All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1519
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ABS ‘threat’ to in-house legal teams
In-house legal teams will be vulnerable to replacement by services run by outsourcing businesses, such as Capita and Serco, once the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is able to license alternative business structures (ABSs).
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Regulator will accept ABS applications from new year
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will begin accepting licence applications for alternative business structures from 3 January, it has announced. The order designating the SRA as licensing authority was laid before parliament today and will come into force on 23 December. The authority ...
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Strike action disrupts courts nationwide
Courts across England and Wales suffered disruption today as the public sector endured the biggest walkout for a generation. The Ministry of Justice said key services such as family courts and custody proceedings were prioritised following action by the PCS union. Picket lines appeared at ...
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The coalition has a clear agenda
Contained in the raft of announcements by business secretary Vince Cable last week was the news that the Ministry of Justice will consult on the introduction of tribunal fees for employees who wish to bring a claim. Critics have argued that this will affect access to justice.
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Aid imbroglio
I was recently telephoned by Bridgend Magistrates’ Court to be told that a client of mine had been arrested on warrant in respect of breaching a suspended sentence order. I arrived at court and saw my client in the cells. He informed me he was working; I completed the CDS14 ...
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Ken Clarke postpones legal aid reforms and tendering
The government has postponed the implementation of its legal aid reforms by six months and its consultation on price-competitive tendering for crime work by two years. In a written ministerial statement today, justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said the government will push back a consultation on ...
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All present and correct
Santa’s grotto opened for business early at a Walsall firm, when QualitySolicitors CMHT offered its support to Operation Christmas Child. Staff from all three branches wrapped and filled shoe boxes with small gifts they had donated to send to the world’s neediest children. Val Cox, ...
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Ombudsman can also exonerate
There has been a lot of discussion about the Legal Ombudsman’s recent announcement on publishing the names of lawyers who have given poor service to their clients. The LeO was keen to emphasise that this applies to only a small proportion of lawyers. Inevitably some ...
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Colombia 'anarchy' is risking lawyers’ lives
The ‘black hand’ of drug smuggling, violence and political corruption has penetrated every level of Colombian society and now wields greater influence than the state itself, according to one of the country’s leading human rights lawyers.
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Local authority
Public library - Duty of library authority - Defendant local authorities making changes to library services R (on the application of Green) v Gloucestershire County Council; R (on the application of Rowe and another) v Somerset County Council: QBD ...
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Ministers back virtual courts
Justice ministers have made personal appearances to give their backing to virtual courts and ‘live link’ communications between police stations and magistrates’ courts. Nick Herbert (pictured) and Jonathan Djanogly visited a police station in North Kent and a court in Chester last week to see the video technology in use. ...
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Sir Scott Baker made a fundamental mistake in his extradition review
It must be gratifying for Sir Scott Baker that in Joshua Rozenberg he has at least one champion for his review of the UK’s extradition laws. But Mr Rozenberg’s seems to be very much the minority view on matters of forum and our treaty with the US.
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Bare necessity
Gyles Brandreth is not a man well versed in the art of restraint. So who better to lecture a group of solicitors about the art of communication than the former MP and One Show contributor? Brandreth, invited by DBG Communications, had plenty of tips last week ...
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News focus: Vince Cable’s employment law ‘bonfire’
Business secretary Vince Cable’s speech announcing ‘radical reform to the employment law system’ reads oddly. It contains contradictions of the sort that do not usually make it into the final draft of a minister’s speech.
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Law firms urged to set pro bono hours target
The time has come for a debate on whether firms should set ‘aspirational’ targets for the number of pro bono hours worked by their lawyers and staff, the attorney general’s pro bono envoy has suggested. Michael Napier QC, who is also senior partner at national ...
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'Serious’ privacy breaches over prisoners' letters
Legally privileged correspondence sent to prisoners is being compromised by solicitors failing to comply with procedures for addressing mail. The National Offender Management Service says there have been ‘many instances where correspondence from legal practitioners addressed or marked incorrectly has led to serious breaches of privacy’.
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Peers target third-party capture
Peers debating civil litigation reform have called for a crackdown on the so-called ‘third-party capture’ practice of insurers approaching claimants directly. Four members of the House of Lords tabled amendments on the subject last week during the second reading of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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'Sea change’ for county court claims
All claims to county courts are to be processed through a central facility in a ‘massive sea change’ designed to slash costs and processing times, the Gazette can reveal. From March, solicitors will no longer need to mail claims with a cheque to individual courts, ...
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Family division head seeks ‘immense’ culture change
Family judges need to undergo an ‘immense’ cultural change to help tackle delays in the family justice system, the head of the family division said this week. Giving the Bar Council’s Law Reform Committee lecture, Sir Nicholas Wall (pictured) said that ‘active case management and judicial ...