All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1516
-
News
UK is top dog in Strasbourg
It is sweetly ironic that our Europhobic coalition government is in power at a time when the country holds two of the top positions at that bogeyman of the Tory shires - the Council of Europe (CoE) in Strasbourg, whose role it is to oversee the European Court of Human ...
-
News
A worrying precedent
The Court of Appeal will soon be asked to decide how far an employer has to go in order to comply with its duty to inform an employee that they have a legal right. The case of R v R Plant Hire (Peterborough) Ltd v Bailey has worrying implications for ...
-
News
Troika forces ABSs on Italy
Just as with the Second World War, so the current economic crisis - which Chancellor Merkel says is Europe’s most challenging period since the war - had its phoney period, which has now ended. For a long while, nothing seemed to happen, and no consequences were felt. But, from a ...
-
News
Would judges jump in the hot-tub?
In his most recent lecture on the implementation aspects of his Final Report, Lord Justice Jackson turned the spotlight on the costs associated with expert witnesses. Particularly interesting were his comments in relation to the ‘concurrent evidence procedure’, or ‘hot-tubbing’, as it is wryly termed by lawyers.
-
News
SRA to phase in online PC renewals
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to phase in its new online practising certificate registration and renewal system, following delays caused by implementation problems. Selected firms will begin using the new system this week, after the regulator decided that it does not plan to revert to paper-based renewals for 2011/12. A ...
-
News
New accreditation scheme for licensed conveyancers
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has unveiled a quality assurance scheme, designed to ensure its members get places on mortgage lenders’ conveyancing panels at a time when these are being trimmed back. The new scheme combines the governance of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, ...
-
News
Lawyers must embrace case management reforms, says Jackson
Lord Justice Jackson has stressed that lawyers need to embrace his proposed reforms of case management if the necessary ‘culture change’ he envisages is to be realised. The architect of the government’s reform of civil litigation hopes that by securing the co-operation of the Law ...
-
News
Economists say Jackson reforms will cost £70m a year
The Jackson reforms of civil litigation will cost the taxpayer more than £70m a year in employers’ liability cases, according to a report prepared by economists. The report, published by consultancy firm London Economics, states that much-vaunted savings in damages pay-outs and insurance premiums will be ...
-
News
Appeal court in landmark ruling on migrant removal
Migrants are denied the right of access to the court if they are given under 72 hours’ notice of their removal from the UK, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. The judgment frustrates the UK Border Agency’s aim to win permission for zero-notice removals. In ...
-
News
Targets needed for judicial diversity, peers are told
Setting targets and raising the retirement age of judges from 70 to 75 would help achieve greater diversity in the judiciary, groups representing women and black lawyers told the Constitution Committee of the House of Lords today. It would also help if partners and other senior ...
-
News
Transparency - lawyers have got off lightly
Few readers will mourn the demise of the website Solicitors from Hell. But anyone who thinks its closure will mark the end of unauthorised online scrutiny of the profession is in for a shock. I'm not talking about the certainty that some rogue will sooner or ...
-
News
Pre-litigation offers and part 36
How should pre-litigation offers to settle be treated in the light of part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and Trustees of Stokes Pension Fund v Western Power Distribution Power Distribution (South West) plc [2005] EWCA Civ 854, [2005] 1 WLR 3595 (Stokes)? This was the question before Lord ...
-
News
Stop misleading the public with costly additional expenses in terms and conditions
I was recently asked to provide a conveyancing quote for a financial adviser who later produced for me a copy of the quote that his client had received via the estate agents. Our quotes were very similar, but on reading their terms and conditions there were ...
-
News
Advocates get a dressing down
When Obiter was at school, non-uniform day was a breath of fresh air - albeit one that set our parents back at least a pound. So imagine the delight for Supreme Court advocates this week as rules on court dress codes were relaxed. The press notice states the court registrar ...
-
News
Economic crises have allowed decisions to be taken at such speed that the voices of professionals have not been heard
One precept remains stubbornly unaltered as the western economies struggle. It is the assumption by the European Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank (the ‘Troika’) that liberalising markets, by removing ‘barriers to entry’ and encouraging free market competition, inevitably equates to worthwhile gains for consumers.
-
News
Top analyst predicts rash of legal mergers
A leading legal market authority has predicted a rash of mergers at top 50 firms in the next five years. Tony Williams (pictured), founder of consultancy firm Jomati and former managing partner of Clifford Chance, told a conference last week that further consolidation is inevitable as ...
-
News
Bar aptitude pilot a success
A proposed aptitude test for bar students could accurately identify individuals who would do well in their courses, according to pilot studies. The Bar Standards Board proposed the test for students applying for the bar professional training course following the 2008 Wood review. The hour-long ...
-
News
Conflicting messages on asylum
A recent test case involving a former Afghanistan interpreter working for the British army in Helmand province has raised important questions about the decision to prosecute for passport offences and claims for asylum.
-
News
Backlog drives up value of compensation claims
The value of outstanding claims to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s compensation fund has jumped by 27% in a year. Figures released by the SRA show the value of claims in progress was £214m at the end of October, compared with around £170m 12 months previously. ...
-
News
MASS chief calls for ‘honesty’ over fees ban
The chair of the Motor Accident Solicitors Society has appealed to the insurance industry for ‘honesty’ in the debate over the effects of a ban on referral fees. Addressing the Association of British Insurers conference on Tuesday, Donna Scully, partner at Liverpool firm Carpenters, called ...