All Law Gazette articles in Archive – Page 1654
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News
Prisoner voting debate no excuse for leaving Euro convention
Sometimes you just have to rant. I have spent near a lifetime teaching staff ‘to do lofty’, to conduct debate only in moderate tones. Then you encounter something like politicians posturing on prisoner voting. And the dam breaks. This is not only humbug: it is dangerous humbug.
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Grayling sets out plan for culling judicial reviews
The justice secretary has set out plans to cut the number of ‘weak or ill-founded’ judicial reviews, which he claims are blocking the system and wasting money. A consultation published today suggests: - Reducing the time limits for bringing planning and procurement ...
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Land Registry shock at digital difficulty
Electronic conveyancing remains on the agenda of the Land Registry despite proving ‘more difficult to realise than anyone had thought’, the chief land registrar said this week. Speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum on conveyancing, Malcolm Dawson outlined the Land Registry’s vision to be ...
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Radical PI reforms spell ‘disaster’
Lawyers on both sides of the personal injury sector have rounded on the government after the latest announcement in an unprecedented series of radical reforms. Justice secretary Chris Grayling on Tuesday outlined proposals to raise the upper limit of the small-claims track from £1,000 to £5,000 ...
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Don’t slash personal injury jobs
The Law Society Research Unit informs me that 14% of all solicitors practising in England and Wales undertake personal injury work. In the north-west, it rises to 34% and in Merseyside to 40%. The unanimous view of Ministry of Justice proposals to slash fees for dealing with injury claims is ...
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Doing your duty
I do not believe that we have dealt justice to Peter Elliott after his experience at Manchester’s High Court. He was not asking for, or expecting, legal advice in connection with his case.
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Real employee rights or fantasy?
If you like pantomime it is always best to choose a classic. For some it is Mother Goose, for others Cinderella. For me there is only one – Jack and the Beanstalk – and it is wonderful to see that the government appears to agree. In fact, the government likes ...
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Employment tribunal
Procedure – Adjournment Iqbal v Metropolitan Police Service and another: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Judge Richardson, Dr K Mohanty and Miss S Wilson): 7 September 2012 The employee withdrew his ...
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Photographic evidence
The term ‘conversational distance’ is often used in personal injury and clinical negligence claims to describe the measurability of the prominance of a scar or deformity. It is deemed suitable for this purpose, yet in medico-legal photography it has no meaning.
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Law firm websites ‘trail other sectors’
City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner and international firm DLA Piper have scored the highest in a survey of legal websites – which the authors say reveals that law firms have much to learn from other sectors. Of 30 law firms surveyed by Last Exit, a digital ...
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Industrial work
I have just completed a telephone survey with a very nice lady. The SRA apparently regards us as ‘an industry’. Says it all. Graham Quigley, Waugh & Musgrave, Cockermouth, Cumbria
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The long and short of it
Unusually, there have been two pronouncements on judgment writing from high judicial officers in the UK recently (news, 23 November). The long and short of it is a win for the sensible call that judgments need to be clearer and shorter, but that there is also room for improvement by ...
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Pre-Christmas rush
I love this time of year: the decorations, the lights, so much to do, everyone else making money, clients. In fact everyone wants everything to be done before Christmas. How I miss those seasonal contact/access applications. At least the pre-Christmas rush of people queuing outside shops to do their shoplifting ...
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News
AWS to join Law Society’s Women Lawyers Division
The Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) has voted to join the Law Society’s new Women Lawyers Division (WLD) in order to give women solicitors a ‘stronger, louder and unified voice’, it emerged this week. The vote, held on Monday evening at Chancery Lane, followed two years ...
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Grayling falls for great insurance con trick
Chris Grayling must be an easy man to play at Call my Bluff. It sometimes appears as if you can tell the justice secretary any tall tale and he’ll suck it in – safe in the knowledge that he’s doing the right thing because someone has ...
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Interpreter contract failings revealed
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has exposed the full failings of the Ministry of Justice’s contract for court interpreters, branding it ‘an object lesson in how not to contract out a public service’. A report published today details the flaws in the procurement process and operation ...
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QASA start delayed
The introduction of the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) has been delayed. The Joint Advocacy Group (JAG), made up of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Ilex Professional Standards (IPS) issued a statement today following consideration of the responses ...
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LETR: allow non-graduates direct access, says SRA chair
Law courses should be tailored to allow non-graduates a direct route into the solicitors’ profession, Charles Plant, chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, said today. He was responding to the report of the Legal Education and Training Review, published this afternoon, which says more flexibility ...