Headlines – Page 1484
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Contingency fees regulation will drive lawyers out of the market
Government proposals to regulate contingency fees will drive lawyers out of the market and leave 500,000 people a year without legal representation, employment lawyers have warned. Draft regulations published this month by the Ministry of Justice propose a 25% cap on the proportion of a client’s ...
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Solicitors ‘to profit’ from instructing barristers following BSB rule changes
Solicitors will for the first time be able to profit from instructing barristers following rule changes agreed last month by the Bar Standards Board (BSB), a legal businessman has said. Peter Rouse, director of online barristers’ directory Bar Select, said the new rules on how barristers ...
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Judiciary must speak out on 'parlous state of family law'
The judiciary must ‘come off the bench’ and speak out about the ‘parlous state of family law in 2009’, lord justice Wall has said. Speaking at the Association of Lawyers for Children conference, the Court of Appeal judge said ‘the time has come when the historical ...
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Law firms urged to conduct identity checks on staff
Firms are putting themselves at risk by failing to carry out basic identity checks on their staff before employing them, the chairman of the Law Society’s conveyancing and land law committee has warned. Richard Barnett said he had been made aware that many firms were not ...
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Law Society seeks judicial review over costs capping
The Law Society is set to seek a judicial review of the government’s move to drastically reduce the legal costs that defendants can reclaim if they are acquitted of a criminal offence. A regulation introduced by the Ministry of Justice at the end of October removed ...
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SRA to overhaul regulation and scrap ‘unjustified’ rules
The Solicitors Code of Conduct is to be rewritten and a swath of detailed conduct rules are likely to scrapped under plans being discussed today by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The SRA intends to fundamentally reform the way it regulates, moving from the current ‘box-ticking’ system ...
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Scottish Parliament warned that ‘Tesco law’ could trigger English invasion
The Scottish Parliament was warned this week that moves to liberalise Scotland’s legal services market could spark a takeover by English invaders. Lobby group the Scottish Law Agents Society (SLAS) told members of the justice committee at Holyrood that ‘external ownership’ of law firms makes it more likely that Scottish ...
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Foreign firms cannot practise Indian law, Mumbai court says
Foreign lawyers in India cannot advise clients on any matters of Indian law, the Mumbai High Court ruled yesterday. The court confirmed that legal advice outside of litigation practice is covered by the ban on foreign lawyers set down in the 1961 Advocates Act. ...
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What is the best way to combat legal aid cuts?
By now many of you will be as inured to the howls of outrage from the profession over legal aid cuts as you are to the cuts themselves. Both are becoming an almost weekly, even daily, occurrence, it saddens one to report.
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Government’s £23m legal aid cuts ‘affront to justice’
The government will cut £23m from the £2.1bn legal aid budget by reducing fees for police station work, scrapping file review payments in criminal cases and consolidating committal hearing payments. The government said that its reforms are ‘designed to help sustain the legal aid budget’ and ...
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Chancery Lane hails scrapping of best value tendering pilots
The Law Society has welcomed the Ministry of Justice’s decision to ask the Legal Services Commission not to proceed with its planned pilots for best value tendering (BVT).
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Unemployment rate among solicitors climbs by 400%
The number of unemployed solicitors on benefits has quadrupled during the recession to more than 1,800, according to an analysis of official statistics by the Conservative Party reported in today’s Daily Telegraph. Along with architects, surveyors and vets, solicitors comprise one of the professional groups to ...
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‘Chaos’ predicted over virtual court pilot
Solicitors have predicted ‘chaos’ after provisions forcing defendants in custody in the virtual court pilot areas to use the videolink for court appearances were brought in yesterday. A pilot of the scheme, which enables defendants to make their first court appearance via videolink from the police ...
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It’s time to stop taking liberties with human rights
Adolf Hitler wouldn’t have known a human right if he had found one nibbling on his breakfast pumpernickel. We’re all agreed on that. The British people, on the other hand, are upstanding citizens who champion the weak and whose love of cricket embodies our profound devotion to fair play.
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Ghosts of Christmas past and future: client data
Here is an easy measure of how well your firm might face up to the increasing competition in the legal services market: did your firm send out personalised Christmas cards this year?
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Human rights committee warning on civil litigation funding curbs
The government must consider evidence that civil court costs rules and funding limitations are preventing people who have suffered human rights abuses at the hands of UK companies from seeking redress, the Joint Committee on Human Rights said today. In its report on business and human ...
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Commons committee renews call for statutory lobbying register
The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has renewed its call for a statutory register of parliamentary lobbyists, while also criticising the government for its slow progress in bringing about effective self-regulation of the lobbying industry. PASC published a lengthy report on lobbying in January, to which ...
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News
It’s time to stop taking liberties with human rights
Adolf Hitler wouldn’t have known a human right if he had found one nibbling on his breakfast pumpernickel. We’re all agreed on that. The British people, on the other hand, are upstanding citizens who champion the weak and whose love of cricket embodies our profound devotion to fair play.
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News
Staff shortage stops Burma probe into international law firms
An investigation into international law firms’ dealings in Burma has been called off because of a staff shortage at the organisation planning the probe. Pressure group Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) said this week that it will not be publishing its annual ‘dirty list’, a list of ...
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Lovells agrees merger with Hogan & Hartson
City firm Lovells and US firm Hogan & Hartson will unite to form Hogan Lovells on 1 May next year after partners gave the green light to a merger. Hogan Lovells will have combined revenues of around $1.8bn (£1.1bn) and 2,500 lawyers in more than 40 ...