Headlines – Page 1475
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A licence to die
Sir Terry Pratchett’s proposals for a tribunal to license assisted dying will add a welcome and significant boost an idea we have long advocated.
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MPs have performed a valuable service for legal aid
This has hardly been a vintage session for the dignity of parliament, with politicians of all major parties bundled into the stocks for claiming expenses for duck houses and the like. However, the Public Accounts Committee’s damning report on legal aid procurement does at least suggest that our elected representatives ...
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Solicitors can be vital in preventing the abuse and neglect of elderly people
Caroline Bielanska the chair of Solicitors for the Elderly, the national association of specialist lawyers who advise older and vulnerable adults, their families and carers On 7 ...
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Restaurant sales, education buyout and pension plans
Ringing off: City firm Herbert Smith advised accountants Ernst & Young as administrators to the Europe, Middle East and Africa entities of telecoms manufacturer Nortel Networks, on selling off Nortel businesses worth $2bn (£1.26bn).
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Commercial property triggers recruitment surge for litigators
High-end commercial property litigators will be the most in-demand breed of lawyer in London over the coming year, recruitment consultants Badenoch & Clark predicted this week. Banks that have already refinanced commercial property loans are beginning to call in specialist litigators to try and recover massive ...
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MoJ and City firms test new business model for law centres
The Ministry of Justice has launched a pilot initiative in partnership with City law firms and charitable trusts to test a new business model for law centres. The project will harness City firms’ know-how to ensure law centres across the country are run in the most ...
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Local government lawyers make PC fee plea to the SRA
Local government lawyers are pressing the Solicitors Regulation Authority to concede more ground in its proposals to lower the practising certificate fee payable by employed solicitors. The SRA has proposed that the PC fee be split into two elements, with 40% of the costs to ...
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JAC and Chancery Lane launch training package for aspiring judges
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) and the Law Society today launched a training and information package to encourage more solicitors to apply for judicial posts. The two organisations have designed a courtroom training video and commentary specifically targeted at solicitors to assist them in the part ...
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Solicitors face professional indemnity challenge from insurers
Insurers are beginning to challenge solicitors over the terms of their professional indemnity insurance (PII) policies amid early signs that the profession is facing a wave of negligence claims. Some 82% of major insurers predict that the number of claims on solicitors’ PII policies this year ...
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DLA Piper denies lawyer’s discrimination claim
National firm DLA Piper has appeared before the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) this week to deny a lawyer’s claim that it discriminated against her on the grounds of her ‘perceived’ disability.
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Public Accounts Committee publishes damning report on LSC
The Ministry of Justice has announced measures to save £6m a year from the legal aid budget by ‘tightening the rules for civil legal aid’. The announcement came as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a ...
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Is the pope right to speak out about the Equality Bill?
You have to hand it to the Equality Bill – its detractors come from every walk of life. At one end of the spectrum there’s the white working class British guy who thinks the bill is all about giving his job to women or black people.
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MoJ restricts civil legal aid
The Ministry of Justice has announced it is to press ahead with proposals to restrict civil legal aid for people not resident in the UK, tighten the funding rules for judicial review and limit funding for public interest cases, despite strong opposition from lawyers. The consultation ...
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The Law Society and SRA will rise to the challenge of regulatory change
A favourite quote of mine often used at this time of the year comes from a poem written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins: I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
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Five national firms to offer advice to 48 local authorities
Five national law firms have been selected to provide legal advice to 48 local authorities in the East Midlands under the EM LawShare consortium umbrella. Anthony Collins, Browne Jacobson, DLA Piper, Freeth Cartwright and Weightmans will offer legal advice on 13 areas of law including ...
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MPs attack ‘lax’ Legal Services Commission
The Public Accounts Committee has today lambasted the Legal Services Commission for its handling of legal aid funds. Committee chairman Edward Leigh MP said financial controls at the LSC were ‘lax’, noting that ‘it does not know enough about the costs and profitability of firms to ...
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Coping with bad publicity
The ongoing debate about complaints and dissatisfied clients raises the issue of bad publicity and how to deal with it. Given that there are a number of websites that collect complaints and achieve Google rankings, is there anything a firm can do?
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Lawyers and Iraq – living with the consequences
There has been no bigger topic during the last week than the consequences of the Iraq war on the image of the legal profession. We have witnessed a succession of lawyers giving evidence to the Chilcot inquiry, and we have been presented with different models, as follows:
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Lord Justice Jackson’s recommendations should be implemented speedily
‘Access to Justice entails that those with meritorious claims (whether or not ultimately successful) are able to bring those claims before the courts for judicial resolution or post-issue settlement, as the case may be. It also entails that those with meritorious defences (whether or not ultimately successful) are able to ...
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Why burnt-out lawyers are bad for business
Tough times call for tough measures, and there is no doubt that firms have had to bite the bullet last year, letting go of large numbers of staff in the hardest hit areas such as property and corporate. The fall-off in work made redundancy programmes inevitable.