All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1360
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News
Legal aid debacle
I have to add my voice to what can only be termed as the legal aid tendering debacle where established existing providers have been cast aside in place of big boys/providers. My practice is in the London borough of Havering. It has been established for over ...
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News
Ain't misbehavin'
Home secretary Theresa May appeared to signal the end of the anti-social behaviour order last week, as she announced a review of asbos. Figures show that more than half of them were breached between 2000 and 2008. But it’s not as if asbos have never been good for anything – ...
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News
Move to protect anonymity of children
The Law Commission has recommended that children and young people who appear in Crown court trials should have a statutory right of appeal against a judge’s decision to allow reporting of their identity. Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 allows a judge ...
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Are Supreme Court justices more assertive than they were as law lords?
The president of the Supreme Court and his second-in-command could be forgiven for the enthusiasm with which they welcomed reporters to an end-of term briefing last week. ‘We think our first year has been a success,’ said Lord Phillips, with justifiable pride. The move from ...
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News
Public health – back to the future
We humans are a discontented lot, constantly seeking release from the imprisonment of the present. Fashions ebb and flow; and if you wait long enough, what was already obsolete yesterday will surely become today’s ‘must-have’. Thus, as Shakespeare’s clown in Twelfth Night would have it, ‘... the whirligig of time ...
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News
Why legal services reforms could turn out to be a big bang
When it comes to external investment in law firms, there is a lot of speculation and not many hard facts about how firms are planning to approach the new opportunities that will be available to them next year. While last month the Gazette reported that ...
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News
Legal bidding website launched
A new website that provides a forum where law firms can bid for legal work launched last week. The site, bid4fees.com, provides an online platform for prospective clients to confidentially list their legal problems and find a lawyer to advise them. ...
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News
Building the case for a bill of rights
Is the pendulum of justice swinging too far in favour of the prosecution? As a result of allegations of jury tampering, a recent high-profile case was heard by a judge alone. The Crown Prosecution Service has been heavily criticised for refusing to charge a police ...
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News
Chartis delivers professional indemnity insurance blow
The UK’s largest professional indemnity insurer does not have an ‘appetite’ to take on new law firms with fewer than 10 partners, it told the Gazette this week. Chartis, previously AIG, which had a 15% share of the solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market last year, ...
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News
Lawyers call for safeguards in EU investigation scheme
A planned EU-wide scheme that will make it easier for the police forces of member states to share evidence in their fight against international crime could have ‘grave implications’ for civil liberties, lawyers have warned. Home secretary Theresa May announced last week that the government would ...
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Profile
Interview with LSC chief executive Carolyn Downs
Carolyn Downs, who took over as chief executive of the Legal Services Commission in March, gave an interview to the Gazette this week. It was her first media interview since taking over her role at the LSC. Here is what I asked her, and her full responses.
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News
LSC chief: family tender outcome 'unintentional'
The Legal Services Commission did not intend the outcome of the recent family tender which saw a 46% fall in the number of providers, its chief executive told the Gazette this week in her first press interview since her appointment. Carolyn Downs (pictured), a career civil ...
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News
No choice for mental health clients
The letter from Hugh Barrett of the Legal Services Commission refers to the allocation of new matter starts according to ‘client demand’. He implies that the LSC are responding to client needs rather than the interests of solicitors. A clever approach but misleading.
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News
Cuts to the civil justice system may cost far more than they save
by Seamus Smyth, president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association We understand that all departments of the administration are required to reduce their expenditure by at least 20% – perhaps up to 40%. To the extent that this applies also to the administration of civil justice, ...
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News
RTA claims portal ‘loophole’
The chairman of the steering group overseeing the launch of the road traffic accident (RTA) claims portal has played down concerns from claimant lawyers that insurers are using a loophole to delay paying claims.
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News
Do concerns over rule of law in the Maldives signal trouble in paradise?
A crisis is brewing in the paradise islands of the Maldives.
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News
Courting success
At last week’s press conference to mark the Supreme Court’s first year in business, chief executive Jenny Rowe indicated that the court would be unable to operate if it had to make a 40% cut to its budget. But from what Lord Phillips revealed about how things used to be ...
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News
Criminal procedure
Change of plea – Postal pleas – Right to change plea after hearing Michael John Rymer v Director of Public Prosecutions: DC (Lord Justice Hooper, Mr Justice Rafferty): 21 July 2010 ...
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News
SRA fee: double the pain
I have a firm turning over £2.2m with eight solicitors. In 2009/2010, we paid £10,610 for practising certificates and the compensation fund etcetera.
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News
Down and out
Obiter takes his swimming cap off to Hamlins intellectual property partner Ian Down, who is set to swim the English Channel for charity this week. Apparently, the first successful swim crossing was by Captain Webb in 1875, and the average time to swim ...