The tender miseries of a legal aid lawyer

Thursday, 29 July 2010 Back in March, when Jack Straw announced plans to turn the Legal Services Commission into an executive agency, the Ministry of Justice assured us that the department had already assumed tighter control of the quango. At the time, the Law Society called for greater clarity in respect of the ‘parameters within which [solicitors] are operating’. ...
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Reforms to employment tribunals are urgently needed

by Joanne Owers, chair of the Employment Lawyers Association and chair of the ELA Working Party on Employment Tribunals

This spring the management committee of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) decided to conduct a survey of its 5,500 members across England, Wales and Scotland to gain a clear understanding of their experience as representatives in employment tribunals.

Letters

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Employment and age-old problem

I was very upset to read the letter, titled 'Too old for the legal profession', in which a 59-year-old solicitor said he had been told that he is on the ‘scrapheap’ and unemployable. What on earth are firms thinking? What a fantastic opportunity to employ someone who is likely to have 30-plus years’ experience.

Conveyancing panel concerns

Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it is to remove from its conveyancing panel those firms that carry out a low volume of mortgage work over a rolling 12-month period.

Does that mean that Lloyds no longer wishes to look after our low-volume client and office account balances also, and that we should take our banking elsewhere?

Grenville Young, solicitor, Portsmouth

End of the line for police station advice?

Cuts in the provision of legal aid are perhaps an inevitable if uncomfortable consequence of the economic mess that we find ourselves in. However, we now learn that justice secretary Ken Clarke’s new-found enthusiasm for keeping offenders out of the prison system is matched by contemplation of a plan to reverse the landmark Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 – by withdrawing solicitors from providing face-to-face advice at police stations and at interview, and substituting a telephone consultation instead.

News blog

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Will tender contracts survive government’s legal aid strategy review?
Catherine Baksi
Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Over the last four months I have been kept busy writing about the outcomes of the Legal Services Commission’s tender exercises. First there was crime, followed by mental health, immigration, family and social welfare.

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Will Nick Green QC’s question on drugs possession be heard by government?
Catherine Baksi
Friday, 23 July 2010

In his recent report to the profession, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC attracted headlines by raising the question of whether personal possession of drugs should be decriminalised.

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Do corporate law and human rights mix?
James Dean
Thursday, 22 July 2010

‘Corporate and securities law directly shapes what companies do and how they do it. Yet its implications for human rights remain poorly understood. The two are often viewed as distinct legal and policy spheres, populated by different communities of practice.’ Discuss.

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