All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1547
-
News
System failure
I write regarding the recent announcement by the Ministry of Justice to increase the financial limit in the small-claims track from the present £5,000 limit to £10,000, diverting some 80,000 cases each year from the fast-track claims route to the small-track claims route. This is ...
-
News
Let's get more women to the top
by Fiona Woolf, a consultant at CMS Cameron McKenna This year, the Law Society will welcome its fourth woman president. As of 2010, 45.8% of solicitors with practising certificates were women - a figure that has nearly doubled in 10 years.
-
News
Guerrilla lawfare
There can’t be many legal jobs tougher than that of attorney general of Colombia during the 1990s, when the mineral-rich South American country was close to becoming a failed state. Happily, Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento (pictured) survived three years of bringing charges against some of the most powerful men in the ...
-
News
Mental health
Mental capacity - Local authority - Supported accommodation - Family life K v A Local Authority and others: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Thorpe, Davis, Lady Justice Black): 8 February 2012 ...
-
News
Personal injury
Carriage by air - Carriage of passengers - International carriage Stott v Thomas Cook Tour Operators Ltd; Hook (by his litigation friend Gillian Hook) v British Airways plc: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Maurice Kay, Sullivan and ...
-
News
Jordan’s rule of law
I write in response to the Rights & Wrongs column. It seems that some imaginary and mischievous allegations are being made that give the impression that there is use of torture in Jordan, not only against Abu Qatada but others as well. As a former minister ...
-
News
Love thy neighbour
Mr and Mrs Ruth owned two two-storey houses in a terrace at 101 and 103 Lower Thrift Street, Nottingham, each of which they decided to convert into a three-storey house. Extensive work gutting No 103 was carried out, as well as the addition of an extra storey and other works ...
-
News
Money talks
Last week I spoke at length to a friend, a commercial HSBC manager who manages the accounts of several local solicitors’ firms, about HSBC’s decision to introduce a UK panel of 43 law firms. For HSBC clients in my rural area this means a choice between the additional cost of ...
-
News
Serve and protect
The article ‘Mixed-up wills have no value in law’ surprised me a great deal. I disagree that there is any need for a change in the legislation. The provisions of section 9 of the Wills Act are specific and rigid, for the very reason that they are intended to protect ...
-
News
Serve and protect
The article ‘Mixed-up wills have no value in law’ surprised me a great deal. I disagree that there is any need for a change in the legislation. The provisions of section 9 of the Wills Act are specific and rigid, for the very reason that they are intended to ...
-
News
Renewal rage
I write to advise of my disgust at the way the SRA is handling requests for practice certificate renewals. I received a PC renewal notice. I have written several times by email, fax and DX to the SRA, but with no response. I have tried ringing, but of course the ...
-
News
Writing on the wall
My postbox is bombarded every day with offers of seminars from a multitude of providers. Now on offer is a ‘Crash Course on Punctuation & Grammar’. Have standards of entry to our profession dropped to such an all-time low that our solicitors require after-admission training on the use of commas ...
-
News
SRA sets ‘final deadline’
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has added two extra days to the time allowed for renewing practising certificates - but stated this will be the last extension. The renewals process, due to finish the end of this month, will now close at 5pm on 2 March. The ...
-
News
Interpreter problems ‘unacceptable’ says ministry
The Ministry of Justice has criticised the ‘unacceptable’ number of problems in the first weeks of a controversial new contract to run court interpreting services. It has emerged this week that a trial hearing at Leeds Crown Court had to be called off because no one ...
-
News
Hope for rule of law in Malawi
I’d hoped that things might get better in Malawi when its diminutive, top-hat wearing, fly-whisk toting life president left the political stage in 1994. But I was wrong - in the second decade of the 21st century, the central African state still seems set on turning its back on the ...
-
News
Six firms would make FTSE100, says survey
Six of the top 10 UK law firms are large enough to be included in the FTSE100 index of blue chip companies if they were stock-exchange listed, according to a new study. Corporate advisory firm Europa Partners said value-per-equity partner in the biggest four firms now ...