All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1635
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News
Do we need a European Public Prosecutor?
It would be cowardly not to begin this week with comments on the reports that the UK government will opt out of the EU’s criminal justice measures. I stress at the outset that the views I give on this subject are mine, and not those of the organisation for which ...
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Super regulator goes shopping for legal panel
The Legal Services Board today opened the application process to join its panel of legal advisers. The super regulator says it requires support for public and private law, legislative drafting and litigation support. Most pieces of work are typically valued below £5,000 but more complex and ...
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Green light for deferred prosecution agreements
The government today announced plans to legislate to create US-style deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) for corporate crime. Publishing a government response to a Ministry of Justice consultation held last summer the justice minister, Damian Green (pictured), said DPAs 'will give prosecutors an effective new tool to tackle what has become ...
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Call for clients to have a say on fitness to practise
Continuing to practise as a lawyer will depend on regular positive reviews from clients and colleagues if the Legal Services Consumer Panel has its way. In its latest submission to the Legal Education and Training Review, set up by the three main regulators, the consumer champion calls on the review ...
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Finding the skills to manage change
We have all read the articles and comments regarding the inability of many law firms to manage their own practice, let alone deal with the changes currently sweeping through the profession. Many partners/owners have never been trained in management skills and are finding it difficult to evolve a strategy for ...
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No loophole for fee-ban dodgers, SRA warns
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned it may not grant licences to alternative business structures set up solely to get round the referral fee ban. The organisation today promised to look carefully at ABS applicants’ proposed referral arrangements and block business models not truly operating as ...
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Don’t force accident victims to be speculators - APIL
Seriously injured victims should not have to invest in volatile stock markets to ensure they can fund their future care, claimant lawyers said yesterday. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers is lobbying the government to reduce the discount rate, the percentage deducted from the damages of ...
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Urgent action call over child deaths in custody
Two national charities have called for an urgent independent review of ‘systemic failings’ that have led to the deaths of 200 imprisoned children and young people over the past decade. In a report published today, Inquest and the Prison Reform Trust recommend 13 changes to address ...
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Tour de Law
If your caller from one of six top law firms sounds a little breathless today or tomorrow, it may be because they are racing to Paris on two wheels. Staff at Ashurst, Baker & McKenzie, Charles Russell, Eversheds, Ince & Co and Simmons & Simmons ...
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No tears for fee-ban victims
My goodness, the SRA is pushing things tight on the referral fee ban. This week saw the consultation published for the nature and scale of the ban and how exactly the regulator chooses to enforce it. The consultation will be done by Christmas, before a series ...
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Metaphorically speaking
Some eminences gently mix their metaphors when making a speech; others decide to stick them in a blender before pushing them through a meshed sieve, then whisking them till they form stiff peaks. Step forward Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England. Obiter thinks ...
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PPI text spammers face £250k fines
Originators of spam text messages soliciting PPI and personal injury claims are in line for £250,000 fines. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will announce this week whether it will issue the penalty – the first for spam texts – against two individuals who it believes are responsible for millions of ...
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Stop moaning about your pension, m’lud
The sound of judicial bleating about what lesser mortals will surely view as a modest and sensible recalibration of judges’ pensions is hard to bear. It seems their lordships might even take new justice secretary Chris Grayling to court to block reforms that reflect the straitjacket imposed on public spending ...
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Bar regulator confirms move into ABSs
The Bar Standards Board has confirmed it will apply to the Legal Services Board (pictured) to become a licensing authority of alternative business structures in the new year, and could approve its first ABS in early 2014. At a board meeting last week, the bar’s regulator ...
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Aggressive lawyers ‘harm mediation’
Aggression around the mediation table can be counter-productive and damage your client’s chances of success, a leading QC has warned. Bill Wood, vice-chair of the Civil Mediation Council, said he had experienced cases where the two lawyers involved were more angry than the clients. Wood told ...
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Todner legal aid fear
Gary McKinnon’s solicitor has described the future for criminal legal aid firms as ‘very scary’, amid swingeing cuts and payment problems. Karen Todner, who was last week named the Gazette’s Legal Personality of the Year, said: ‘The system is so restrictive in terms of running a business.’ ...
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Human trafficking victims failed by defence teams, CCRC alleges
Many victims of human trafficking are being failed by defence teams, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) warned this week. All have ignored clear law in numerous prosecutions, it alleges. The commission says there are numerous cases where inadequate ...
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Beancounter backlash
You would hope that, if anyone produced a Top Trumps pack for the professions, both solicitors and accountants would score in the very high 90s for trustworthiness. But to judge by a lively tit-for-tat debate last week between representatives of the two professions, there are sensitivities. ...
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Wider pool of barristers no threat
In focusing on perceived competition between the two branches of the profession (‘"Baby barrister" threat to solicitors’), what Catherine Baksi overlooks are the opportunities for co-operation between barristers and solicitors created by the Public Access Scheme. The bar’s code of conduct requires barristers instructed on a public access basis to ...