All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 57
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News
New accreditation scheme for licensed conveyancers
The Society of Licensed Conveyancers (SLC) has unveiled a quality assurance scheme, designed to ensure its members get places on mortgage lenders’ conveyancing panels at a time when these are being trimmed back. The new scheme combines the governance of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, ...
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First Bribery Act sentence ‘sends powerful message’
The East London court officer who faced the first prosecution under the 2010 Bribery Act has been sentenced to six years in prison. Munir Yakub Patel was jailed for six years for misconduct in a public office, to be served concurrently with a three-year sentence for ...
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News
Supreme Court’s ruling on cohabitees welcomed
Family lawyers have welcomed the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment on the division of assets between former cohabiting couples - but say the case highlights the need for law reform. The long-awaited judgment in Jones v Kernott concerns beneficial interest in property where the legal ...
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News
Shock as firms fail in family legal aid bid
An unexpectedly high number of failed applications for family legal aid contracts has caused surprise in the sector. The Legal Services Commission announced this week that 93% of those who bid for the new family law contracts had been successful. Contracts have been offered to ...
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News
Civil advice phone gateway plan slammed
Government plans to make phone calls the main conduit for publicly funded advice in civil cases could increase the average time needed to give advice, according to new research. The government has proposed making a telephone helpline the ‘gateway’ to all legal aid advice in civil ...
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LASPO may ‘undermine access to justice’, says Lords committee
A House of Lords committee has warned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill threatens the rights of access to justice and availability of legal advice to those in police custody. The Constitution Committee published a report today considering the constitutional implications of ...
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News
District judges ‘more custody-minded’ than lay magistrates
Custodial sentences are more likely to be given in cases heard by a district judge than lay magistrates, according to research commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. The study, published this week and carried out by Ipsos MORI, shows that district judges gave custodial sentences in 7% of cases, while ...
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News
Tribunal cases will soar after legal aid cuts, charity warns
Scrapping legal aid for employment advice will increase the number of cases going to employment tribunals, the charity Citizens Advice has warns. Responding to the government’s consultation on promoting economic growth through a strong and efficient labour market, Citizens Advice says removing legal aid for employment ...
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News
Give a hand to self-litigants, says CJC
Everything must be done to ‘simplify and demystify’ the law to help the increasing number of self-litigants, according to the Civil Justice Council (CJC). In a report to the lord chancellor and lord chief justice published yesterday the CJC calls for action to assist litigants ...
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News
Bar Conference 2011: barristers 'ready to strike' over tendering plan
Criminal barristers will take ‘direct action’ - including withdrawing their services - if the government presses ahead with its plans for price-competitive tendering, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association has warned. Max Hill QC (pictured) said that the proposal to introduce best value tendering for the provision of publicly ...
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News
Legal aid cuts ‘will undermine pro bono work’
Proposed cuts to legal aid threaten to undermine a decade of pro bono work, the legal profession has warned at the start of the tenth national pro bono week. A Law Society survey in the spring revealed that just under half of solicitors in private practice ...
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News
Trust judges on sentencing, says Law Society
The Law Society has criticised plans to extend mandatory life sentences, telling the government to trust judges’ discretion. The new regime, which would replace the indeterminate sentencing system with long determinate prison terms and mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent crime, was announced ...
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News
Guarded welcome for family justice review
Lawyers and judges have welcomed proposals to end the ‘culture of delay’ in the family justice system, published in the Family Justice Review’s final report. One of the key recommendations of the review panel, chaired by David Norgrove, is to set a statutory six-month limit on ...
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News
The Co-operative to offer family law service
The Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) is to offer a family law service spearheaded by leading family lawyers from London firm TV Edwards in the first move by a high street brand into the sector. Christina Blacklaws (pictured), Law Society council member for child care and ...
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News
Blacklaws joins Co-operative in family law coup
The Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) is to offer a family law service spearheaded by leading family lawyers from London firm TV Edwards in the first move by a high street brand into the sector, the Gazette can reveal. Christina Blacklaws, Law Society council member for child care and TV Edwards ...
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News
Legal aid cuts 'threat' to domestic violence victims
Cuts to legal aid will create a further barrier for women trying to leave violent relationships and could lead to more deaths, the Women’s Institute has warned. The institute published a report, Legal Aid is a Lifeline, this week as the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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News
Courts for the foreign rich, not the indigenous poor
As the bill slashing civil legal aid speeds through parliament, a leading academic has exposed the ‘doublethink’ of the government, which appears to have one set of rules for the rich and another set for the poor. Dean of Laws at University College London, Professor Dame ...
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News
Referral fee ban will go in legal aid bill
The justice secretary has confirmed that a rule banning the payment of referral fees in personal injury cases will be introduced into the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and debated next week in parliament. Kenneth Clarke tabled the amendment, stating that a regulated ...
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‘Crude’ legal aid cuts get a pasting in the Lords
A Labour lord predicted a ‘prolonged and hard winter for access to justice’ as peers condemned ‘crude’ and ‘ill thought-out’ cuts to legal aid fees in a debate last night. The House of Lords was debating a motion tabled by Lord Bach, the former legal aid ...
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News
LSC helpline cut back again
The Legal Services Commission’s telephone helpline is taking emergency calls only in an effort to reduce a backlog of work. Emergency calls are those requiring action within 48 hours or where the information being sought is not available elsewhere. In July, the commission cut the ...