Headlines – Page 1604
-
News
Levelling the playing field
Many actions needed to give effect to equality outcomes have not been implemented by the SRA Lord Ouseley’s investigation into why minority ethnic lawyers feature disproportionately in the work of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has generated much publicity. Peter Herbert, chair of the Society of ...
-
News
Care in the legal community
This year’s Excellence Awards will recognise high-quality client care This year, firms that have demonstrated exceptional innovation and consistent excellence in the delivery of client services will be recognised at the Law Society’s Excellence Awards. The new Legal Complaints Service Award for ...
-
News
A steep learning curve
Solicitors do not have the advocacy experience or training to appoint themselves solicitor-advocates Tim Dutton QC raises valid concerns about solicitors appointing themselves solicitor-advocates (see [2008] Gazette, 31 July, 2). The training solicitors receive in advocacy is quite pitiful and often learned on the hoof. Barristers ...
-
News
Up to standard
In his recent letter, David Pearl suggests that failure to carry out local authority searches is evidence of a lowering of standards (see [2008] Gazette, 31 July, 7).
-
News
Search right
The matter of personal searches has always been controversial, but many firms – both solicitors and licensed conveyancers – rely on searches carried out by an agency and have done for many years. A survey carried out by STL in March 2007, before home information packs became compulsory, indicated that ...
-
News
Double indemnity
I should point out a significant difference between the arrangements for compulsory indemnity insurance for solicitors and those applying to some other professions (see [2008] Gazette, 31 July, 1). The fact that an indemnity insurer has been removed from another profession’s list of preferred providers does not imply that it ...
-
News
Care applications fall sparks safety fears
Applications for child care and supervision orders have plummeted by 25% since councils were forced to bear the full cost of court fees, prompting fears that vulnerable children are being inappropriately placed with relatives instead, the Gazette can reveal. Just 1,611 applications were made by councils ...
-
News
Lawyer kicks off FA insurance battle
A sports lawyer is threatening to sue the Football Association (FA) for failing to insure club footballers against loss of earnings arising from injuries, the Gazette can exclusively reveal. The FA requires all clubs to have at least £5m of public liability insurance. However, it leaves ...
-
News
MP warns courts not to 'jump queue'
A UK bill of rights and freedoms should not enable the courts to help individuals ‘jump the queue’ when pursuing proposed new ‘rights such as healthcare and education, the chairman of the joint committee on human rights has told the Gazette.
-
News
Medical costs on the up
The legal cost of defending doctors and other medical professionals against fitness-to-practice investigations by the General Medical Council has increased fifteen-fold, or 31% annually, over the last decade, according to the Medical Defence Union (MDU). In its annual report, the MDU, a charity founded in 1885 ...
-
News
Legal aid recovery threat
A six-figure claim lodged against a solicitor seven years after he gave up practice has raised the spectre of the Legal Services Commission (LSC) aggressively recouping historic legal aid funding, despite a partial amnesty agreed earlier this year. The commission has launched a High Court ...
-
News
British female rowers win bronze at Olympics
Olympic rower Elise Laverick (right), who is set to join City firm Ashurst as a trainee solicitor, powered home to win bronze for Great Britain in the women’s double sculls in Beijing on Saturday alongside Anna Bebington. Laverick fought her way back to fitness after being the victim of a ...
-
News
AWS to canvass members over pay gap
The Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) is to survey all 17,700 of its members in an attempt to identify why female solicitors are paid less than their male counterparts, the Gazette has learned. The Law Society’s Strategic Research Unit pay survey, published in May, revealed that ...
-
News
Cartel case approaches
An innovative model for funding ‘risk-free’ group actions against business cartels could have its first court blooding this autumn, the scheme’s originators said this week. ‘Cartel Key’, launched by collective claimant specialist Cohen Milstein Hausfeld Toll and insurers FirstAssist Legal Protection, will remove a deterrent ...
-
News
MoJ on alert over unregulated firm
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is seeking help in tracking down a claims-handling company that may have based itself overseas in a bid to avoid regulation, amid warnings that solicitors who take referrals from the company could face sanctions.
-
News
SRA 'open to racism charge'
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has left itself ‘open to the charge of institutional racism’ because of its failure to address concerns that it investigates a disproportionate number of black and minority ethnic solicitors (BME), according to a report by former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Lord Ouseley.
-
News
Mosley’s win: a slightly larger private world
The implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 incorporated into UK law article 8, guaranteeing the right to respect for private and family life, and its arch rival article 10, protecting the right to freedom of expression. Max Mosley’s hotly contested privacy action was the battlefield for the latest high-profile ...
-
News
Employment
Automatically unfair dismissal – Completion – Delay - Disability discrimination - Completion of statutory procedure M Selvarajan v S Wilmot & Ors: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Mummery, Wilson, Stanley Burnton): 23 July 2008 ...
-
News
Family law
Allocation of jurisdiction – Consent - Habitual residence - Parental responsibility Mark Ian Bush v Neena Bush: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Thorpe, Lawrence Collins, Rimer): 24 July 2008 ...