All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1278
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Banking and finance
Mortgage fraud – Recovery orders Serious Organised Crime Agency v Athos Thanos Pelekanos: QBD (Mr Justice Hamblen): 2 October 2009 The applicant agency applied for a recovery order under part ...
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Outsourcing boasts many benefits, but it is not a quick fix in hard times
In these challenging economic times, even the most conservative law firms are looking at ways to remain competitive and profitable, often by reducing costs.
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Claim of racial bias by insurers in indemnity cover
The Law Society is investigating allegations that professional indemnity brokers and insurers have discriminated against firms with African and Asian-sounding names, the Gazette has learned. The Society received a complaint to its professional indemnity insurance helpline from a solicitor in Birmingham, claiming that insurers were providing ...
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New rules will help clients to challenge solicitors’ bills
Solicitors will have to give clients more information about how to challenge bills under new rules to be introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The SRA board will decide on specific wording which solicitors must include when they send a bill, to ensure that clients know ...
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Shoosmiths and HP in pro bono tie-in with Prince's Trust
National firm Shoosmiths and the in-house legal team at computer giant HP yesterday launched a new pro bono initiative with the Prince's Trust youth charity to provide legal advice to young business people in the Thames Valley. They will give free legal advice to 18-30-year-olds who ...
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Boom time for litigation funding
Third-party litigation funding broker Calunius Capital has begun investing in its own cases, Gazette sister publication Litigation Funding will reveal this week, amid a flurry of activity in the litigation funding sector. Calunius said it is investing in litigation in conjunction with funders that ...
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Lord chief justice calls for rethink of court tradition
The operation of the traditional court needs to be rethought to take into account technological advances that have rapidly changed society and influenced jurors, the lord chief justice (pictured) said this week. Speaking a year after becoming head of the judiciary, Lord Judge said that the ...
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Court rules on legal privilege in Prudential case
Accountants and lawyers should operate on a ‘level playing field’ when it comes to disclosing legal advice on certain issues, a High Court judge said last week.
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Unregulated will writers failing clients, says Chancery Lane
Unregulated will writers are providing the public with unenforceable wills while charging for legal services they are not trained or regulated to provide, the Law Society claimed this week. Solicitors specialising in will writing told the Society they have been handed invalid wills drafted by unregulated ...
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‘Super injunctions’ come under fire from senior judge
MPs were preparing to debate the impact of so-called super-injunctions on parliamentary proceedings as the Gazette went to press. This followed last week’s media feeding frenzy that saw renowned libel lawyers Carter-Ruck accused of trying to gag parliament on behalf of a client, the oil ...
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Lord Woolf raps solicitors for CPR failings
Lord Woolf (pictured) has blamed lawyers, the judiciary and government for blunting the impact of his 10-year-old reforms to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). The retired law lord, addressing members of the London Solicitors Litigation Association last week, said lawyers had ‘made an industry’ of some ...
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Lending credibility
I write on behalf of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) in response to the letter from Alan Tunkel published in the Gazette on 1 October.
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Criminal law roundup: more than just the usual suspects
Many suspects now surrender themselves to the police when it is known that they are subject to an investigation. They attend the police station as volunteers. Police culture is still deeply committed to making an arrest at that point. However, every arrest must be justified under section 24 of the ...
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Diary of a redundancy (part three)
You punch in the number of the charity. ‘It’s a kind offer,’ you say into the telephone, and then hesitate. The charity has offered you a job as an adviser. The money is a third of what you were pulling in as a proper solicitor before those born-out-of-wedlock partners made ...
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Winter of our discontent
As any lawyer knows, statutes are not normally up there with a Dan Brown novel when it comes to page-turning over-the-top drama. Let’s face it, they tend to be pretty dull. But it turns out the law has not always been such a snore – it has simply lost its ...
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Woolf at the door
The ‘statutorily senile’ Lord Woolf, to quote his own words, entertained a capacity crowd last week with a lecture to the London Solicitors Litigation Association. The former lord chief justice was on fine form, Obiter is pleased to report. Spare no sympathy for criminal lawyers in portakabins, he said, referring ...
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Land Registry slashes one in five jobs
The Land Registry, which lost £130m last year, announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs – more than one if five of its workforce – and shut five of its 17 offices. Offices in Peterborough, Portsmouth, Croydon, Stevenage and Tunbridge Wells will close and other changes will ...
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Supreme follies
Having spent the afternoon hearing how the British government is undermining the right to custodial legal advice by reducing lawyers’ fees, Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, took to the stage to cheer up delegates at the Law Society’s conference on legal advice at the police station last week.
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, October 1919 Solicitor, practising in country market town, about to article his son (17) would ...