All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1452
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Sounding off
The capital’s cabbies aren’t cheap, so a free ride is not to be sniffed at. The Law Society's Sound off for Justice campaign was offering Londoners precisely that last week. The campaign hired three specially branded black cabs, complete with ...
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PC fee expected to fall in 2011/12
Law firms and solicitors could see their regulatory fees slashed by almost a fifth this year. However, there is likely to be an increase in contributions to the compensation fund. Under SRA plans to be put before its board tomorrow, the individual ...
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Legal aid faces threat of further cuts following rape backlash
The government is considering fresh legal aid cuts because Kenneth Clarke's politically maladroit remarks about rape sentencing have jeopardised its bid to save money by cutting the prison population, it has been suggested to the Gazette.
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The row over civil costs will not be over any time soon
The apparent banning of Marmite from Denmark’s supermarket shelves was a golden opportunity for marketing chiefs. I’m pretty certain the reverberations of losing a few Krone will be more than offset by the presence of the Marmite brand in every news outlet for the last couple ...
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The revolution behind the recent ECJ decision on notaries
The Law Society Gazette reported a few days ago that the European Court of Justice decided to open up the continental notaries’ profession to all nationalities. That is a big change. But it does not represent the real revolution behind ...
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LSB publishes final referral fees decision
The Legal Services Board has dropped plans to force law firms to publish their referral fee arrangements on their websites, in its final decision on the regulation of referral fees published today. The LSB said it would no longer seek to prescribe the precise measures that ...
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Law Society to intervene in Prudential privilege appeal
The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend legal professional privilege (LPP) to accountants and others. LPP currently only applies to certain communications between lawyers and their clients, conferring absolute confidentiality so ...
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Claimants will miss out through CFA reforms, research suggests
Campaign groups have pleaded with the government to climb down over ‘no fee, no fee’ changes after publishing new research. A survey of recent claimants using the conditional fee arrangement (CFA) found that more half of respondents had an income below the national average of £25,000. ...
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Firms without CQS quality mark ‘risk being left behind’ - Society
As firms begin thinking about renewing their professional indemnity insurance, the Law Society has warned conveyancing solicitors to ignore its new Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) ‘at their risk’. Since the application process launched in January, almost 1000 firms have applied and 202 have ...
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Law firms maintain staff bonus levels
Some 91% of law firm bonus schemes have remained unchanged over the last 12 months, but personal injury firms are expected to buck this trend by reducing bonuses next year, a survey of 400 regional law firms by recruitment consultancy BCL Legal has found. Other key ...
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Personal injury claims costs to rise despite reforms
Costs faced by the personal injury insurance industry are likely to rise despite government reforms of the system, according to a report by market analysts Datamonitor. The report found that insurers have little faith that litigation changes will see solicitors lower their fees. ...
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Use of a limited liability partnership as a fund vehicle
Recently clients asked me to consider using an LLP as an onshore vehicle for pooling funds for investment purposes. Perhaps I missed some research but I was unable to find any sensible writings on the use of an LLP for such a purpose. ...
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Is lining the pockets of intermediaries the best way to safeguard access to justice?
What’s the difference between a bribe and a referral fee? Those solicitors who are the most vitriolic critics of referral fees fail to draw a distinction, as the Gazette’s postbag consistently testifies. One can see where they are coming from. ...
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Pre-action admissions
It is now well established that part 14 of the Civil Procedure Rules, which deals with admissions, does not apply to pre-action admissions (see Sowerby v Charlton [2005] EWCA Civ 1610, which was later confirmed in Stoke on Trent CC v Whalley [2006] EWCA Civ 1137). ...
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SRA approves scheme requiring advocates to be assessed by judges
The solicitors’ regulator has agreed to back proposals for a Quality Assurance Scheme despite some fears about how solicitors will be assessed. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) yesterday endorsed plans to accredit advocates working in criminal cases. The scheme, ...
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National protests against legal aid cuts
Legal aid campaigners are to step up the pressure on government by holding marches across the country tomorrow in protest at the legal aid reforms to be outlined in the Justice Bill, expected next week. The ‘day of action’, organised by Justice for All and ...
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Profession must fight to the end to block unprecedented and shocking cuts to legal aid
by Patrick Allen, senior partner of Hodge Jones & Allen LLP, a firm which has dealt with legal aid cases for 33 years As we go to press, we await the delayed publication of the government’s plan for legal aid cuts.
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Fingerprint standards questioned by Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal has called for an examination of the quality standards of fingerprint experts. The court last week quashed the conviction of Peter Kenneth Smith from Nottinghamshire for the murder of his neighbour Hilda Owen in 2007, after doubt was cast on the reliability ...
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Avoiding a constitutional standoff
I agree entirely with Joshua Rozenberg. Newspapers would help their own cause by just reporting the news and not stretching extra-marital tittle-tattle to several pages in each daily edition. Not door-stepping errant spouses and their young families would also be a ...