All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 26
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News
CPS has 'more in-house lawyers than it needs'
The Crown Prosecution Service has too many in-house lawyers as it continues to face the challenges of budget cuts, according to the annual report of the agency’s inspectorate. Her Majesty’s CPS Inspectorate said a lack of resources due to budget cuts is hampering the service’s ability to prepare cases, but ...
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News
'Little hope' for sole practitioners in criminal defence
There is ‘little hope for the future’ for sole practitioners and many small law firms under either the government’s or Law Society’s proposals for reshaping the criminal defence market, the Sole Practitioners Group has claimed. The group’s legal aid spokesperson, former chair Hilary Underwood, told the Gazette that under either ...
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NewsJudicial satire is deadly serious
Price-competitive tendering for judges. That is the subject of a spoof essay of application for the job of lord chief justice, penned by Court of Appeal judge Sir Alan Moses (‘aged 67½’), demonstrating the absurdity of the government’s planned legal aid reforms. The sitting judge read his work ‘What I ...
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News
Lack of demand shuts first one-stop shop for offenders
England’s first ‘all in one’ court and offender treatment centre is set for closure due to under-use, the justice minister announced today. Helen Grant announced a six-week consultation on plans to shut North Liverpool Community Justice Centre and move its work and the principles of its problem-solving approach to Sefton ...
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News
Law Society alternative legal aid proposals
The Law Society last week published alternative proposals to the government’s Transforming Legal Aid plan, saying they would retain client choice, provide certainty and facilitate greater market efficiency. On contracting, the Society proposes: Rolling three-year contracts, awarded subject to an increasingly rigorous quality and capacity framework (QCF). Contracts will ...
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News
Criminal bar chair backs Law Society’s stance on legal aid
The chairman of the Criminal Bar Association has called for unity in the profession and attempted to quell ‘disquiet’ over the Law Society’s decision to share with the Ministry of Justice its proposals for an alternative to price-competitive tendering (PCT). In his weekly online comment, Michael Turner QC said that ...
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News
Criminal legal aid: united we stand
A week is a long time in politics. As regards legal aid, the last week has borne that out. In fact, every week since the Ministry of Justice published its Transforming Legal Aid consultation in April has been something of a roller-coaster ride. The campaign against ...
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News
Quality mark to boost solicitor brand in wills market
The Law Society today announced the creation of an accreditation scheme for firms providing will-drafting, probate and estate administration services to enable solicitors to ‘stand head and shoulders’ above competing providers. Desmond Hudson, chief executive, told the Society’s private client conference that the Wills and ...
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News
Society condemns ‘plain wrong’ criticism of legal aid stance
Amid growing anger among some criminal solicitors and a call for a special general meeting of the Law Society to vote on its proposed alternatives to the government’s legal aid reforms, the Law Society today hit back against claims that it has ‘sold out’ to the Ministry of Justice. ...
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News
Outstanding achievement award for legal aid battler Bhatt
Raju Bhatt, the founder of London civil liberties firm Bhatt Murphy, received the award for outstanding achievement at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards last night. Accepting the award on behalf of his firm and colleagues, and dedicating it to his clients’ continuing eligibility ...
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News
Grayling promises second consultation on legal aid – but sets red lines
The Ministry of Justice will publish a second ‘short’ consultation on its ‘finalised’ legal aid proposals in September before ‘pressing on’, the justice secretary announced this morning. Giving evidence to the House of Commons justice committee, Chris Grayling said: ‘We will move shortly to bring forward ...
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News
Anger as MoJ accused of deleting legal aid consultation responses
The Ministry of Justice has claimed that an ‘email glitch’ is to blame for many barristers and solicitors receiving a message telling them that their response to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation has been ‘deleted unread’. The Gazette, together with the Law Society, Bar Council and other practitioner groups, have ...
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News
City lawyers join fight against legal aid cuts – finally
City law firms have joined the attack on the government’s legal aid cuts, warning that they ‘pose a potentially irreversible risk to the standards and reputation of English justice’. In a letter to the Law Society, the chairman of the City of London Law Society Alasdair Douglas criticised the ‘grossly ...
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News
Birmingham Law Centre closes as cash runs out
Britain’s second city is without a law centre following the closure of Birmingham Law Centre last week. Cashflow problems and the anticipated fall in legal aid funding led the trustees to shut down the service, which is descended from bodies that have offered free legal advice for nearly a century. ...
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News
Tory maverick Davis blasts 'Soviet' PCT
Pressure on the government to amend its criminal legal aid reforms mounted last week as MPs debated the changes in parliament. Signs of a cabinet split had already emerged after deputy prime minister Nick Clegg voiced concern about the removal of client choice and attorney general ...
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News
Property tribunals combine in new first-tier chamber
A new consolidated property tribunal came into existence today with a single set of procedural rules aimed at simplifying the process. The First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber – which combines the Residential Property and Agricultural Land Tribunals together with the adjudicator to HM Land Registry – ...
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News
Financial crime sentences to prioritise victims
Proposed new sentencing guidelines for financial crimes published last week encompass bribery and money laundering for the first time, while setting out to prioritise the impact of crime on the victim. The guidelines, which will replace existing guidance published by the Sentencing Guidelines Council in 2009, also cover the sentencing ...
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Ministers find £160m for Wi-Fi transformation of justice
The government has pledged £160m to fulfil ambitious plans to make courtrooms fully digital by 2016, ending the criminal justice system’s ‘outdated’ reliance on paper. Justice minister Damian Green this morning outlined a plan Transforming the Criminal Justice System covering initiatives ranging from increased use of ...
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News
Bar gets into shape for ABSs
The Bar Standards Board is simplifying criteria for approving new business entities, ahead of an application to become a licensing authority for alternative business structures. Several compulsory rules are to be made discretionary to make the authorisation regime more ‘agile’. These currently oblige entities to have: ...
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News
New consultation on hate crime
The Law Commission has published a consultation on extending the law on hate crimes to cover sexual orientation, transgender identity and disability. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 allows for aggravated offences, including assault and criminal damage, if race or religion have motivated or formed part ...