All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1426
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News
Making our voices heard on legal aid
As we await the government’s response to submissions received on its legal aid green paper, I would like to express my thanks to all of you who took the time to write to government to express your views on this important issue. I know that not ...
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Conveyancing firms alerted over CQS 'risk consultants'
The Law Society has warned conveyancing firms seeking to join its Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) not to incur unnecessary costs by hiring unauthorised risk and compliance consultants to help with their applications. The CQS has received 633 applications from firms since the scheme’s launch in January ...
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Polishing the angels
When I tell people I am writing about organised crime down under, they often say ‘I didn’t know there was any’, writes James Morton. Oh, but there is. A big gangland war in Melbourne is coming to an end, mainly because there is only one man left standing. In the ...
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‘Head in the sand’ approach is costly
I find the Legal Services Commission’s assertions that defendants have been assessed as able to pay and that delays are caused by forms having to be returned disingenuous. Just because the LSC has assessed that defendants should contribute 90% of their income does not mean ...
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Motor insurers 'should reveal referral fee arrangements'
Motor insurers should publish on their websites the names of law firms with which they have referral fee arrangements, and indicate the level of fees paid, a House of Commons inquiry recommended last week. Policyholders should be sent this information with their insurance documents, and when ...
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New sentencing guidance for assault
The Sentencing Council has today published new guidance to judges and magistrates for assault offences. It aims to ensure a more consistent and proportionate approach to sentencing, with offenders receiving a sentence that reflects the harm they have caused to their victim and their culpability. ...
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Government publishes Defamation Bill
The Law Society has welcomed the debate over libel law reform following publication of the government’s draft Defamation Bill today. The bill, which is intended to bring libel law up-to-date, includes a new ‘public interest’ defence, and introduces the requirement for claimants to demonstrate ‘substantial ...
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Call to sue councils that are 'failing the vulnerable'
The case of a mentally ill man who attempted suicide after being discharged from hospital to a park bench has prompted mental health solicitors to call on lawyers to sue local authorities that fail to provide adequate healthcare for some of society’s most vulnerable members.
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Consumers want clarity over law firm charges
Consumers want to see charges that are easy to understand, and a ‘solicitor who remembers their name’ when they use a law firm, according to research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. A study based on interviews with 40 recent purchasers of legal services found that ...
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How chief constables' independence could be jeopardised
by Fraser Sampson, chief executive and solicitor at the West Yorkshire Police Authority In the exercise of their powers the police are answerable to the law and the law alone. So held Lord Denning in R v Metropolitan Police Commissioner, ex parte Blackburn. Since then the ...
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Magistrates fight planned court closures
The first two judicial review actions seeking to prevent magistrates’ court closures were issued last week, the Gazette has learned. The proceedings seek to challenge the planned closure of Sedgemoor Magistrates’ Court in Somerset and Barry Magistrates’ Court in the Vale of Glamorgan. ...
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Compliance rules may hit sole practitioners
Proposed changes to the way sole practitioner firms are authorised could see many forced to stop practising due to the ‘unique problem’ they will face meeting new compliance requirements, the Sole Practitioners Group (SPG) has warned.
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News
Damned statistics
Hard-pressed Obiter knows what it’s like to be busy-busy-busy, so has full sympathy for the Ministry of Justice’s 31 press office staff, none of whom quite had the time to spread news of the 2010 civil service staff survey results when they were made ‘public’ at the end of January. ...
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Grown-up debate on mediation
Mediation is not an alternative to litigation, though it has a place in the whole process. Mediators make all sorts of claims for mediation – that it is cheaper, quicker and better than litigation. Where is the research evidence for this? Collaborative ...
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Judge slashes success fee in Trafigura dispute
A senior costs judge has cut the £105m costs claimed by London firm Leigh Day & Co following its action against oil company Trafigura. In a preliminary judgment last month, Master Hurst reduced the success fee that the firm can claim under the conditional fee agreement ...
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Employment
Civil procedure – Industrial action – Interim injunctions National Union Of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers v Serco Ltd (T/A Serco Docklands): Associated Society Of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen v London & Birmingham Railway Ltd (T/A London Midland): CA ...
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No escaping justice
When judges are in the news, it is normally because of some judicial pronouncement that has failed to find favour in certain quarters. So Obiter was stunned last week to learn of two judges thrust into the limelight because of a rather more animated set of events in the courtroom. ...
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Politicians need to stop showboating over Europe
Sir Alex Ferguson should stop complaining about referees: David Cameron should shut up about judges. Attacking them rarely pays dividends in the long run. Look at the fate of David Blunkett. The populist politician who took on Lord Woolf is pretty much forgotten. His onetime ...
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Family law
Civil evidence – Local government – Care proceedings H v City & County Of Swansea & Ors: CA (Civ Div) (Lady Justice Arden, Lords Justices Black, Richards): 2 March 2011 ...
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Legal funding
Legal advice – Local government – Insurance D Sousa v Waltham Forest London Borough Council: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Ward, Moore-Bick, Etherton): 3 March 2011 The appellant local authority ...