Headlines – Page 1359
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Making the grade
Restrictions on the legal practice course should be based not on whether a person has obtained a training contract, but on whether or not they are likely to do so. At university, I was among high achievers who obtained training contracts before commencing the LPC. Many ...
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Limiting access to the LPC smacks of restrictive practice
Robin Dunne suggests restricting legal practice course (LPC) places to those who have secured a training contract. One could also fix the pass mark so that the number of students who do pass accords with the number of trainees needed. However, a return to the days of such restriction is ...
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Drive to raise awareness of pro bono costs
Why did the master of the rolls, the solicitor general, a former attorney general and leaders of the legal profession join forces last week? Their aim was to launch a campaign to raise awareness of pro bono costs. Although introduced two years ago by section ...
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Unions play a key role in improving safety in the workplace
Against a background of Lord Young’s review and the ongoing debate about Jackson, unions continue to campaign for fairness and decent health and safety standards at work. These are basic social needs necessary for stable industrial relations, growth and prosperity in any workplace. Employees have ...
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The very principle of legal aid is now on trial
Brutal cuts to legal aid, unlike steep hikes in tuition fees say, are perceived to be a vote-winner. They will certainly find favour with many; the tabloids will make sure of that. As ever, in wheeling out their caricatures of ‘fat cat’ lawyers and scheming, criminal immigrants, they followed the ...
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Civil legal aid facing ‘devastation’ after £154m cut
Lawyers warned this week that civil legal aid services could be devastated by government plans that would see the total annual income of legal aid providers slashed by up to £154m. The proposed reforms would cut state help to all but the very poorest, the Law ...
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Research reveals diversity concerns
The Law Society this week published three research papers highlighting the difficulties faced by women, black and ethnic minority (BME), and lesbian and gay lawyers in the profession.
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Judicial approval for costs pilot a ‘success’
Forcing solicitors to win judicial approval of their fee budgets in civil cases has been proven to reduce the costs of litigation, according to the judge who proposed the idea. Lord Justice Jackson (pictured), author of a major report on civil litigation costs, told the Commercial ...
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Neuberger: mediation is no substitute for justice
Mediation ‘cannot be a substitute for justice’, the master of the rolls warned this week, in a view that appears sharply at odds with government proposals to replace many legal aid-funded cases with alternative dispute resolution. Unveiling the government’s legal aid reforms this week, justice secretary ...
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Government rethinks TUPE stance
The coalition government has scrapped plans to reform controversial employment regulations in an apparent U-turn by the Conservatives, it has emerged. Mark Hammerton, employment partner at national firm Eversheds, said Lord Hunt, now energy minister, had suggested before the election that a Conservative government would seek ...
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Consumer shift in estate services
Consumers are increasingly shopping around for estate administration services, which has led to a fall in average administration costs despite a rise in the value of estates, a report has suggested. The survey of 1,514 consumers, commissioned by insurer Sun Life Direct, also found that ...
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More than 300 firms reform as LDPs
More than 300 firms have registered as legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs), according to the latest figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, indicating an acceleration of takeup in advance of the rules permitting alternative business structures (ABSs) next year. There were 304 registered LDPs at the end ...
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Skilled worker visa quota massively oversubscribed
So many visa applications have been submitted by highly skilled workers from outside the EU this month that November’s quota of 600 applications was reached three weeks before the end of the month, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has revealed. In July, the government introduced a ...
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Judicial Appointments Commission survives quango cull
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) and the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman will not fall victim to the government’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’, the government has revealed. Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke told parliament last week that the two agencies will remain in place ‘as valued independent ...
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Shopping for legal advice at Quality Solicitors
Yesterday morning I visited QualitySolicitors Freeman Harris for a free consultation. For those who haven’t heard, the firm is believed to be the first to open inside a shopping centre. I visited not as a journalist, but as a customer. I have never instructed a solicitor ...
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Legal fees drive up motor premium costs, claim insurers
Insurance companies should and could do more to stop people driving without a licence, the Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS) has told a House of Commons inquiry into escalating motor insurance costs. In its written submission to the Transport Committee inquiry, MASS said that uninsured drivers ...
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Indian legal services market to stay closed
The Indian government has no plans to allow foreign law firms to practise in the country, it said in a statement on Monday. Veerappa Moily, minister of law and justice, said in response to a question in the Indian parliament that ‘at present there is no ...
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Client capture – learning from newer entrants
I can imagine the growing volume of conversations across the country as people meet and chat about families and life in general.
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House of Lords’ unsung battles for EU democracy
One of the constant accusations made against the EU – it was made in a comment to my blog last week – is that there is a democratic deficit. I accept the claim; it is undeniable. But it is also an accusation from within a UK glasshouse, since many of ...
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Research reveals widening social divide in the profession
More than one in seven lawyers come from private schools, despite just one in 50 of the population receiving private education, new research has suggested. While 93% of the population are state educated, only 85% of lawyers went to non-public schools, according to an analysis of ...