Headlines – Page 1404
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Court figures show rise in FTSE 100 litigation
The number of High Court cases involving FTSE 100 companies has risen 16% in the last year, research from legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell has revealed. In the year to 30 June 2010, the study shows there were 179 cases involving the FTSE 100, ...
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Firms make applications to assigned risks pool
Some 409 firms applied to enter the assigned risks pool (ARP) on 1 October, the deadline for professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal, according to figures released by the Solicitors Regulation Authority today. The SRA said this is roughly the same number of deadline day applications as ...
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Mayer Brown outsources secretarial practice
The London corporate group of US firm Mayer Brown has outsourced its entire secretarial practice, the firm announced today. Corporate administrative outsourcer TMF Group, which runs 87 corporate administration companies in 67 countries, has acquired the practice. Peter Dickinson, head of the ...
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Small conveyancers still have weaponry against big brands
The Gazette reported recently on some figures released by Contact Law showing the level of anxiety among the profession over the ‘threat’ of alternative business structures.
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A change in direction on electronic disclosure
The introduction of Practice Direction 31BOn 1 October 2010, a new practice direction, 31B on the disclosure of electronic documents comes into effect. The new practice direction is designed to encourage and assist the parties to reach agreement on the disclosure of electronic ...
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High Court to rule on LSC tender review
The High Court will rule today on the outcome of the Law Society’s expedited judicial review challenge of the Legal Services Commission’s family tender. The three-day proceedings heard by Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Beatson concluded on Monday, with judgment expected to be handed down ...
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War of words
Over the past few weeks, a theme has been emerging on this page about the profession’s veritable obsession with the correct use of language. But it transpires that it is not only solicitors of the Supreme Court who get hot and bothered about the use and abuse of English; their ...
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Will the Supreme Court survive the coalition's purge of public bodies?
Tomorrow, the UK Supreme Court celebrates its first anniversary. Might it also be the court’s last? According to proposals leaked from the Cabinet Office and published by the BBC last week, the future of Britain’s highest court was still shrouded in uncertainly as recently as 26 August.
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Supreme Court ‘under review’ as legal quangos face axe
Solicitors have voiced deep concern about the future of the Supreme Court, after it appeared on a leaked list of public institutions and quangos facing review or abolition by the coalition government. According to the leaked Cabinet Office list, nine legal quangos are among 177 ...
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Reform of the law relating to murder is long overdue
by Julian Young, senior partner at Julian Young & Co I have in front of me a copy of an Order for Assize and General Gaol Delivery, dated 1955, ordering the execution of a defendant for ... ‘the crime of wilful murder’. That sentence was carried ...
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How can this be access to justice?
I read with interest the letter from Hugh Barrett , executive director, Legal Services Commission. He seems to have forgotten that two important components of access to justice are independent advice and conflicts of interest.
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Family lawyers must brace themselves
Lord Justice Wall shoots from the hip when it comes to problems in the family justice system. He even took the step of writing to LSC chief executive Carolyn Downs, warning her that family judges were alarmed by the effect of the tender outcome on ‘well-respected ...
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Anti-piracy firm website breach
The website of London anti-piracy firm ACS:Law has been attacked, leading to the leak of email archives and personal data of thousands of internet users. It is understood that the names and addresses of more than 5,000 people alleged by the firm to have engaged ...
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Flood liability warning for conveyancers
Conveyancers could be exposing themselves to liability by failing to obtain information about flooding, which is set to become the latest ‘uninsurable risk’, a leading commercial property solicitor has warned. Suzanne Gill, a commercial property partner at McGrigors in London, said that flooding is affecting an ...
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Let CMCs operate within the rules
I am writing to respond to John Holtom’s letter last week. Banning claims management companies would return us to the position we were in before the Ministry of Justice launched the regulation of claims management companies (CMCs) in 2007 – where CMCs could get away with cold-calling, giving misleading ...
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Lawyers protest over proposed closure of Mayor’s and City court
City lawyers have criticised government proposals to close the oldest local civil court in England, which they claim is one of the most efficient and successful county courts in London. The government is consulting on closing the historic Mayor’s and City court, along with 54 ...
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Law Society president and colleagues fight for members
As a partner in a small property-based firm that started just 18 months ago, I have been greatly concerned by two issues in particular – mortgage panels and professional indemnity insurance. Like many colleagues in the provinces, it has often appeared to me that the ‘powers that be’ within the ...
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Tributes paid to Trevor Aldridge, the first solicitor QC
Solicitors have paid tribute to Trevor Aldridge, the first solicitor to become a QC, following his death earlier this month aged 76. Aldridge was a former law commissioner and a longstanding member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee (CLLC). He remained an active ...
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‘Allegations’ against solicitors in decline
The number of ‘allegations’ made against solicitors which have led to risk assessments by the profession’s regulator has fallen, with a sharp drop in the number relating to mortgages and property, figures have shown. A paper submitted to the Law Society’s management board last week suggested ...
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Legal Services Board rules out fresh referral fee ban
The Legal Services Board has today effectively ruled out a ban on referral fees, but is likely to impose greater standards of transparency in their use. In a paper outlining plans to improve regulation of referral fee arrangements, the LSB says there is not ‘sufficient evidence’ ...