All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 82
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News
LSC chief: family tender outcome 'unintentional'
The Legal Services Commission did not intend the outcome of the recent family tender which saw a 46% fall in the number of providers, its chief executive told the Gazette this week in her first press interview since her appointment. Carolyn Downs (pictured), a career civil ...
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Duty solicitors face pay scrutiny
A proposal to change the way duty solicitor slots are allocated would ensure that duty lawyers are no longer ‘overpaid’, a leading criminal solicitor has suggested. The Ministry of Justice is understood to be considering altering the current arrangements, so that duty solicitor slots are ...
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News
Solicitors welcome ruling on asylum deportations
The Law Society has welcomed the High Court’s ruling that the fast-track deportation of foreign nationals, which did not allow enough time for them to seek legal advice, is unlawful. In January 2010, the Home Office widened its policy of waiving the usual 72-hour notice ...
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News
Solicitors ‘delaying’ conveyances due to staff shortages
Staff shortages at conveyancing firms are slowing down property transactions, according to a prominent estate agent and former anti-home information pack campaigner. Nick Salmon, commercial director of independent estate agents Harrison Murray who founded anti-HIP group Splinta, told the Gazette that ‘understaffed’ firms are struggling ...
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News
Family law supplier base ‘decimated’ by LSC tender
The family law supplier base has been ‘decimated’ by the ‘shock’ outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for civil legal aid work, lawyers groups alleged this week. The Law Society and Legal Aid Practitioners Group said member feedback indicated that around half of firms that ...
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News
Mental health lawyers concerned over tender contracts
Mental health lawyers have expressed concern at the impact of the Legal Services Commission’s recent tender process as national firm Duncan Lewis seeks to recruit 28 mental health lawyers under a new consultancy model to fulfil its contracts. Duncan Lewis, an established legal aid provider in ...
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Will tender contracts survive government’s legal aid strategy review?
Over the last four months I have been kept busy writing about the outcomes of the Legal Services Commission’s tender exercises. First there was crime, followed by mental health, immigration, family and social welfare.
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News
Lloyds Banking Group to review conveyancing panel
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is to review the criteria for membership of its conveyancing panels and reduce the number of firms it instructs using a ‘risk based’ model that it says will allow it to assess firms individually. The group, which includes Lloyds TSB; Halifax; Bank ...
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News
Will Nick Green QC’s question on drugs possession be heard by government?
In his recent report to the profession, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC attracted headlines by raising the question of whether personal possession of drugs should be decriminalised.
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News
Fears mount over ‘£500m’ legal aid cut
Speculation mounted over the future of legal aid this week amid reports that the Ministry of Justice plans to slash the £2.1bn legal aid budget by half a billion pounds. Justice secretary Ken Clarke (pictured) submitted proposals to the Treasury last week, outlining how the department ...
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News
London law centre admits to ‘speculative’ mental health bid
A London law centre has admitted bidding for mental health work even though it had no experience in the field, but claimed it needed to diversify ‘in order to survive’. Following the result of the Legal Services Commission’s recent mental health tender exercise, lawyers claimed that ...
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News
Lord chief justice calls for shorter cases
The lord chief justice has called for family and criminal cases to be shortened. Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s dinner for the judiciary last week, Sir Igor Judge said the processes for resolving family and criminal cases need to be improved to deliver justice, particularly ...
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News
Justice Committee announces inquiry into family law
The House of Commons Justice Committee has announced an inquiry into the operation of the family courts. It has called for written evidence addressing four issues: the effect of CAFCASS’s (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) operations on court proceedings; the impact on court ...
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News
CPS case preparation ‘neglected’, chief inspector’s report finds
‘Initiative overload’ has caused case preparation at the Crown Prosecution Service to be ‘neglected to an acceptable degree’, according to the annual report from the organisation’s chief inspector. Published this week, the report covers the performance of the CPS from April 2009 to March 2010. ...
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News
Butler-Sloss calls for focus on children
A former president of the Family Division has called on the government to cut the number of children in custody and safeguard access to justice in child welfare cases. Delivering the Law Society’s first Henry Hodge memorial lecture last night, Lady Butler-Sloss said too many children ...
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News
Legal aid budget to be slashed by half a billion
Justice secretary Ken Clarke is expected to submit plans to the Treasury today that will slash the £2.1bn legal aid budget by a quarter. The huge cut of half a billion pounds is a response to chancellor George Osborne’s demands for sweeping cuts to be made ...
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News
Morale has never been lower in legal aid
Over the last couple of years covering legal aid for the Gazette, I have got used to writing stories of the doom and gloom facing lawyers and their clients, as fees are cut and bureaucracy increased.
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News
Legal aid firms suffer LSC payment blow
The Legal Services Commission has dealt a further blow to legal aid firms by reducing the financial help it gives to firms while they wait for their bills to be paid by the commission. The LSC said it has had to reduce the amount of ...
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News
Government plans Defamation Bill
Media lawyers have given a mixed response to the government’s announcement that it is to publish a draft Defamation Bill in the new year. Justice minister Lord McNally outlined the government’s plans to review the law on defamation to protect freedom of speech and expression during ...
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News
Duty rota system in ‘chaos’
The police station duty rotas issued last week by the Legal Services Commission will run for only three months due to problems with the allocation process, which lawyers claim has ‘descended into chaos’. The Legal Services Commission has twice reissued the rotas for police station duty ...