Headlines – Page 1482
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Reform rules on migrants
I write with regard to the Immigration: Tier 1 Post Study Work Review and why successful students of the LPC and Bar Vocational Course should be granted Tier 1 Post Study Work (PSW) visas. See Immigration lawyers boost for top firms.
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Last chance for the high street?
Stephen Hanson complains that he was given work no one else could be bothered with and was made redundant in favour of an unqualified conveyancing clerk. In the same edition, John Gurney-Champion says he runs a profitable practice without paying referral fees. The contents of these letters are very closely ...
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HIP hijack
I share shadow housing minister Grant Shapps’s desire to abolish the home information pack. However, we must encourage the seller to instruct solicitors early in the selling process, which is still not happening despite the good intentions behind the HIP. Ideally the solicitor needs to get on with the ‘completion-ready’ ...
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With divorce enquiries on the rise, is it time to change the rules?
As marriage rates have fallen in recent years, divorce rates have also gone down, but family solicitors reported a massive surge in divorce enquiries from clients in the run up to Christmas and predicted the number of petitions will soar in 2010.
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Get connected or get out of the kitchen
This year will see a significant change in the supply of legal services to domestic and SME business. I’ll make a prediction here that I’ll review this time in 2011. There will emerge two types of solicitors firms by the end of the year: those that have fully adopted IT ...
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IT failure at LSC delays legal aid payments
Technical problems at the Legal Services Commission have delayed all payments due to be made to legal aid solicitors today. The LSC is set to issue an e-alert later updating the profession on the situation. Payment systems at the LSC apparently ...
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Reform group publishes plans to change HIP rules
A group of property professionals released a ‘white paper’ today putting forward proposals to reform the controversial home information packs in a bid to speed up transactions and reduce abortive sales. The HIP Reform Group, established in November 2009, said the packs should be retained rather ...
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Trainee solicitors face debts of more than £10,000
More than half of trainee solicitors have racked up debts of more than £10,000 before qualifying, according to an annual survey published by law student forum TraineeSolicitor.co.uk. The survey of around 200 trainees revealed that 55% had debts in excess of £10,000, while 35% were more ...
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Self-defence is no defence
Pre-election promises aren’t worth the ballot paper they are written on, so don’t take too seriously the sinister spectacle of Labour and the Tories espousing the same populist cause.The populist knee-jerk of the moment is the old chestnut of how far a householder can legally go to protect his property ...
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What is in store for Europe’s lawyers in 2010?
It is that time of the year when newspapers and magazines run retrospectives on the year that has passed – in 2009, even on the decade that has passed – and give prophecies for the future.
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The BVT pilot decision could spell trouble for the LSC
It is telling that last week’s announcement to scrap the best-value tendering pilots in Manchester and Avon and Somerset came from the Ministry of Justice, not the Legal Services Commission. At a time when the two bodies seem to be increasingly at odds, the MoJ has decided to step in ...
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Ditch cheques – go on, you know you want to
Are you offering your clients a bill payment method that is in ‘terminal decline’? That is how the board of the UK Payments Council this week described cheque transactions. No, I’d never heard of the UK Payments Council either, but apparently they can dictate how we pay for stuff...
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Jersey wills and grants for people domiciled outside Jersey
If a person dies domiciled outside Jersey owning assets in Jersey in their sole name, article 19(1) of the Probate (Jersey) Law 1998 provides that a Jersey grant must be obtained. Article 19(2) of the 1998 law provides that a Jersey grant is not required if ...
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Payment into court by cheque – when is payment ‘received’?
Where a party to proceedings has been ordered by the court to make a payment into court, whether for security for costs or otherwise, it is common practice for such a payment to be made from a firm’s client account by cheque.
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Criminal evidence
Expert evidence – Juries – Murder – Conflicting evidence (1) Lon Trach Gian (2) Noor Azura Mohd-Yusoff v Crown Prosecution Service: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Moses, Mr Justice Keith, Mr Justice Foskett): 3 December 2009 ...
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Sentencing
Conspiracy – Counts – Sentence length – Supply of drugs R v David Sangster: R v Robert Burnell: R v Martyn Leslie Jackson: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Maurice Kay, Mr Justice Sweeney, Mr Justice Slade): 2 December ...
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Investigating the world of private detectives: it's not quite Magnum PI
‘The dame was dressed like a million dollars and had legs that would make permafrost steam. But Zak Flint, private eye, knew it was all smoke and mirrors. He had the scars to prove it…’
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Data page for December 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. ...
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Dear Santa...
The turkeys are stuffed, along with the economy. And as Santa stirs in his Lapland grotto, it behoves Obiter to enquire of some of the profession’s luminaries what they would like to see under the tree on Christmas morning. And also what their New Year’s resolutions might be, since the ...