Mark Stobbs
- News
Criminal legal aid: what now?
The government’s latest consultation paper on legal aid makes grim reading for any solicitor who undertakes criminal defence work and, indeed, for many providers of other legally aided work.
- News
The SRA and referral fees
I attended the SRA's seminar on referral fees on 19 November. It was part of its consultation exercise on implementing the poisoned chalice of the ban on referral fees for personal injury cases. It was well attended and the SRA ought to take credit for listening to the worried and ...
- News
The Co-op’s a game-changer
I had the privilege of attending the launch of the Co-operative Legal Services Family Law service at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It was a fascinating and thought-provoking occasion.
- News
Bar needs to rethink on referral fees
Referral fees don’t go away. I’ll probably be writing later about the latest SRA consultation, but my immediate attention’s been caught by the latest guidance on the subject from the Bar Council’s Professional Practices Committee (PPC).
- News
We need to work even harder to make the profession inclusive
by Mark Stobbs, director of legal policy at the Law Society
- News
Rip it up and start again
The government’s announcement that it would prohibit referral fees may have caused initial joy among the many supporters of the Society’s policy that such fees should be banned. But a closer look at the amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) to achieve this policy ...
- News
Flaws in the quality assurance scheme for advocates threaten the criminal justice system
It is over five years since a single, late, unconsulted, unevidenced sentence in Lord Carter’s report on legal aid recommended that there should be a quality assurance scheme for advocates. Since then, groups from the bar, Law Society, judiciary and the Legal Services Commission have been arguing about exactly what ...
- News
Fixed-fee concerns
I am writing following your report about the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers withdrawing from the fixed-fee mediations run by the Civil Justice Council (see [2009] Gazette, 17 September, 3).