All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1503
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News
Wales ponders Welsh law
The Welsh government is to start a public debate on separate legal jurisdiction for the principality. A green paper will be launched early in 2012, first minister Carwyn Jones told last week’s Legal Wales conference in Cardiff. In March, the people of Wales voted to ...
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Litigants in person numbers soar
The dire state of the economy has already led to a dramatic increase in the number of litigants in person, new figures from a voluntary organisation suggest. This is before government cuts to civil legal aid come into effect, which many solicitors predict will trigger another huge rise.
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A local solution to mediation
I write in connection with the Comment piece, ‘See the value of mediation'. Some years ago, Devon and Exeter Law Society, as it then was, ran an extremely successful small claims mediation scheme attached to the Exeter group of courts. Our society also trained and ...
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Selective memory
The Ministry of Justice seems to be suffering from amnesia in relation to the road traffic accident portal negotiations (see ‘Change to RTA portal legal fees’. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers was closely involved in the negotiations and we can confirm that the issue of ...
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A purrfect stretch
Obiter is as fond as the next person of a bit of word play, but from the point where there was ‘fur flying’ in the fight between the home and justice secretaries over the cat that had human rights (or not), it was ...
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Sentencing
Imprisonment - Length of sentence R v H: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Elias, Mr Justice Maddison, Mr Justice Burnett): 27 September 2011 The Court of Appeal, ...
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Sentencing
Custodial sentence - Dangerous offenders - Robbery R v McKenzie: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Richards, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, Mr Justice Underhill): 29 September 2011 The Court of ...
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Court officer is Bribery Act’s first catch
A court officer today pleaded guilty to taking a £500 bribe in the first prosecution under the 2010 Bribery Act. Munir Patel admitted the charge of bribery and misconduct in public office when he appeared at Southwark Crown Court. He will be ...
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Quality assurance scheme to go ahead from April
The architects of a scheme to assure the quality of criminal advocates say it is back on track to start in April 2012. The Joint Advocacy Group (JAG) said that the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates has been tweaked to ensure it ‘protects the public ...
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Quality, quantity or both?
With the announcement of another new legal services brand, ‘Simplify the Law’, firms are being presented with an increasing complex choice of partner organisations. Solicitors’ enquiry services can be a useful additional source of business, however firms need to correctly manage these services, choose them carefully and avoid a couple ...
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De-lawyering small claims
Amid all the hoo-ha over the headline aspects of the government’s reforms to civil litigation - the end of many of the rules underpinning conditional fee agreements in personal injury, for example - it is easy to overlook a rather quieter change that could have a big impact on commercial ...
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Focus on new markets to survive house-buying collapse, conveyancers told
Residential conveyancers should focus on landlords and investors to survive the collapse in the traditional market, property lawyers were told this week. Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at estate agents Savills, told a Law Society property conference there is a ‘fundamental structural change’ in the ...
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PC renewals update
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has today issued a statement informing solicitors that they will be able to renew their registration, recognition or practising certificate from 21 November. Solicitors are asked to visit the SRA site on 18 November, when the regulator will confirm whether or not ...
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Claims firms to become ‘advertising wing of ABSs’
Claims management companies have already agreed pre-contract deals with law firms to become alternative business structures (ABSs), according to their governing body.
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European contract law - the film
Hollywood agents regularly comb Brussels for their future stars. This week, we had President Barroso featuring as King Kong, beating his chest and roaring, hoping to terrify the financial markets into having faith in the euro.
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Society calls for delay to legal aid bill
The Law Society today called on the government to delay passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, after Jonathan Djanogly was stripped of responsibility for regulating claims management companies. The justice minister remains in charge of steering the controversial legislation through the ...