All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1543
-
News
LSC chair pledges to safeguard ‘high-quality’ legal aid system
The legal aid system in England and Wales ‘compares favourably’ with any in the world, despite the proposed cuts, according to the chair of the Legal Services Commission. In a speech, Sir Bill Callaghan (pictured) told Liverpool Law Society: ‘Together the LSC and legal aid ...
-
News
Keeping up appearances
What is the test when a tenant applies to set aside a possession order made in their absence? Following Estate Acquisition and Development Ltd v Wiltshire [2006] EWCA Civ 533, [2006] All ER (D) 50 (a case of forfeiture of a lease), it seemed that the answer lay in rule ...
-
News
Referral fee ban will trigger PI buyouts
Personal injury firms will become takeover targets as claims managers and brokers prepare for the referral fee ban, according to a report published today by Deloitte. The business advisory firm predicted that those with the most to lose from a ban will use the new rules ...
-
News
'Big conversation' needed on social networking
A US judge denied a lawyer continuance of trial after the latter’s Facebook entry revealed he was absent from court because he was out partying and had not suffered a bereavement as claimed, an International Bar Association (IBA) report on social networking recounts. Elsewhere, the Supreme ...
-
News
PM’s ‘summit’ on whiplash excludes legal profession
Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of sidelining the legal profession in talks about dealing with whiplash cases. Cameron met with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and leading insurance firms on Tuesday for a much-publicised ‘summit’ over the rising cost of car insurance. ...
-
News
Acting as a single joint expert
The principle of single joint experts (SJE) has been in existence for many years now but how often is it used? In a straw poll conducted amongst my colleagues, it has seldom been adopted by our clients. It may be more commonly used in the types and/or sizes of cases ...
-
News
Three kinds of 'liberty'
It’s been a fraught and, in one instance, poignantly tragic month for three detained individuals who gained their liberty. We have had ‘fanatical hate preacher’ Abu Qatada’s release from jail after almost a decade’s detention without charge.
-
News
Telecoms giant seeks to become an ABS
Telecoms giant BT is planning a major incursion into the legal services market after applying to become an alternative business structure, the Gazette can reveal. BT Claims, a wholly owned subsidiary, applied last week to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a licence to become an ABS. ...
-
News
Call to account
I read with interest that the SRA had extended its operating hours to deal with the issues arising from this year’s online renewals process. Over the last three days, I have spent nearly two hours waiting on the phone to speak with someone at the SRA ...
-
News
The corporate market is changing and its firms need to adapt
As we report today, several years of harder economic times have effected a permanent change in the instruction choices of general counsel in our largest corporations. Even with improved budgets in 2011 and 2012, they are opting to grow headcount in-house, and achieve legal advice coverage through increased use of ...
-
News
Display of affection
The high street of Church Stretton, Shropshire, is just a little more romantic this week thanks to the efforts of local solicitors. Shropshire firm PCB Solicitors has a Valentine’s Day display, put together by administration assistant Jade Phillips. Jade does ‘a fantastic job’, solicitor Pauline Davies tells us.
-
News
Keeping up appearances
What is the test when a tenant applies to set aside a possession order made in their absence? Following Estate Acquisition and Development Ltd v Wiltshire [2006] EWCA Civ 533, [2006] All ER (D) 50 (a case of forfeiture of a lease), it seemed that the answer lay in rule ...
-
News
Society in new deal on ARP finance
The Law Society has offered to share equally with insurers up to £60m in liability to cover the cost of the assigned risks pool (ARP).
-
News
Language barrier
Catherine Baksi is quite right to raise the issue of interpreters, of such concern for so long to those of us in the know. Pro bono (and with any number of colleagues from the defence, the prosecution, the police, the Probation Service, the courts service ...
-
News
Commitment to human rights should begin in UK
Governments in the UK have traditionally exhibited a somewhat divided attitude to the use of torture. The trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 raised, in essence, the same issues as those in the more recent case of Abu Qatada, the cleric sought by Jordan. How fair can a trial ...
-
News
BT Claims has taken part of the market by surprise
I thought the news that a BT subsidiary has applied to become an alternative business structure (ABS) was the most interesting so far in what is predicted to be a year of unprecedented change in the legal profession. Sure, it’s interesting that private equity money is ...
-
News
What you can’t see will hurt you
Here’s the problem, there’s a nagging uncertainty about ‘high street’ solicitors' firms. There is a lot going on but you haven’t quite seen a specific challenge or threat to your firm. Whatever the threats are, you can’t quite clarify the problem in terms of how you run your firm because ...
-
News
Junior staff forced upon 'life and death' care cases
The soaring number of court applications to take children into care is forcing cash-strapped law firms to use junior and unqualified staff to handle ‘life and death’ cases.
-
News
Survey: in-house woe for magic circle
Pressure on corporate legal budgets eased in 2011, but that failed to halt a three-year decline in the use of magic circle firms. Legal departments instead chose to increase their own headcount, and to make greater use of UK mid-tier law firms, other international firms, the bar and niche firms.
-
News
Coming clean
James Morton’s anecdotes on the evergreen topic of court dress code have provoked a few recollections of judicial observations.