All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1277
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Sole practitioner survivor
The extinction of the sole practitioner has been prophesied for so many years now that the prophets of doom should by now be feeling a little self-conscious. Your own pages have seen some wonderfully confident predictions of disaster in the recent tough round of PII renewals.
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SIF referendum
The solution to the professional indemnity insurance difficulties described by Jonathan Jacobs (see [2009] Letters, 24 September, 9) is to resurrect the Solicitors Indemnity Fund. The SIF regime may have had its faults but it was greatly preferable to what we have now.
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Litigation funder lists on AIM
Litigation funder Burford Capital has raised £80m following a share placing on the London Stock Exchange’s alternative investment market (AIM). The placing means that Burford has become the second UK-listed third-party litigation funder, after Juridica Investments listed on AIM in December 2007 and raised £80m. Juridica ...
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How to get a better deal on your firm's mobile bills
You may have read that T-Mobile is being bought by Orange. As someone with a keen eye on the mobile market, it occurs to me that this little merger will take up to two years to get sorted. I suspect that in that time, with the resulting slightly chaotic administration ...
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Oops, another EU lawyer training proposal
This is how policy comes about.I was scanning what I assumed was an innocuous resolution from the European Parliament on the future five-year programme for justice and home affairs (the so-called Stockholm Programme).
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‘Radical reform’ planned for assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is soon to launch a consultation on ‘radical reform’ of the assigned risks pool, the Gazette can reveal. It is understood that proposals for consultation could include changes to the conditions for entry or even the demise of the pool. ...
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CPS consults on changes to prosecution code
The Crown Prosecution Service today launched a 12-week consultation on changes to the code for Crown prosecutors. The code sets out the principles that prosecutors must follow when deciding whether or not to prosecute an individual. The test set out in the code, and applied in ...
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Money Claim Online and getting tough on debts
Sometimes, when calling in debts from friends, I mimic a silver screen drug lord calling in a debt from a business associate, promising a bloodbath of gun violence should he fail to pay up. It’s more like an unintentionally comic Tony Montana-in-Scarface type of threat, rather than a coolly menacing ...
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Law Society warning on unregulated will writers
Unregulated will writers are causing havoc among members of the public and in some cases are failing to provide people with valid wills, the Law Society claimed today. According to the Society, many solicitors specialising in will writing, trusts and probate have been handed invalid and ...
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New legal aid rates for family advocacy
The Ministry of Justice today announced new fixed advocacy rates for family legal aid, which harmonise the fees paid to solicitors and barristers. The new structure follows a lengthy consultation process and will see hourly rates replaced with standard fees. Barristers and solicitors will be paid ...
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Venture capitalists need tempting, not confusing
There’s an interesting debate on the issue of investment in solicitors continuing on the Law Society’s LinkedIn group. I think it’s worth looking at the issues here too.The basic question that started the debate is ‘what impact will private equity have on the legal sector?’
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‘Super-injunction’ not able to gag parliament, says Prentice
The Guardian newspaper and libel lawyers Carter-Ruck were wrong to conclude that a ‘super-injunction’ could prevent reporting on parliamentary proceedings, justice minister Bridget Prentice said yesterday.
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Call for ‘hard line action’ on coal health compensation
The government has come under renewed pressure to probe the alleged undersettlement of coal health compensation claims, after an MP wrote to business secretary Lord Mandelson calling on him to take ‘hard line action’ against any law firms that might have undersettled. Dai Davies, Independent MP ...
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Call for ‘hard line action’ on coal health compensation
The government has come under renewed pressure to probe the alleged undersettlement of coal health compensation claims, after an MP wrote to business secretary Lord Mandelson calling on him to take ‘hard line action’ against any law firms that might have undersettled. Dai Davies, Independent MP ...
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Insurers plan advertising campaign for personal injury claims
A number of insurers are gearing up to launch advertising campaigns to persuade personal injury claimants in motor accidents to bypass solicitors and deal directly with the responsible party’s insurer, it is believed. The news comes as the Financial Services Authority confirmed that it does not ...
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Law Society slams legal aid ‘shambles’
Government policy on legal aid is a ‘shambles’ with no clear direction, the Law Society said this week. Chief executive Des Hudson said recent government announcements seemed to indicate that the Ministry of Justice is ‘jumping from one position to another’. The ...
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SIF amateurs
Paul Hemelryk, in calling for the restitution of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, obviously did not have the experience that I did with SIF.
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Bar Council chairman in call to arms for barristers
Bar Council chairman Desmond Browne QC (pictured) last week criticised barristers’ apparent apathy regarding the ‘historic challenges’ facing the profession, following a disappointing response to this year’s council elections. With under a week to go before yesterday’s deadline, just three nominations had been received for ...
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SRA to look at ‘radical reform’ of assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is soon to launch a consultation on ‘radical reform’ of the assigned risks pool. It is understood that proposals for consultation could include changes to the conditions for entry or even the demise of the pool. There ...
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Bumper bonuses are back, but don’t expect a return to business as usual
House prices have soared to a new record, bumper bonuses are back in the Square Mile and the stockmarket is booming. It’s deja vu all over again in London. After a painful bout of retrenchment quite without parallel, can the big City law firms expect a return to business as ...