All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 50
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News
Society offers compliance officer help
The Law Society has announced a pilot scheme to provide firms with advice on problems with new compliance requirements. A new compliance reference group (CRG) will deal with enquiries from compliance officers for legal practices (COLPs) and provide advice on major problems.
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News
Society proposes five-yearly check on criminal practitioners
The Law Society is seeking views on a plan to bolster its criminal litigation quality standard by reaccrediting solicitors every five years. It has proposed that members of the Criminal Litigation Accreditation Scheme (CLAS) should undergo a regulatory check every five years involving six hours ...
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News
Care crisis looms without more funds, Society says
The Law Society has warned that greater resources are needed to prevent a crisis in the care system as the number of applications soars to record levels. Annual figures released by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) show that for the ...
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News
Interpreter 'bite' mistake causes trial collapse
A four-day burglary trial at a London Crown court collapsed last week after an interpreter made a mistake translating the defendant’s evidence. The trial at Snaresbrook (pictured) was halted on Friday afternoon after the Romanian language interpreter admitted mistakenly telling the court that the defendant had allegedly been ‘bitten’ rather ...
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Solicitor advocates dragging standards down, says BSB research
Low rates for criminal legal aid and the growing share of work taken by solicitor advocates are contributing to a decline in advocacy standards that is harming the administration of justice, according to a survey by the Bar Standards Board. The report, Perceptions of Criminal Advocacy, ...
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News
Domestic violence concession as MPs back legal aid cuts
MPs overturned nearly all of the changes made by peers to the government’s proposed legal aid reforms, but in a key concession agreed to widen the evidential criteria required to grant legal aid to victims of domestic violence. In last night’s debate on the Legal Aid, ...
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News
Harmonised standards the key to family mediation, says Djanogly
Improved regulation and harmonised professional standards would encourage the take up of family mediation, the justice minister said today. Jonathan Djanogly told a Law Society conference on family mediation that the government will work with family mediation services, through the Family Mediation Council (FMC) to achieve a ‘harmonised’ scheme of ...
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News
Ministers target child legal aid in fightback against bill amendments
The government says it will oppose all but three of the 11 amendments made by peers to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill when the measure returns to the Commons tomorrow. A government response to the Lords’ amendments, published on Friday afternoon, signals ...
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News
Divorce mediation scheme ‘failing’
Courts are not checking whether divorcing couples have attended meetings to explore mediation and other alternatives before applying to start court proceedings, a survey has found. For the past year, parties have been required to attend mediation assessment and information meetings (MIAMs) to find out ...
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Grieve: interpreter failure ‘not contempt’
The attorney general has declined a request to launch an action for contempt against a contractor accused of failing to supply court interpreters - but said that wasted costs orders could apply to such cases.
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Tracking scheme aims to cut family delays
A new initiative to tackle delays in the family courts has got under way. The pilot scheme to track all public law cases issued from 2 April 2012 follows the launch of a case management system monitoring the progress of cases, recording all case management decisions, adjournments, the use of ...
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News
Retain legal aid bill amendments, MPs urged
Opponents of the government’s legal aid reforms have united to lobby MPs to retain amendments made by peers when the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill returns to the Commons next week. The Law Society and Bar Council, together with bodies representing charities ...
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News
Advise courts of uncooperative clients, solicitors told
Criminal solicitors should tell the court when clients fail to co-operate with them, to avoid the risk of breaching their duty to the court, the Law Society has advised. Chancery Lane has issued an updated practice note setting out the duties and burdens affecting solicitors arising ...
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News
The human cost of legal aid cuts
Next Tuesday the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill will be back in the Commons for MPs to consider amendments made by peers. It is likely that many of the amendments will be reversed and the bill, which removes huge areas of law from the scope of legal ...
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News
Caplen next in line for deputy vice president
The Law Society council has elected Andrew Caplen as the next deputy vice president of the Society. Caplen, a criminal and commercial property consultant at Southampton firm Abels, will take up the role in July and become president in 2014. He has been a council member ...
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News
How to judge restorative justice
The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA) has called on the government to legislate to increase the use of restorative justice - the process that gives victims the chance to tell offenders the impact of their crime.
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News
LSC to terminate CLAC contracts
The Legal Services Commission has signalled its intention to end all community legal advice centre and network (CLAC/N) contracts next year. It has written to all contract holders and partner local authorities to inform them of the proposal to end the contracts on 31 March 2013. ...
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News
Committal fee change lawful, High Court rules
The High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to scrap lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings was lawful. Dismissing a judicial review sought by the Law Society, Lord Justice Burnton cited the impact of legal aid fee cuts on lawyers. No one, he said, ‘could not ...
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News
Civil partners get the same divorce treatment as married couples, appeal judges rule
In a landmark financial judgment The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the courts will treat civil partners in the same way as married couples when their relationship ends. The court last week overturned a High Court decision that awarded west end actor Donald Gallagher nearly £1.7m following the break-up ...
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News
LSB spurns conveyancers’ litigation ambitions
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has refused the Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ application to regulate conveyancers conducting litigation and advocacy. The LSB said it had not granted the application 'on the grounds that the CLC lacks the legal power to make rules and regulations that ...