All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1562
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News
Waxing lyrical
Our news team gave themselves an earworm the other day by headlining a report about the US with a line from New York, New York. The only cure was to think what songs might be appropriate for other stories on the news agenda. For example, ...
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News
A prototype Magwitch?
The philosophy behind Australia as a penal colony was very much ‘out of sight, out of mind’, writes James Morton. If the convicts did escape they were not likely to make it back to England. Probably only one escapee managed it. A petty thief at the age of 18, Charles ...
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News
On the money
Journalists love stories about civil servants living the life of Riley. So we were looking forward to reading what the National Audit Office had to say about Ministry of Justice officials spending £36.9m last year through their procurement cards, aka Sir Humphrey’s flexible friend. The sum was second only to ...
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News
Smily, unhappy people
Being ‘disappointed’ and having people ‘fail to heed’ us is something Obiter can fairly reliably get at home. But, thanks to last week’s budget, we know we are not alone. Starting on Wednesday and on into Thursday, Obiter’s BlackBerry was fairly buzzing with the ups and downs being enjoyed by ...
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News
£1bn swaps claims going ahead despite settlements
The first wave of funded claims against banks by business owners who bought interest-rate hedging contracts are close to being ready, the Gazette can reveal. Norton Accord, the company that has secured the backing of funds to bring up to £1bn of claims, confirmed today that ...
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News
Pension lifetime allowance election deadline – 5 April 2012
The ‘lifetime allowance’ is the maximum amount of value that you can accrue within your pension schemes without suffering an additional tax charge on extraction. The lifetime allowance for a partner’s pension pot from all pension sources (excluding state pensions) is currently £1.8m, but this is being reduced to £1.5m ...
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News
SRA ponders £250m fine limit for firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking to close a loophole that restricts its fining powers for firms other than alternative business structures. The Legal Services Act 2007 allows the SRA to fine ABSs up to £250m, compared with a limit of £2,000 for traditional law firms. ...
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News
Committal fee challenge fails
The High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to scrap lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings was lawful. Dismissing the judicial review sought by the Law Society, Lord Justice Burnton cited the impact of legal aid fee cuts on lawyers. 'No one ...
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News
US extradition treaty ‘one-sided’, MPs report
The extradition treaty between the UK and the US is failing to protect the rights of British citizens, MPs claim today. A report by the House of Commons’ home affairs select committee says that the 2003 treaty makes it easier to extradite a British citizen ...
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News
Integrity in practice
Discussion continues on the meaning of outcomes-focused regulation, the implementation of the now not-so-new Handbook and the attitude of the SRA to its enforcement. Much of this concerns the retrospective justification of procedures and, in the context of entity-based regulation, whether a breach that is not ...
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Feature
BOOK REVIEW Lawtalk: The Unknown Stories Behind Familiar Legal Expressions
Author: James E. Clapp et al Those of us who like to read John Grisham, watch Suits on television or just about any American thriller may sometimes need a handy dictionary to explain some legal expressions. I have always ...
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News
Big Brother in the Big Society
Civil liberties have few friends in government – only in opposition. Witness the coalition’s decision to hand police and intelligence agencies far-reaching new powers to monitor emails, phone calls and websites. ‘Big Brother WILL be watching you,’ booms today’s Independent.
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News
HSBC will not face competition probe over panel
The Office of Fair Trading has declined to investigate HSBC over the small size of its conveyancing panel, saying the arrangement does not have a ‘sufficiently negative impact on competition’. East Grinstead sole practitioner Elaine McGloin contacted the watchdog after HSBC announced its new panel in ...
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News
LeO unveils complaints publication policy
The Legal Ombudsman is to publish the total number of complaints processed against law firms – but not the details of what they have done wrong. The consumer watchdog starts collating complaints from today, ready to publish them for the first time in July. ...
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News
Complaints publishing feels like a fudge
At what point does a compromise become a fudge? Without doubt, the Legal Ombudsman had a difficult task on its hands deciding how to publish details of complaints. The status quo of printing anonymised case studies was generally accepted to be counter-productive ...
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News
Three golden rules of regulation
I met representatives of the Legal Services Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority this week. Among many things discussed, I told them the obvious: that the ease of explanation to outsiders of the UK’s regulatory system for the legal profession has not been improved by the Clementi reforms, but made ...
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News
SRA to shut 15 ARP firms
A total of 15 firms will be closed down after failing to find an escape route from the assigned risks pool. The firms will be shut after failing to secure professional indemnity insurance on the open market by the 1 April deadline, the Solicitors Regulation Authority ...
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News
DBAs move a step closer
With damages-based agreements (or contingency fees as they used to be known) coming into being next April, the Civil Justice Council has now set the wheels in motion to begin drawing up the all-important rules that will govern how the new fees are actually going to operate.
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News
The FOI Act cannot be compared to legal privilege
Is it possible to deliver frank, robust, clear advice if you know it might become public? This is one of the key points members of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee must consider in their post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act.