Headlines – Page 1369
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Consumer’s voice in legal reforms under threat
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has warned the government against pressing ahead with its ‘surprise’ plans to merge it with campaigning group Citizens Advice, at what it said was a ‘crucial period in legal services reforms’.
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Why are lawyers worried about probate rights for accountants?
As it is now less than a year until the non-legal big brands are permitted to begin their grab for high street legal services next October, those areas of work that are reserved (more or less) exclusively for solicitors are beginning to seem increasingly precious in the eyes of the ...
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Young report seeks to curb ‘compensation culture’
The volume and content of personal injury advertising should be controlled, but there will be no outright ban, Lord Young (pictured) has recommended in his report on the ‘compensation culture’ published today. In Common Sense, Common Safety, Young also proposes that the road traffic accident (RTA) ...
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Legal services reforms will create ‘tougher market’, says LSB
The ‘competitive effect’ of new players coming into the market from October next year will mean that ‘existing firms need to improve their levels of service [and] focus on consumers, to be able to compete in a tougher marketplace’, Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds has said.
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Environment
Planning – Authorisations – Inspectors – Waste disposal Berry & Marshall (Bolton Wood) Ltd (claimant) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (defendant) and (1) Environment Agency (2) Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council (interested parties): QBD (Admin) ...
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Local authorities and surveillance
For the first time in its history, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has published a ruling concerning a local authority’s use of surveillance powers under part 2 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).
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Court of Appeal confirms limits to legal professional privilege
The Court of Appeal today unanimously confirmed that legal professional privilege (LPP) only applies to qualified lawyers – solicitors and barristers. The decision was welcomed by the Law Society as giving certainty to solicitors and their clients.
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Read all about it
False modesty can become so tiring that Obiter found it somewhat refreshing to receive the paperback edition of Richard Susskind’s The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. Any readers in possession of the hardback edition only will not have seen his introduction to the paperback. During the ...
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A-Z of billing
Obiter is only too familiar with the concept of being a little short of cash towards the end of the month, and is therefore pleased to pass on a billing tip from 360 Legal Group’s annual conference. Mike Segall, managing director of Money ...
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Oarsome
This highly opinionated profession is well known for sticking its oar in, but Chris Partington, partner at Slater Heelis in Sale, seems to have taken this literally. Despite never having been in a canoe before this picture was taken, Partington is to complete the three-day, 120-mile ‘Cheshire Ring’ this week, ...
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Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly on pro bono and the Big Society
While prime minister David Cameron’s idea of the ‘Big Society’ has left many people unclear as to what their own role or contribution to it could be, for lawyers the answer looks fairly simple: pro bono work can use lawyers’ skills, knowledge and professional standing to meet unmet need. The ...
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We are abseiling
Obiter recently issued a plea for pics of solicitors in improbable locations. So this image of Helen Jolly, solicitor at West Midlands firm Addison O’Hare, dangling 30ft in the air having just stepped off the top of the Walsall Art Gallery fits the ...
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Bubble rap?
With George Osborne poised to apply a Swan Vesta to the bonfire of the quangos, was it wise of the Legal Ombudsman to be so free with the fizz at its Birmingham launch party last week? After all, champagne was banned at the Conservative Party conference, under way at the ...
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The Bribery Act and how in-house counsel can help combat corruption
In July the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that the Bribery Act will not come into force until April 2011, a full year after it received royal assent. At the same time, it promised to issue guidance to enable commercial organisations to understand the concept of ‘adequate procedures’. This guidance ...
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UK still has a judiciary to be proud of
The formal reprimand issued to His Honour George Bathurst-Norman last week is the most serious of the disciplinary powers available to the lord chief justice in cases of judicial misconduct, short of suspension or removal from office. Those latter powers would not have been appropriate for Bathurst-Norman because he had ...
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Consumer protection is at heart of SRA’s 10 core principles
The legal media are awash with stories about the changes that face the legal profession. These include the arrival of alternative business structures (ABSs) and the possible consequences for firms on the high street; the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new handbook and Code of Conduct; the SRA’s approach to outcomes-focused regulation ...
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Double take
The picture on page 12 of the 23 September Gazette also adorns the front cover of August’s journal of the Law Society of Scotland. Apparently, September’s vexed-looking figure is no longer concerned about the Cadder effect (so called because of a Scots case to do with a suspect’s access to ...
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Relaxation leads to risk
Stricter controls on financial advisers and stricter controls on banks – all designed to protect the public. At the same time the government is ready to throw legal services open to the wider market. Could it be that it is missing something rather obvious – ...
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LSB must address unsavoury tactics
I noted the items in the Gazette of 7 October relating to referral fees and legal expenses insurance. There are some insurers with whom it is a pleasure to work. However the behaviour of others does give cause for concern. For example: ...