All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1587
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LSB report highlights web advice shortfall
Consumers of legal services want more tailored support from the internet as a first point of contact for their legal problems, a report has found. Research carried out by the Legal Services Board found consumers were often ‘swamped’ by information online and gave up halfway through ...
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City’s aid sought for post-LASPO project
The Law Society is seeking the backing of big City firms for a high-profile initiative aimed at helping high street practices and their clients meet the challenges posed by legal aid cuts.
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Is a 'liberal' approach to knife crime working?
Don’t tell the Daily Mail, but the government is getting softer on knife crime - and it might just be working. Yesterday the Ministry of Justice confirmed the offences and sentencing figures for the first quarter of 2012. You can tell they’re ...
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Poor argument
I can see the argument that trainee minimum salaries amount to an anti-competitive measure. If the SRA had justified its decision to abolish the minimum on those grounds I might not have been driven to comment, but the suggestion by the regulator that this measure will result in greater diversity ...
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Avoiding conveyancing complaints
By the end of this article, at least in draft form, I fully expect a page full of red squiggles, erroneously identifying the noun ‘conveyancing’ as a misspelling. I have no idea why Word fails to recognise it, given its widespread and generally quite prolific use in legal circles. Perhaps ...
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Language barrier
There is a requirement, recently introduced, that those applying for Entry Clearance to come to the UK need to have passed an English Language Test in their own country. This is a special test designed for this purpose by the British Embassy/UK Border Agency. Unless an applicant has a certificate ...
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Small firms, big headaches
I am becoming deeply concerned that the greater competition which is going to challenge small firms’ very existence is being compounded by ever-increasing regulation of those that are left.
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London firms ‘boosted’ by foreign competition
A leading representative of City lawyers has said competition from foreign firms has provided a welcome boost to the London market - and he urged government to do everything possible to encourage more. Alasdair Douglas, chairman of the City of London Law Society, told the Gazette ...
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Practising levy could 'pay for every law centre in Britain'
A £25 levy on each solicitor in private practice could pay for every Law Centre in Britain to retain an experienced practitioner, the Law Centres Federation chief has suggested. The levy on practising certificates was one idea mooted at the LCF’s general meeting last week, at ...
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Call for curbs on legal lobbyists
MPs have called for tighter restrictions on law firms that act as lobbyists for their clients. Firms should be forced to sign up to a new register for lobbyists if they are acting beyond simply advising their clients, they have urged.
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Nuisance call
With the House of Commons in the middle of another well-deserved break (it is Whitsun after all) it was left to the Lords to provide last week’s memorable lines.
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Watchdog calls for Ombudsman to be opened up to third parties
Third parties should be able to complain about lawyers to the Legal Ombudsman, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has suggested. It proposes creating a general right for third parties - those which are not a lawyer’s client - to complain, except in situations where it would ...
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Lawyer trust stats to inform Society campaign
The need to build public trust will inform a forthcoming Law Society campaign to promote the solicitor brand, after a high-profile survey revealed a contrasting picture of consumer perceptions. Satisfaction with the value for money of legal services rose from 56% in 2011 to 59% ...
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Deaf Law Centre hits out at discrimination ‘scandal’
Discrimination claims brought by deaf people climbed 37.5% in the last quarter, according to a legal charity. The ‘shocking’ increase underlines the need for more law firms to provide a service tailored to deaf people’s needs, the charity said. Society also needs to address the ‘scandal’ ...
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The unrestrained free market is now encroaching upon ‘middle class professionals’
It’s not miners and binmen this time. It’s you. Or people who look like you. In recent weeks, we have seen doctors, criminal barristers, and teachers (in an unprecedented show of solidarity) give notice of industrial action against coalition policy. Whether you sympathise is ...
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Competition
Merger - Substantial lessening of competition - Whether tribunal erring Ryanair Holdings plc v Office of Fair Trading and another: CA (Civ Div) (Sir Andrew Morritt, Lord Justice Hughes, Lord Justice McFarlane): 22 May 2012 ...
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Lawyers wary of cost-shifting plan
Claimants who win their cases could still end up with nothing under the government’s new costs rules for personal injury, lawyers warned this week. Claimant solicitors said the way government plans to implement its qualified one-way costs-shifting (QOCS) rules will ‘undoubtedly’ deter people from making valid ...
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Dismissing workers at will 'counterproductive'
A group of 6,000 employment lawyers has warned that a proposal to cut red tape by allowing micro-businesses to sack staff who have done nothing wrong will not reduce tribunal claims.
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Forced marriage to be criminalised
Forcing someone to marry will become a criminal offence in England and Wales, the prime minister confirmed today. But the legislation will not be introduced until the 2013/14 parliamentary session. The maximum sentence for the offence has yet to be decided. Breach of a Forced ...
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Warning over digital move
Criminal firms should not invest in ‘kit’ to work electronically until all agents in the justice system are fully committed, a solicitor piloting the digital scheme with the Crown Prosecution Service has said. Liverpool firm Kirwans has been taking part in a digital working pilot with ...