All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1224
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Paperless lawyering – part two
My father worked for IBM for more than three decades. We were fortunate to see him make use of both electronic calculators and solar panels in the 1970s.
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Sugar leaves sour taste
The curse of Obiter has struck. Last week, we praised qualified lawyer Anita Shah (pictured) as she set out to become Sir Alan Sugar’s next apprentice in the BBC reality TV show. Unfortunately, the ‘self-proclaimed perfectionist’ was not perfect enough for Sugar and was fired in the first episode. She ...
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The Smedley report – perception and reality
As you may have noticed, there was a summit of global leaders in London this week. Cue chants of ‘shame on you!’ (and worse) outside the Bank of England.
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Scotland must try harder after report on trafficking
Scotland lags behind the rest of the UK in the fight against people trafficking. That is, at least, what a Scottish government report published earlier this month says.
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Is £90,000 too much protection, or not enough?
First of all: I’m a fan of the single market, which means you can probably label me ‘pro-Europe’. Having sat through lectures on EU law and the law of the single market while at university...
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Fraud claims reach record level, says ABI
Fraudulent insurance claims reached record levels in 2008, with dishonest claims totalling £14m exposed each week, the Association of British Insurers has revealed. ABI figures for 2008 released today (16 April) record 107,200 fraudulent insurance claims – more than 2,000 claims a week. The figures represent ...
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BSB obstructing Legal Services Act reforms, says solicitor
The Bar Standards Board is ‘single-handedly frustrating government policy’ by its tardiness in changing rules to permit barristers to join legal disciplinary practices (LDPs), according to a solicitor trying to set up a new-style partnership.
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Should the AG have power of veto over arrests for war crimes?
After spending nearly 35 years as a public prosecutor, it can’t be very easy to switch from advising on what the law is to thinking about what it ought to be.
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Appeal court warns against attempts to vary divorce settlements
The Court of Appeal has warned lawyers not to apply to vary the financial settlements of divorcees whose fortunes have been hit by the recession. In a strongly worded dismissal of an attempt by financier Brian Myerson to overturn a divorce agreement, three judges last week ...
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LSC survey finds legal aid firms lacking in financial skills
Legal aid firms lack the financial expertise needed to meet the challenges presented by reforms such as best-value tendering, according to research published this week. A study of financial management skills carried out for the Legal Services Commission by management consultant Andrew Otterburn shows that fewer ...
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Litigation: (nearly) the new alternative dispute resolution?
CEDR Solve, the dispute resolution services arm of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, announced that it has just dealt with its 15,000th referred dispute since its launch in 1990...
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Firm appoints first legal executive partner
Legal executive advocate Nick Hanning became the first legal executive to be made partner in a law firm under the Legal Services Act’s new business structure changes, according to the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX). Hanning, a personal injury lawyer at Poole firm RWPS, took his ...
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Why aren’t your computers talking with your phone system?
Law firms love the phone. They love letters too. This may be why they like faxes so much, given that they are a true combination of the two. These days they also love email, and even teleconferencing.
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Criticism of CPS associate prosecutors is misplaced
Your correspondent Judith Mills (see [2009] Gazette, Letters, 26 March, 11) unfairly and inaccurately attacked the standard of Crown Prosecution Service associate prosecutors. I strongly refute her comments.
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Attorney general promotes diversity in the profession
The diversity agenda must be pushed forward but positive discrimination in the legal profession is not the answer, according to the attorney general, Lady Scotland. In an interview with the Gazette, Scotland said there is ‘clearly lots to do’. The profession must ‘consolidate the work we ...
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Hearsay, bad character and identification evidence
The very wide use of the provisions of section 114(1)(d) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to allow the admission, as evidence of its truth, of hearsay evidence is further confirmed by the decision in R v RL [2008] EWCA Crime 973.
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Denby takes the biscuits
We were right when we bet that Gazette readers would find a longer-running lawsuit than the 13-year wrangle between Marks & Spencer and HMRC over VAT on biscuits (see [2009] Gazette, 26 February, 35). But we thought that the winner would be a matter of a year or two, or ...
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FSA hires investigators to take on ‘boiler room’ scams
The Financial Services Authority is to boost its ability to combat ‘boiler room’ scams by recruiting 20 additional investigators to its enforcement division, the Gazette has learned. The extra staff will supplement the planned recruitment of 40 investigators by the FSA’s director of enforcement, Margaret ...
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LSB publishes business plan and cost recovery proposals
The Legal Services Board today published its business plan for 2009/10 and named its senior management team. The plan gives priority to work on regulatory independence, alternative business structures, providing effective redress and the development of a model of regulatory excellence in legal services. ...
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Firms face ‘legal exposure’ over cancelled contracts
Law firms risk ‘reputational damage and legal exposure’ as increasing numbers of firms seek to defer or cancel training contracts due to the recession, a leading employment lawyer has warned. City firms Denton Wilde Sapte and LG are the latest to ask their prospective September 2009 ...