• NATIONAL

SMSes may invite legal trouble

While the parties are planning to use bulk SMS service instead of recorded calls, their over-enthusiasm could invite legal action as through a new directive of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), SMSes have been included in the National Do Not Call Registry from February this year.

This means if a mobile user receives a message from a party without his/her written permission, he/she can complain to the TRAI on its toll free number (1909).

Ravi Ghate, founder of a city-based bulk SMS provider, said: "In case of non-compliance to the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations (2007), the SMS service provider is liable to pay Rs 5,000 for the first violation and for the second or subsequent violations, Rs 20,000 each is to be paid."

• INTERNATIONAL

Demonstrators get crash courses on legal rights ahead of London summit

As world leaders jet into London this week, armies of protestors are preparing to take to the streets - and they have been training to make sure their voices are clearly heard. With aims ranging from saving the planet to tearing down capitalism, tens of thousands are expected to rally as US President Barack Obama takes his first steps on European soil since taking office.

The activists, many of them veterans of protest against power stations and airport expansions, have been trained in everything from media awareness to how to defuse tense situations. A two-day crash course also teaches them about their legal rights, and what to do and say if they are arrested.

Legal professionals eye India for jobs

With economic recession deepening in the US, more and more legal professionals with international experience, both Indians and foreigners, are looking for jobs in Indian law firms and legal process outsourcing outfits.

A recent American media report said that more than 5,000 jobs in the legal sector were cut in the last two months in the US. Domestic law firms also feel that this is also the right time to hire from foreign countries lawyers who have good international experience. The New York Times in a recent report quoting statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said that around 5,500 jobs for lawyers and staff positions like paralegals and clerks were cut in January and February this year.