Headlines – Page 1568
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PPI claims become a revenue stream for law firms
In the last 12 months, the payment protection insurance (PPI) claims sector has exploded as customers increasingly become ‘clued up’ about their consumer rights.
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Scent of a woman
Last month Obiter reported Berkshire solicitor Hilary Messer’s recollection of misunderstanding a female judge’s enquiry about the perfume she was wearing. Roberta Tish, a consultant with London firm Blacklaws Davis, reckons Messer was lucky. ‘How times have changed,’ Tish writes. ‘In the very early sixties, I was appearing before ...
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Breaking the law
They are supposed to uphold and administer the law, but when it comes to motoring, the legal profession shows delinquent tendencies. Lawyers, judges and magistrates are 60% more likely than the average motorist to have points on their licence, according to research by insurer ...
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World games
When we cheerfully predicted that new technology would cause the demise of the legal typo, we forgot about a new peril: the predictive text software that’s supposed to make life easier for people sending text messages or emails on the fly. Unless you’re careful, messages thus generated can range ...
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Pinsent Masons
Thanks to our friends at Pinsent Masons for sending us a preview of the firm’s stylish new Manchester premises in the city’s Spinningfields development. Apparently the property fit-out specialist Overbury has started work on the décor, ready for a June move-in. The aim is ‘a visually striking, welcoming and user-friendly ...
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Female decoration
We welcome two new members to the club of long-serving legal stalwarts: secretaries at Suffolk firm Greene & Greene who have clocked up a combined total of 84 years’ service. Lorraine Palfrey joined the firm in October 1966 as an office junior, being promoted ...
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Lord Bingham monitors the Binyam Mohamed controversy
David Miliband won something of a hollow victory over the media last week. The foreign secretary persuaded two judges not to publish ‘seven very short paragraphs’ they had withheld from a judgment last August. These 25 lines summarised reports to British security and intelligence officials by ...
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Conveyancing crisis: a reflection of the times
I am writing as chair of the Direct Conveyancing Association, which represents some of the largest direct conveyancers in the UK, to respond to comments made by Law Society President Paul Marsh (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, p1).
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Delivering the post on time
Practising solicitors are proving slow to grasp the business development opportunities offered by the internet, as this column somewhat didactically observed last month. The findings of this year’s Law Society Software Solutions Guide (see In Business) confirm what we know.
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Cost fears that may put solicitors off ID cards
The Home Office wants lawyers to be ‘early adopters’ of ID equipment. According to minister Meg Hillier, ‘for legal transactions it might well be worthwhile [solicitors] having a reading machine to quickly verify ID’ (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 4). There are many civil liberty arguments against the scheme. But ...
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Commodity fetish
I note the recent sad administrations of Hammonds Support Services and Fox Hayes (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, 1). They were probably two of the biggest examples of firms who followed Professor Richard Susskind’s regular entreaties to the legal profession to ‘commoditise’ legal work. Will ...
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False economies
Your article ‘Dial J for Justice’ claims CDS Direct saves money (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 10). John Sirodcar [director of national accounts at the Legal Services Commission] says they get £18 or £19 a call as opposed to £30.25 in private practice – giving a £1m saving.
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Time to move on
I reply to Peter Browne’s letter asking us not to follow the crowd and in particular resistance to paying referral fees (see [2009] Gazette, 29 January, 9). As owners of an estate agency, we are well aware that most estate agents successfully try to persuade buyers and sellers to use ...
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Only four firms apply to become LDPs
Hopes that the legal profession would eagerly embrace new business structures created by the Legal Services Act have received a blow with the news that only a handful of firms have applied to be part of the first wave of reforms. With only three weeks ...
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Solicitors to promote own high street brand
High street solicitors have launched a new legal brand to promote themselves collectively when supermarkets and other businesses enter the legal arena in 2011. QualitySolicitors.com is a nationwide alliance of small and medium-sized firms that will pool resources to develop a recognisable brand to compete with ...
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Law firms’ parliamentary links under scrutiny
UK legal firms employ 15 Lords and four MPs as consultants for as much as £61,000 a year, a Gazette investigation has found. Although the relationships are above board and break no rules, parliamentary activity is likely to come under scrutiny amid calls for tighter ...
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Concern as magic circle firm culls partners
The head of an influential alliance of corporate general counsel has expressed concern at the soaring tally of City firm redundancies, as Clifford Chance became the first magic circle firm to announce it will cut partners. Peter Maynard, legal director and company secretary at Prudential and chair of GC100, which ...
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Lawyers blame NHS for soaring negligence bill
Clinical negligence lawyers have denied charges of profiteering following an National Health Service announcement that total claims could almost double to £713m next year. The NHS said the estimated £317m increase in the total bill for 2009/10 was the result of changes to ...
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ECJ ruling threatens London’s arbitration status
London’s Commercial Court will no longer be entitled to grant anti-suit injunctions to support arbitration provisions with London as their seat, if doing so undermines the jurisdiction of another member state’s court, the European Court of Justice (pictured) ruled this week.
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Asylum laws putting women at risk
British immigration policy is putting female asylum seekers at risk of sexual assault, lawyers warned this week as the Refugee Council reported that three-quarters of women seeking asylum have been raped either in their country of origin or in the UK.