Blogs | Law Gazette

Woolwich, crime and mental health

jmaher — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:30:50 +0000

Murder of a soldier in south-east London – a horrid event with some further nastiness in its wider repercussions.

Woolwich isn’t too far from my home, and as when Damilola Taylor was murdered (close enough to our old flat to have the home secretary interviewed on TV outside it), in the days and years after the event, people have questions about what they term the state of our ‘communities’.

Privatising the courts

jmaher — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:28:55 +0000

Last year the government fattened up the Royal Mail for privatisation by imposing a 30% hike in the cost of a first-class stamp - its biggest price rise for 37 years. Job done. Annual profits have soared, it was disclosed this week. The Queen’s head is duly on the block, in the most ambitious privatisation since British Gas in 1986. If you see Sid... well, he probably knows already.

‘Christmas tree’ bills

jmaher — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:17:13 +0000

According to the official summary (slightly paraphrased) the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act exists to make provision about the Green Investment Bank; employment law; to establish the Competition and Markets Authority and to abolish the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading; to amend the Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002; to make provision for the reduction of legislative burdens; to make provision about copyright and rights in performances; likewise about payments to company directors; and for connected purposes.

Dealing with corruption in the UK

jmaher — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:41:10 +0000

This week, the Council of the International Bar Association (IBA) will consider Anti-Corruption Guidelines for Bar Associations. I remember when this was discussed in one of the IBA policy groups of which I am a member. The representatives from bars in the west (and from at least one other developed country) fell silent as if a rude word had been said, and commented in embarrassment that this had nothing to do with them. Of course, they could not oppose the IBA issuing such guidelines, but they felt it had no relevance to their work or the work of their lawyer members.

AXA says what we all think on referral fees

jmaher — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:26:04 +0000

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.

Airports: four decades of cancellations is enough

jmaher — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:08:44 +0000

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.

Law firms’ marketing plans

jmaher — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:45:58 +0000

I get to see a wide range of solicitors’ marketing plans ranging from the weighty dissertation to the single sheet.

Bringing back the death penalty

jmaher — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:34:01 +0000

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?

Will ABSs be allowed to cross EU borders?

jmaher — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:42:41 +0000

A report was published by the European Commission this week, keenly awaited by dedicated followers of European legal fashion. It gives important insights into lawyer cross-border mobility in Europe.

Judicial tension over costs budgeting

jmaher — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:37:58 +0000

The final report on the costs budgeting pilot, which was published last week, gives an interesting insight into a battle going on within the judiciary. As is known, the Commercial Court managed to win itself an exemption from costs budgeting some time ago by convincing Lord Justice Jackson that, in the high-value commercial cases dealt with in the CC, such measures were unnecessary. Jackson accepted this in his 2009 reform proposals.