All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1457
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News
Judges should not sit in judgment over advocates
I had a turbulent seven-year relationship with my old English teacher. He had a pompous air of superiority, talking to pupils like Mr Bumble addressing the orphans and wistfully dreaming of the university professorship he surely craved but never achieved. Worst of ...
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News
New CLLS chair vows to uphold English law ‘brand’
The new head of City of London Law Society (CLLS) has vowed to uphold the English ‘brand’, already so prominent throughout the world. Alasdair Douglas has been confirmed as the new CLLS chair, representing law firms that employ 14,000 solicitors and have an annual turnover of ...
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News
£20,000 law firm donation kickstarts head injury fund
A fund for families of people with head injuries has been kick-started by a £20,000 grant from a litigation law firm. The long-established Stewarts Law Foundation, a charity fund founded by the firm’s partners, donated the money to the Headway Emergency Fund earlier this month. ...
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News
Society to intervene in recoupment appeal
The Law Society has been given permission to intervene in the Legal Services Commission’s appeal against a ruling that the LSC’s action to recover payments on account was an abuse of process due to the delay in bringing the claims.
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News
Solicitors launch new third-party litigation funder
Two solicitors launched a new third-party litigation funder Vannin Capital today, set to invest ‘significant sums’ in litigation. The funder, founded by solicitor Nick Rowles-Davies and solicitor and barrister William Evans of Ely Place Chambers, is backed by Isle of Man-based private equity firm Bramden Investments. ...
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News
The right to a lawyer – many times over
Like London buses, issues do not come singly but in clusters. The right to a lawyer is one of those that is arriving in many different forms all at once at the moment. Last week, I wrote about a recent ...
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News
Split juries into smaller groups, psychologists argue
Juries should be split into three groups of four to allow every member an equal chance to participate, a new study has suggested. Researchers from the psychology department at the University of Portsmouth found that in large groups, many people feel intimidated to speak out and ...
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News
Bruising times at the UKBA
You have to be something of a bruiser to take on the job of minister for borders and immigration. It’s a tough job, with the right accusing you of going soft on ‘bogus’ asylum seekers and the left condemning you as a heartless fascist (more of ...
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Feature
BOOK REVIEW Pre-nuptial Agreements
Author: Iain Harris and Rachel Spicer Pre-nuptial agreements have always been the Cinderella of family proceedings but with one important twist – she has yet to go to the ball. They have been nibbling ...
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News
Law Society in position to cut practising certificate fee
Next year’s practising certificate fee could be cut by more than 15% following a £56.9m surplus reported by the Law Society in its annual report 2009/10, published today (15 June). The four factors behind the surplus include higher than expected receipts from the first year ...
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News
Magistrates resign as courts close
Resignations from the magistracy have increased by 18% since the announcement of court closures, according to government figures. Responding to a written question tabled by Mike Wood, MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly revealed that 487 magistrates had resigned from ...
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News
Treasury to scrap money-laundering penalties
The Treasury is to abolish more than 24 criminal penalties that can currently be imposed on law firms and other businesses for failing to comply with money-laundering regulations. Civil penalties will remain however, and regulators may be given the power to impose additional penalties. ...
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News
Strikes likely after MoJ staff ballot
Strikes, a ban on overtime and a work-to-rule are likely to follow a ballot of Ministry of Justice staff who are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). Industrial action by PCS members, who work across most areas of MoJ activity, could result ...
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News
New name, same faces after axe falls on agency
Bostalls, one of the providers of the Legal Services Commission’s police station telephone advice service, has been wound up after failing to pay its taxes. The LSC has responded by transferring the contract for the Criminal Defence Service (Direct) scheme to a company set up by ...
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News
Legal aid rethink urged
The Law Society this week urged the government to seek alternatives to its proposed £350m legal aid cuts, while new research concluded slashing legal aid is ‘a false economy’. In a letter to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, Society chief executive Des Hudson also sought reassurance that ...
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News
Explaining the ethos behind the all-parliamentary group for victims and witnesses
by Javed Khan, chief executive of Victim Support If you are a victim of crime, what rights should you have?
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News
Sorrows almost drowned
Obiter lives in hope, and likes to think that all legal aid advisers do too, but it can be important to make a few cursory preparations for disappointment. So in the unlikely event that parliament fails to completely eviscerate the more noxious clauses of the ...
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News
DLA sees profits climb amid expansion drive
Global law firm DLA Piper saw its profitability improve sharply in 2010, though income was flat. The firm, which has over 4,200 lawyers in 30 countries, recorded a 5.9% rise in profits to £503m on income up just 1% to £1.27bn. It declined to disclose average ...
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Firm to appeal High Court immigration bid ruling
A South Yorkshire firm will appeal a High Court ruling dismissing its challenge to the outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s immigration tender. Parker Rhodes Hickmotts launched a judicial review of the process after it received less than a quarter of the number of cases ...