Linnitts

Apparently somebody has been charged over £4,000 for photocopying documents in their divorce.The Legal Ombudsman is the regulator which settles disputes between client and solicitors firms.

The divorce rate for couples after they have been married 10 years or more is the same as it was in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s, according to a new report.

A couple who married in 2001 have the same chance of getting divorced after 10 or more years as a couple who married in 1971, the study by think tank The Marriage Foundation discovered.

One in five couples are divorced after 10 years, and the likelihood of divorce shrinks with each decade, the research found. Just 2% of weddings end in divorce after 30 years, with divorce rates after 40 years even rarer - fewer than 0.5% of couples divorce after being married 40 years or more.

Harry Benson, communications director at The Marriage Foundation, said: "All the change in divorce rates since the 1960s has occurred during the first 10 years of marriage. After 10 years of marriage, there's the same chance a couple who marry in 2013 will keep the vow 'till death us do part' as there was 40 years ago."

Half of all divorces currently take place during the first decade of marriage. The divorce rate during the first 10 years has fallen in recent years from a peak in 1993.

Mr Benson said: "Changes in divorce rates during the first 10 years reflect the care we take in forming our relationship in the first place. Couples who marry today are clearly making better choices, with fewer marriages breaking down in the very early years than in the 1990s and early 2000s."

Within the first decade of marriage, the highest number of divorces occurs between three and six years, debunking the myth of the "seven year itch".

Mr Benson said: "A couple who tie the knot on Valentine's Day this year have a 39% chance of divorcing during their lifetime. The so-called silver surfers - couples divorcing in their twilight years after many decades of marriage - is greatly overhyped and not supported by statistical evidence.

"Our research reveals that if a married couple survive the first 10 years of marriage, their risk of divorce is the same as it has been in the previous four decades."

The Foundation seeks to improve public understanding of marriage and reduce the numbers of people drawn into the family justice system - some 500,000 children and adults each year.

Chris Linnitt a Legal Executive of Linnitts Solicitors has just settled a claim for an amputee for £1.2 million. It has taken over 3 years, with several large interim payments. Liability was first denied, but at Linnitts we do not believe in raising the white flag. We fought hard and the Defendant finally conceded liability. The Claimant now has his life back on track and stated "I'm so glad that I instructed Chris. He argued my claim in a way that really understood my disability. I've never seen somebody on the other side of a legal case unable to answer questions. I think this was because of the way Chris fired it at them! Thank you for all your hard work Chris". Mr C W-T Topsham

The claimant, a 23-year-old woman, received £15,000, for the negligent dental treatment received in September 2011. She experienced avoidable permanent damage to the inferior dental nerve, mental foramen and mental nerve. Additionally she would suffer permanently with paresthesia to the lower lip and chin Out of Court Settlement 3/12/2012 LTLPI 14/2/2013

The claimant, a 32-year-old woman, received £15,000, for the defendant's failure to carry out an x-ray to her non-dominant little finger after she trapped it in a gate in December 2011. An x-ray taken 13 days later showed that the finger was broken and dislocated. Surgery to repair the finger was unsuccessful and it was permanently deformed. It was likely that she would develop radiological arthritis in the future, which may require surgery to address.

Out of Court Settlement 4/12/2012

A woman left fighting for her life after botched weight-loss surgery has been awarded £35,000 in compensation. Bridge McFarland settled the claim with Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust before the case went to court.

Discrimination case

A judge has ordered Hackney Council to pay £420,000 to barrister Natasha Sivanandan after she was turned down for two jobs with Hackney Action for Racial Equality.

British families face a battle for compensation against GlaxoSmithKline over its controversial diabetes drug Avandia, despite the drug maker agreeing to pay billions of dollars to settle claims in the US. GlaxoSmithKline has said it will continue to fight compensation claims from the relatives of people who died or were harmed by Avandia, which has been estimated to be responsible for 100,000 heart attacks in the US. The company has told claimants' solicitors it will continue to contest cases even though it has already admitted hiding data that showed the potentially dangerous side effects of the drug.

Metal-on-metal total hip replacements have a much higher failure rate than other options and "should not be implanted", say researchers.

They said data from the world's largest register of hip implants provided "unequivocal evidence" of the failure rate.

The risk was greatest for women, the young and for large implants.

The UK health regulator has already advised annual checks for people with large head metal-on-metal implants.

A six-year-old West Midlands girl who suffered severe brain damage in a car crash involving a speeding driver has been awarded nearly £5m compensation.

Cerys Edwards, of Sutton Coldfield, has needed 24-hour care since the crash in 2006, Birmingham's High Court heard.

Cerys' family will in addition receive £450,000 a year for the rest of her life.