All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1291
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News
Vulnerable defendants not helped in understanding court proceedings
Defendants with learning disabilities are routinely deprived of help with understanding criminal court proceedings, a report from the Prison Reform Trust has revealed. The report, published this week, found there was no systematic procedure for identifying adults with learning disabilities. Some defendants did not know why ...
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Paying referral fees is not a crime
What a relief to read Michael Moore’s recent letter in the Gazette (‘Don’t tie our hands’) as I had begun to think that I was the only solicitor left who didn’t regard the paying of referral fees as akin to some kind of criminal activity.
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Criminal law: youth justice and sentencing
Major changes are being made to the way that courts may sentence young offenders. On 27 April, provisions were brought into force to increase the use of referral orders. These are mandatory if the offence is imprisonable and a first-time offender admits the offence and all connected offences, and the ...
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Tory housing minister reignites HIP debate
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps’ recent confirmation that he would scrap home information packs (HIPs) has re-ignited the debate over what should replace them. Shapps said last week that removal of the controversial sellers’ packs would be his first task if the Conservatives win the next ...
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Importance of legal sector to UK economy is underappreciated
On becoming Law Society president I resolved that the commercial success of all English and Welsh law firms should be recognised and applauded. Legal services are more than just a British success story – they are an essential part of the UK economy. If the former ...
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Losing faith in the solicitors profession?
Is the profession losing faith – both in itself and the future? We ask because the Gazette’s letters and web pages have metamorphosed into agony columns. The underlying refrain is that solicitors are no longer respected as professionals; no longer due the degree of deference and consideration that reflects a ...
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Family law
Birth parents – Children’s rights – Residence orders Re B (a child): SC (Lord Hope (Deputy President), Lady Hale, Lord Collins, Lord Kerr, Lord Clarke): 19 November 2009 The appellant ...
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Legal groups publish ‘manifesto for justice’
An eight-strong coalition of legal, consumer and campaigning groups today published their ‘manifesto for justice’ as part of a political campaign intended to strengthen justice and the rule of law. AdviceUK, the Bar Council, the Institute of Legal Executives, Justice, the Law Centres Federation, the Legal ...
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Hair today
OK, the month of Movember may have officially passed now that December is here, but we could not resist this one. Staff at north-west firm EAD have been growing moustaches in aid of the charity event to raise awareness of men’s health issues. And as is often the case it ...
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Lawyers in UK and Ireland hit hardest by problems in property market
Only Ireland has suffered more job losses within its legal profession than the UK, the director general of the Law Society of Ireland said last week. Ken Murphy told delegates at a Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) meeting in Brussels that ...
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Maintaining our integrity
I write to comment on Michael R Moore’s letter about referral fees. I qualified in 1976 and can relate to and empathise with all that he recounts – with the exception of his final paragraph.
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, December 1949 Notes of the monthWe regret to record the death, on October 30, of Mr G. E. Hawkins, who we believe was the oldest ...
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Worse for wear
The launch of a new book, Employment Law Practice: Strategies for Success, has got the somewhat rumpled Obiter a little worried. Along with rather earnest chapters on ‘mastering non-contentious law’ and the like, the book has a more entertaining section on what to wear. There is ‘nothing worse’, the four ...
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Sharing spaces for lawyers may work, but only if lawyers want them to
I was travelling home on the tube the other day and the chap next to me was tapping away on a Windows Mobile device. He looked like an IT type so I engaged him in conversation. Nice fella – turns out he was working on a government project to create ...
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The ‘first’ justice commissioner – a three-minute guide
Who? Viviane Reding has just been appointed as the commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship in José Manuel Barroso’s new European Commission. As such, she will be responsible for the lawyers’ portfolio, along with the many justice issues that the commission now deals with. She is the first to ...
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Ethics and the legal profession, part three
In the last of three articles describing the history of ethics and the legal profession, Mark Humphries looks at the development of professional regulation and considers future ethical challenges
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What to watch in invoice finance
Invoice finance has grown enormously in the last decade after the banks had finally understood that they could not easily obtain a fixed charge over book debts. Rather than rely solely on a floating charge, banks realised that the safest way of financing the cashflow of ...
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Law Society Charity donates £369,000 to good causes
The Law Society Charity donated £369,000 to good causes over the past year despite the recession, it announced today. Its accounts for the 2008/09 financial year showed a 3.4% drop in grants made compared to the previous year. The charity supports organisations ...
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Government moves could hit City pay packets
Perhaps London’s investment bankers are wishing they’d chosen a career in corporate law instead. Alistair Darling looks set to come down heavily on banker bonuses in his pre-budget speech today, with commentators predicting a super tax on bonuses in excess of the impending 50% income tax for high earners.
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Generation gap
It came as a breath of fresh air to read in last week’s leader how as a profession we complain that we are no longer respected, while, on the facing page, a letter from Peter S Hughes confirmed his rugged independence and refusal to enter into referral fee arrangements.