Justice Eady has come down on the side of a newspaper, The Times, after a blogger applied to Court for an injunction restraining the paper from exposing his identity.

LAST WEEK I went to a breakfast event in support of European SME (Small and Medium Size Enterprise) week, hosted by The Federation of Small Businesses and Liverpool John Moores University.

As part of the event, Liverpool City Council's executive member for enterprise and tourism, Gary Millar signed the FSB's "Small Business Engagement Accord", a voluntary code of practice designed to improve the level of participation between local businesses and the council.

Philip Gray considers the recent raft of new legislation designed to reduce carbon emissions in the property and building sector, in advance of Kirwans' free Environmental and Property Seminar on March 26, 2009, called 'Are you ready for the carbon crunch?'

Philip Gray looks at whether the growing media outcry on libel costs is justified and whether the Government's proposals for reform are warranted

LIKE an approaching tropical storm press and media discontent with libel costs and the use of CFAs by claimants has been steadily growing in momentum over the past six months to the point and is now approaching land, specifically the House of Commons.

Philip Gray says the laws protecting software rights are themselves "soft".

THE COMPUTER represents the greatest technological advance in the last 50 years and computer programmes (software) are the main intellectual property underpinning the IT industry.

In contrast, the law protecting software is far less progressive.

Much of the current legislation stems from the mid-1940s which provides that software developers are only protected by the 'soft IP' of copyright, rather than the 'hard IP' of a patent.

Last month a UN Report heavily criticized Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs - commonly referred to as no-win no-fee arrangements) now the Editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail, Mr Paul Dacre has strongly voiced his concerns over the use of CFAs by "unscrupulous" lawyers whose "scandalous greed" ramps up costs in cases involving the media.

Mr Dacre told the Society of Editors conference in Bristol on Sunday night that the combination of the current libel laws and use of CFAs meant that even well-resourced media groups like his own, Associated Newspapers, feared the financial implications of contesting certain libel and privacy actions and added that it was beyond the means of local newspapers to contest even the most factually straight forward of claims.

There is evidence from the US that the financial crisis has prompted a steady increase in claims in its courts and we all know that what happens first in America...well you know the rest.

A UN Report in the last month severally criticizes Britain's libel laws as being unduly restrictive stifling free speech so that newspapers, journalists and commentators are discouraged from critical reporting on matters of serious public interest to the public.

Grey goods are classed as products carrying a trade mark imported from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) for resale within. In law dealing with grey goods constitutes trade mark infringement even if the distributor was unaware he had bought grey goods. This punishment of innocent businesses does not apply to many other types of Intellectual Property - including copyright.

Blogging is becoming ever more popular as the tradition media struggles to retain viewers/readers and many people seek their news and editorial comment in the instant electronic online world where information is free and available in enormous magnitude. Yet much online content, including most blogs, is unedited, or, not subject to approval from the website publisher or ISP.

The new "Webster clause" from the landmark decision made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier this year, is likely to shape the future of football transfers and has already caused more than one top manager a headache.

Last week, the High Court ruled that Moseley's privacy had been infringed by The News of the World who published a video and front page article which showed intimate scenes of Mosley involved in S&M sessions with several professional dominatrices.