Headlines – Page 1549
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'Common sense' declarations victory for insurance scheme
The Court of Appeal has rejected a major challenge to the way claimant personal injury solicitors operate the Accident Line Protect (ALP) after-the-event insurance scheme. It held last week that being on the ALP panel and so having to recommend the Law Society-endorsed after-the-event (ATE) ...
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Mediators need time to consider regulation proposals
Proposals for a regulation regime for mediation faltered last week when mediators told the Civil Mediation Council (CMC) they need more time to consider ‘ambitious’ plans. However members of the organisation, which represents civil and commercial mediators, approved a scheme to register workplace mediators to ...
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Bar paves the way for joint practices
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is paving the way for barristers to go into practice with solicitors, but will leave regulation of the new legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs) to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). In its second consultation on the implications of the Legal Services Act ...
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E-working compulsory from 2010
Electronic working will be compulsory for civil legal aid providers from 2010 under plans announced by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) this week. The commission’s Delivery Transformation programme aims to save £7m a year. It will expand the use of online billing, ensure that ...
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Bart-Stewart attacks JAC
The new chair of the Black Solicitors Network (BSN), Cordella Bart-Stewart, has launched a scathing attack on the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), calling for an independent review of appointment processes. Bart-Stewart has refused to take part in what she calls ‘marketing exercises’ such as JAC ...
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Family courts opened up
Family court hearings are for the first time to be open to the press, Justice Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons on Tuesday. From April, accredited media will be allowed to report hearings, unless the child’s welfare requires them not to be admitted, he said. ...
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Data page for December 2008
The data page is financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by Moneyfacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. Downloads Download the ...
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Points-based immigration
Now the old work permit scheme has gasped its last breath, employers and legal practitioners alike may soon recall with fondness the bygone age of the paper work permit. On 27 November, the work permit scheme was replaced by tier 2 of the points-based system (PBS) ...
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Human rights
Bicycles – Exemptions – Notification - Processions Kay v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis: HL (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Carswell, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood): 26 November 2008 ...
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Group litigation: the coming of class actions?
The recession, with the government’s bail-out of the banks, could provide fertile territory for lawyers that specialise in group litigation.
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Word on the street
Let’s face it: if you’re left cold by Olympic sport and televised ballroom dancing, 2008 wasn’t a great year for culture. However, it did produce a spate of books written by lawyers, former lawyers, or with a legal theme. So, if you’re hunting down a ...
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Cash desk
Never mind the frosty meteorological and economic climate - partners at a firm in Barnard Castle, County Durham, have good reason to be full of festive cheer. Clearing out some furniture, the family-run practice found it had what antique expert and TV presenter David Dickinson would call ‘a real bobby ...
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Reprieve from F1's skid row
Never mind the frosty meteorological and economic climate - partners at a firm in Barnard Castle, County Durham, have good reason to be full of festive cheer. Clearing out some furniture, the family-run practice found it had what antique expert and TV presenter David Dickinson would call ‘a real bobby ...
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Flamenco fever
Forget Strictly Come Dancing, now promenading towards its sequined climax; flamenco fever is sweeping the legal profession. Bethany Burrow, a corporate associate in the London office of US firm Sidley Austin, together with some of her dance class, including Joan Vis of Tyrer Roxburgh & Co and Mac Macmillan of ...
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A new insurance policy
We are learning the hard way about the hazards of an economic model predicated on letting the market rip. In the market for professional indemnity insurance (PII), some of these hazards are evident in microcosm. When the market was soft and premiums low, it appeared sensible for firms to obtain ...
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Clamping down on corruption
In the 16th century, Bishop Latimer said of judges: ‘They all love bribes. Bribery is a princely kind of thieving.’ Corruption and its effect is therefore nothing new, and yet the government’s attempt to reform the bribery laws to reflect modern business reality has been long and tortuous. ...
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Challenges for the SRA in 2009
There is no disguising the fact that the past year has been a challenging one for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). There have been a number of issues on our agenda, including embedding best equality and diversity practice in everything we do; preparing for new types of firms spawned by ...
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Contingency fee problems 'modest'
It is worth emphasising a few points regarding contingency fees (see [2008] Gazette, 4 December, 2). The evidence is not that contingency fees present no problems, but that those problems are more modest than many assume. They do not give rise to rampant, unmerited litigation, but they do give rise ...
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Direct access only works for a few
As a practising barrister (and former solicitor), I strongly disagree with Tim Dutton QC (pictured), chairman of the bar, who supports direct access by lay people to counsel. It can work for a tiny minority who can marshal documents and evidence, write and speak coherently, and ...
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Complaints and planning options
Your article ‘LCS to cut spend by 10% next year’ offers a number of assumptions about the future Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) and the role within it of Legal Complaints Service (LCS) staff (see [2008] Gazette, 4 December, 3).