All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1575
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Employment
Discrimination - Sex discrimination Hawkins v Atex Group Ltd and others: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Mr Justice Underhill): 13 March 2012 The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed the employee's appeal against the ...
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We need to make Ombudsman scheme fairer
Five years on from the arrival of the 2007 Legal Services Act we are still waiting for the ‘Big Bang’. What has come into existence seems less an entirely new universe, with a primordial cloud of traditional legal service providers accelerating away, transforming into clusters of one-stop-shop commercial enterprise (as ...
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Marriage Foundation motives are laudable
Was Mr Justice Coleridge wise to arrange such a very public launch for his Marriage Foundation this week? Whether or not you support its aims - and I do, for reasons I will explain - you may well wonder whether a serving family judge should campaign for one kind of ...
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Name game
Obiter has always been impressed seeing professional lobbyist friends in action around a major parliamentary vote, especially when those friends are on the side of the angels. The lobbyists scour parliamentarians’ records and past passions, target MPs with relevant constituency interests, press case studies on those they identify as vulnerable ...
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Generation gap
I am a sole practitioner and higher rights advocate on crime and motoring. I read with interest the various letters and articles with regard to virtual files, laptops in court and the ‘real progress’ that is being made. For example, signing up for secure email.
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Hot property?
Last week brought the gloomy news that the country has slid back into recession. The much feared double dip was to a large extent blamed on the contraction in the construction sector. It would seem that tricky times are ahead for real estate lawyers, but far from tightening their belts, ...
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'Interesting' insight
It’s getting on for two years since the government launched its crackdown on local authority newspapers. Communities secretary Eric Pickles declared war on what he famously described as ‘town hall Pravdas’ wasting taxpayers’ money and time.Lately, however, ministers have stopped beating that drum - hardly surprising when Whitehall departments continue ...
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Judicial review
Specialist services - Applicant hospital trust providing paediatric and congenital cardiac services - Trust challenging consultation process R (on the application of Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust) v Joint Committee of Primary Care ...
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Open letter: trainee solicitors and the minimum salary
We are a few of the thousands of students who have passed the LPC exam and are desperately waiting for training contracts. We and many of our other friends have been applying for training contracts for over two years since passing the LPC but without success. Some of us have ...
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For the record
The article ‘Reaching a verdict’ made reference to the tragic case of Sally Clark. It rightly praised the work of a family member in uncovering the medical records that proved critical in the appeal. However, I should point out that the records were obtained for ...
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Beware of identity thieves, SRA warns
Law firms could be held liable for losses caused by a fraudster stealing their identity even when they are innocent victims, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. New guidance published today warns the profession on how to guard against falling victim to fraudsters. The regulator ...
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‘Ludicrous, immoral and wicked’: Bach bites back at LASPO
Lord (Willy) Bach, the peer who led Labour’s opposition to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill in the House of Lords, stepped down last week as shadow legal aid minister, a couple of days before the measure received royal assent to become an act. ...
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Legal aid now underpinned by international principles
There was a welcome development on legal aid this week, from of all places the United Nations. Legal aid is of course something usually dealt with at national level, and there are wide divergences in national treatment and national expenditure.
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LLPs 10 years on
In fact, limited liability partnerships (LLPs) have been with us for just over 11 years since their introduction in April 2001. Although it was possible to operate a law firm as a limited company prior to 2001, an LLP has been viewed as a more obvious alternative to a traditional ...
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Legal aid equality a myth, says solicitor advocate Kelcey
Criminal firms should make it clear to legal aid clients how their publicly funded status affects the service they get, according to a leading solicitor advocate. Ian Kelcey, senior partner at Bristol firm Kelcey & Hall and Law Society council member said: ‘It’s a myth that ...
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London courts to scale back for Olympics
Courts near Olympics venues and traffic hotspots will significantly cut their sittings from 27 July to 12 August, HM Courts and Tribunals Service said today. Officials are concerned that jurors and witnesses will be unable to attend hearings during a period when hundreds of thousands ...
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Riverview barristers offer fixed-price divorces to wealthy
An innovative legal practice today launched a barrister-led fixed-price divorce service to cut costs for wealthy couples.
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The coalition’s tin ear problem
Today sees prime minister David Cameron and his Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg ‘relaunch’ the coalition. It’s hard to imagine most lawyers being anything other than sceptical about this exercise, for reasons I’ll come to below. I probably have more time for politicians than most, ...