Regulating will-writing is simple common sense

Monday, 20 May 2013 The Gazette has been known to raise an eyebrow at the laissez-faire proselytising of the Legal Services Board – that’s not what it is (or ought to be) there for. But this week the super-regulator has been effortlessly outflanked by justice secretary Chris Grayling (pictured), seemingly in defiance of all reason. All the heavyweight initialis...
Chris Grayling
Comment
Price-competitive tendering risks demolishing the supplier base

by Desmond Hudson, chief executive of the Law Society

Whether driven by political dogma or economic necessity, it is clear that the Ministry of Justice will have to find savings in criminal legal aid.



Letters

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Law firms: information overload?

Firms will soon be obliged to publish diversity data – perhaps on their website or in reception if they have no website. I find it hard to see how, in a firm which consists of one person only (such as mine), it can be consistent with the Data Protection Act 1998 to force that individual to disclose their age, race, disabilities, ethnic group, schooling and the like (gender and religion are exempt from the publication requirements) and be obliged to publish it.



A sad day for the legal profession

Until this afternoon I had sympathy with colleagues who specialise in claimant personal injury work; that was until I received an unsolicited call from a north-west firm. About 18 months ago, my vehicle was involved in a collision where a car collided with my driver’s door, causing damage. I was not in the vehicle at the time; I was in the pub having a quiet pint. The only person caused any form of distress or upset was my wife – it was her car. The cost of repair was dealt with between insurers.



Barmy PCT model

You report the excellent news that of the 25 highest-earning criminal legal aid firms, only a tiny minority will sign the new contract. This shows that, at long last, our branch of the profession has found its spine. Governments have respect only for those who fight hard, as our medical colleagues know. It may, however, be too little and too late.



News blogs

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AXA says what we all think on referral fees
John Hyde
Friday, 17 May 2013

I come from a depressing, end-of-the-line town called Clacton-on-Sea. You probably stayed there in a caravan once, but had the fortune to leave after a long rainy weekend. Not me, I was stuck there, with just candyfloss and those two-penny machines to see me through to 18.

Now, I’m allowed to say what I like about Clacton. But if any outsider ever dares do the same, they’ll have me to deal with. (Not much admittedly, but it sounds threatening.) Which brings me (and stick with me on this one) to referral fees.

10 Comments


Airports: four decades of cancellations is enough
Michael Cross
Thursday, 16 May 2013

Last year I made two longish-haul journeys for the Gazette to fast-growing economies of interest to UK law firms. Neither of my destinations – Bogota and Erbil – had a direct flight from London. The trips involved spending time (and money) in Amsterdam, Madrid and Vienna.

Even more graphically than Heathrow’s barely contained chaos at peak time, the lack of direct connections to important emerging markets brought home Britain’s chronic failure to get to grips with air transport policy.

2 Comments


Bringing back the death penalty
Paul Rogerson
Tuesday, 14 May 2013

I expect the acutely distressing case of Tia Sharp to spark fresh debate about reintroducing the death penalty, and not only because her father has called for the murderer to be hanged. It can’t happen, you may say - not least because so many appalling miscarriages of justice have been exposed in the decades since capital punishment was abolished. The posthumous pardon of Derek Bentley is perhaps the most potent weapon in the armoury of its detractors.

Parliament hasn’t voted on the death penalty since the 1990s. But is the political wind changing?

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