Headlines – Page 1390
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Society launches campaign to fight legal aid cuts
The Law Society has called on law firms to lobby MPs over the impact of the government’s proposed legal aid overhaul, in the first stage in its campaign to fight the cuts. Chancery Lane has warned that the plans outlined in last week’s consultation to reduce ...
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Fixed fees shouldn’t kill time recording
If you are making strategic decisions do you have sufficient financial information to make those decisions? It seems that calculating the expense of time may have gone out of fashion. Some may never have calculated it. But how do you know if a transaction is profitable? And how, if you ...
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‘Compensation culture’ peer quits over gaffe
Lord Young of Graffham will not now assist the government with the implementation of his report on the ‘compensation culture’ after quitting his advisory role this afternoon, Downing Street has confirmed to the Gazette. The government backed the Tory peer’s report, Common Sense, Common Safety, and ...
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Quality street
It was with great fanfare that national law firm ‘superbrand’ Quality Solicitors launched its first ‘legal store’ in a south London shopping centre last week. Intrigued, Obiter decided to make a little trip down to Lewisham, incognito of course, to see where the legal profession is headed, from beneath a ...
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Thought in the act
Italians are well known for their passionate nature, so a recent judgment by the country’s Supreme Court of Cassation has come as something of a surprise to family lawyers. According to Anthony Gold, a London firm that acts in international divorce proceedings, the Italian court has annulled a woman’s marriage ...
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Civil procedure
Conflict of laws – Allocation of jurisdiction – Court fees SK Slavia Praha-Fotbal AS v (1) Debt Collection London Ltd (2) ENIC Group: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Mummery, Lloyd, Stanley Burnton): 4 November 2010 ...
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Follow that dream
Obiter has been mightily amused by the stunning ‘legal musical’ plotlines submitted in our competition to win two tickets to the West End show, Legally Blonde: The Musical. Plots included a secret love child conceived during a post-deal celebration; gangs of lawyers engaging ...
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Shaggy dog stories
Given the British love of animals, the urbane barrister Patrick Back believed that if he could introduce a dog into his closing speech, he had one foot in the acquittal door, writes James Morton. His favourite was when the earl comes home and finds his child and the bed covered ...
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Local government
Environment – Human rights – Public procurement Veolia ES Nottinghamshire Ltd (appellant) v Nottinghamshire County Council (respondent) and (1) Shlomo Dowen (2) Audit Commission for Local Authorities and the National Health Service For England (interested parties): CA (Civ Div) ...
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The implications of a court ruling on vague IT contract terms
In my last column I described the syndrome of IT contract blindness – the ailment that causes parties to an IT contract not to notice that the words in the agreement bear little resemblance to what they are actually planning on doing. Since writing, it has fallen to the Court ...
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When should in-house lawyers consult external counsel?
The in-house lawyer is the ultimate jack of all trades. Naturally required to know their company’s core business inside out, they are also expected to be instant experts on diverse legal fields depending on their company’s needs: employment law if an HR issue crops up; property law if the company ...
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Bankruptcy proceedings and debt collection
In Everitt v Budhram [2010] Ch 1070, Mrs Budhram had been made bankrupt in 2006 for non-payment of £13,130 council tax. She paid the outstanding tax and the petitioning creditor’s costs, but steadfastly failed to engage with the trustee in bankruptcy, and ultimately in 2009, the trustee sought an order ...
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Specialisms not easily acquired
As an experienced practitioner in the field of private client law, I am always pleased to see solicitors, old and new, wishing to practise in this complex and rewarding area of law. However, I do think we need to address the assumption that a ...
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Deputy difficulty
I was very interested to read the letter Capacity issue by Lindsay Taylor. I have been appointed as deputy for a family friend who has all the symptoms of dementia but is living in his own house with a care package to assist him. I duly registered the deputyship order ...
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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 ...