Headlines – Page 1554
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Big four mortgage lenders reassure conveyancing panel firms
Four of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders have reassured solicitors that they have no plans to cut firms from residential conveyancing panels. Last week, Abbey cut the number of law firm offices on its panel from 12,000 to 6,050, provoking dismay from those affected. Halifax, Nationwide, ...
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LPA registration fee slashed
Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) can now be registered for just £120, the Ministry of Justice announced today. LPAs give people the power to plan ahead to when they are unable to make decisions for themselves, typically by appointing a relative or friend to take responsibility ...
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Solicitor jailed for insider dealing
A solicitor was jailed this week at the climax of the Financial Services Authority’s first criminal prosecution for insider dealing. Christopher McQuoid, 40, former general counsel at TTP Communications, and his father-in-law, James Melbourne, 74, were both found guilty of one count of insider dealing. At ...
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Access to civil justice is failing, says Association of District Judges president
Access to justice in the civil courts is worse than it was a decade ago and is set to decline further, according to the new president of the Association of District Judges. David Oldham, who took over last week from Edwina Millward, said that repeated ...
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Conveyancing solicitors warned on liability for incomplete searches in HIPs
Conveyancing solicitors could be liable for buyers’ losses if they accept defective searches, Law Society President Paul Marsh has warned, as new regulations on the contents of home information packs come into force. From next Monday, transitional measures that allowed packs to include incomplete personal local ...
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Local government solicitors urged to become less cautious
Local authority lawyers should lose their ‘cautious’ reputation, according to the new chair of Solicitors in Local Government (SLG). Guy Goodman told the SLG’s annual general meeting in Warwick last week that the profession faces a battery of immediate challenges, including changes to the code ...
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Personal injury lawyers blame NHS for rise in clinical negligence costs
Clinical negligence lawyers billing the NHS £130m a year have rejected a claim that their fees are ‘indefensibly expensive’ by blaming rising costs on the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) and its panel solicitors. The NHSLA, in its submission to Lord Justice Jackson’s review of ...
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Child care application charges under parliamentary fire
Pressure is mounting on the government to abolish fees for child care application proceedings following two parliamentary interventions. Lord Laming (pictured), who investigated the deaths of Victoria Climbié and Baby P, told MPs last week that he sees no need for fees. Meanwhile Sir ...
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Practitioners condemn best value tendering for police station work
Practitioner groups have condemned the government’s ‘reckless’ and ‘cavalier’ decision to go ahead with the introduction of best value tendering (BVT) for criminal legal aid work. The Legal Services Commission last week announced that the scheme, under which firms bid for work at police stations, will ...
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Family courts in ‘unseemly gallop’ to open to press
The opening of family courts to the press is ‘moving at an unseemly gallop’, a leading high court judge in the family division said last week. Mr Justice Hedley told an emergency meeting at the Law Society that the new policy – announced by justice secretary Jack Straw late last ...
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Disappointing response to SRA diversity census
An attempt by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to gain an accurate picture of the profession’s ethnic breakdown is in peril because nine out of 10 solicitors have failed to respond to a diversity census. Only 14,000 of the 140,000 individuals emailed a questionnaire in December ...
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SRA chief warns of cost of Smedley proposals for City
The Solicitors Regulation Authority would need ‘considerable’ resources to implement the recommendations of Nick Smedley’s report on corporate firm regulation, its chief executive said last week. Antony Townsend told an SRA board meeting that ‘rising demands’ are being placed on his organisation. ‘We have the Smedley ...
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Draft bill would create two new bribery offences
Practitioners have welcomed government proposals to reform ‘antiquated’ bribery laws to create a framework of two general offences of giving and accepting bribes. Justice secretary Jack Straw last week published a draft bribery bill, modelled on recommendations made in the Law Commission’s November 2008 Report, Reforming ...
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Worldwide deals, acquisitions and power stations
Warsaw bonds: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised the city of Warsaw (pictured) on a €1.3bn (£1.2bn) debt issuance programme, which will allow the city to issue bonds for the first time since the Second World War. ...
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Slaughter and May becomes latest magic circle firm to freeze pay
Slaughter and May has become the fourth member of the magic circle to freeze pay for all staff. The firm’s announcement today (2 April) comes three days after Clifford Chance announced it will freeze pay. Fellow magic circle firms Allen & Overy and Freshfields announced pay freezes earlier this year. ...
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Jurisdiction of adjudicators
Kompetenz-Kompetenz for adjudicators? The effect of Air Design v Deerglen Air Design allows an adjudicator much wider scope in determining the issues referred to him, even those relevant to questions of jurisdiction. The growth of ...
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The Smedley report – perception and reality
As you may have noticed, there was a summit of global leaders in London this week. Cue chants of ‘shame on you!’ (and worse) outside the Bank of England.
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Paperless lawyering – part two
My father worked for IBM for more than three decades. We were fortunate to see him make use of both electronic calculators and solar panels in the 1970s.
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First legal executive appointed partner
The Institute of Legal Executives announced that for the first time a legal executive has been appointed a partner in a legal disciplinary partnership. Nick Hanning (pictured), a legal executive with Poole law firm RWPS, took up his new status on 31 March, when LDPs came ...
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Straw announces date and details of family court openings
Family court hearings in county courts and the High Court will be opened to the media from Monday 27 April, subject to parliamentary approval, justice secretary Jack Straw announced today. Media representatives who wish to attend family courts will need to be holders of the UK ...