A Brazilian court on Wednesday ordered telecommunications providers to block all access to the WhatsApp phone-messaging application for 48 hours throughout Brazil, as a punishment for WhatsApp's refusal to communicate with the court. | 8yrs

A test carried out by the University of Michigan found that computers were able to outperform humans in spotting liars in courtrooms. | 8yrs

Vladimir Putin has signed a law that allows the Constitutional Court of Russia to decide whether to comply with judgements made by international human rights courts. | 8yrs

Days after VW chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch admitted that engineers began working as early as 2005 on emissions cheating software, the carmaker is faced with legal action in India and China. | 8yrs

The disappearance and reappearance of Fosun Group founder and chairman Guo Guangchang and the lack of information released by the company highlight the opaqueness of China's legal system, according to analysts. | 8yrs

The demand for legal services in the areas of corporate and commercial law in Uganda is growing, according to David Mpanga, managing partner of Kampala-based law firm AF Mpanga. | 8yrs

Rideshare firm Uber has released a new contract to all of its drivers in the US that purports to solve problems a judge said made arbitration requirements in the previous agreement unenforceable. | 8yrs

Pure Legal Limited has completed the £13 million acquisition of York-based personal injury firm Pryers, with the intention of building a profitable PI business in the fixed-fee era. | 8yrs

Riverview Law has gone live with Kim, technology that will from Q1 2016 power an innovative series of legal Virtual Assistants. | 8yrs

East Anglia-based law firm Ashton KCJ has used an increasingly popular paid time off (PTO) policy to boost the productivity of its lawyers. | 8yrs

In first of 16 legislative proposals to be presented as part of the strategy to create a 'digital single market' across the EU, the European Commission (EC) has unveiled proposed new rules on digital content and online shopping. | 8yrs

Lord Chancellor Michael Gove has announced that the controversial criminal courts charge for convicted defendants is to be scrapped from 24 December. | 8yrs

Mayer Brown has announced that two prominent partners from Baker & McKenzie in Washington, DC — Charles Salem Hallab and Tahan Thraya — have joined the firm as corporate and securities partners. | 8yrs

City litigators have warned that government investment in London's commercial legal infrastructure is not enough to maintain its reputation as the go-to location for global business disputes. | 8yrs

Watson Farley & Williams says its investment in lateral hires has seen revenues increase, as the firm posted five per cent growth in half-year revenues for the period to 31 October. | 8yrs

Lawyers from across the US yesterday descended on a courthouse in New Orleans to vie for a potentially lucrative assignment: a role in the huge consumer-fraud litigation facing Volkswagen AG over it emissions scandal. | 8yrs

Linklaters CFO Peter Hickman is among a group of former Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBoS) executives who may face a fresh probe by the financial and regulatory authorities over the bank's collapse. | 8yrs

In contrast to the Law Society, the SRA has welcomed government proposals to make legal services regulators completely separate from representative bodies. | 8yrs

Mark Jackson, EVP and GC for Dow Jones and SVP and deputy GC for its parent company News Corp, has decided to leave the company. He will stay on in both roles until the end of the month. | 8yrs

Linklaters is in discussions with two Chinese law firms, Shanghai Kai-Rong Law Firm and Shanghai Capital Law & Partners, as it attempts to become the first Magic Circle firm to practise Chinese law. | 8yrs