Headlines – Page 1149
-
News
Odious legislation
I am a Legal Executive and in a month’s time I will ‘celebrate’ having worked for 25 years in the legal profession, handling mainly legal aid cases.
-
News
Data protection
Processing of information - Personal data - Police R (on the application of RMC and FJ) v Metropolitan Police Commissioner and others: Queen's Bench Division, Divisional Court (Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Kenneth Parker): 22 June 2012 ...
-
News
Salford proceedings
In response to Alexandra Adam's letter, I spoke to someone at Salford Business Centre about limitation on the day that the new procedure came into force. I was advised that if you are up against limitation, then you need to prepare proceedings to issue out of the Northampton County Court ...
-
News
Default system
I read the views of Nicholas Cusworth QC. I support his advocacy of an accrual type of matrimonial property regime, but would add two extra aspects.
-
News
Olympics cases to be fast-tracked
Measures to speed up criminal cases with night and weekend courts will be outlined in a white paper due to be published tomorrow by the Ministry of Justice. The changes build on measures adopted to cope with the high number of people arrested during last ...
-
News
Law applicants unfazed by tuition fee rise
The number of students applying to read law at university appears to have held up well this year, despite a near 9% fall in applications across all degree subjects in the UK. Statistics released earlier this week by UCAS reveal that 50,000 fewer UK applicants have ...
-
News
LinkedIn 'can help profession innovate'
‘Crowd-sourced’ innovations can help lawyers temper the worst excesses of government cuts to access to justice, incoming Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said this week.
-
News
Support for shot solicitor
Wiltshire solicitor James Ward (pictured) remains in a serious condition after being shot in his office last week. The principal partner at Morris Goddard & Ward began breathing on his own on Tuesday for the first time since the attack but remained in a coma, local colleagues said. ...
-
News
Court pioneer retains funding despite 'failure'
England’s first ‘community’ court has failed to cut reoffending rates, a Ministry of Justice report has revealed - but it will continue to receive funding for the next two years. The report on North Liverpool Community Justice Centre (NLCJC), which opened in September 2005, combining courts ...
-
News
CILEx president in new rights plea
Newly qualified legal executives are more experienced and knowledgeable than their solicitor counterparts, the new president of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) claimed in his inaugural speech last week. Nick Hanning said legal executives are ‘the equal of any other type of lawyer’ and ...
-
News
Law firm bids for TV licence
A Birmingham law firm behind a consortium bidding to run a new TV station in the city plans to broadcast a regular legal programme. DBS Law is part of Bham TV, which plans to launch in October if it wins approval from Ofcom for a ...
-
News
Hope over asbestos claims fund
Time is running out for the government to meet its self-imposed deadline to create a contingency fund for asbestos-related disease claims. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly told the House of Commons last week he hoped to make an announcement before the summer recess, which begins next Wednesday. ...
-
News
Asking the right questions
It is the sort of thing that gives lawyers a good name. MPs spent three hours last week debating Labour’s call for an ‘independent, forensic, judge-led public inquiry’ into the culture and professional standards of the banking industry.
-
News
A way through: the future under LASPO
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and lawyers who are intent on surviving the age of austerity need to innovate to survive. The profession is fighting on multiple fronts: a double-dip recession, new competition flowing in from the ongoing programme of liberalisation and savage legal aid cuts heading ...
-
News
Relatively few firms post results on their websites - despite decent numbers
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good; a conclusion that might be drawn from early financial results posted by the top-ranking cohort of UK law firms. Notwithstanding a flatlining economy, the early filers for 2011/12 are generally reporting decent numbers. Average profit per equity partner in the top ...
-
News
The official ‘legal services provider’ role will become commonplace
by Tim Jones, lead partner on London 2012 at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer When the flame is lit on 27 July and the London 2012 Olympic Games are officially declared open, it is not just our athletes who will have had an unrepeatable opportunity.
-
News
Assurance scheme will protect the public
The Quality Assurance Scheme for Criminal Advocates (QASA) is soon to become a reality. From January next year, for the first time all criminal advocates, including barristers, solicitors and legal executives, will be assessed against a set of common standards to assure the quality of criminal advocacy in courts in ...
-
News
Spousal maintenance - part two
In my last article I considered the courts’ approach to the quantum of periodical payments (see [2012] Gazette, 24 May, 16). Recent decisions have seen an increased focus on needs as the prevailing factor when quantifying such payments. In a similar vein, and perhaps reflecting a less generous approach to ...
-
News
Rights bill commission seeks second opinion
A right to administrative justice and trial by jury are among measures that may be proposed for a future UK Bill of Rights, the body set up to investigate the need for a bill has suggested. In its second consultation, which opened yesterday, the Commission on ...
-
News
Double Jim and no tonic
Obiter was privileged to be among the guests at the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association annual dinner, aka the Tout’s Ball. It’s the occasion at which, in the words of guest speaker Jim Sturman QC, barristers ‘suck up’ to solicitors to secure work and a future share of the ‘one ...