All articles by James Dean – Page 17
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News
Quinn Insurance in administration
Irish insurer Quinn Insurance, a major underwriter of solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) policies in the UK, has today fallen into administration. In a statement, the Irish Financial Regulator said that it has directed Quinn to cease writing new business in the UK. The statement said ...
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News
Legal challenge threat to RTA process
A collective of personal injury solicitors is planning a legal challenge against the Ministry of Justice over its new road traffic accident (RTA) claims process, the Gazette had learned. The Accident Compensation Solicitors Group (ACSG) claims that fixed costs under the new process ‘have not been ...
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News
Tories rule out ban on PI referral fees
A Conservative government would not enforce a blanket ban on personal injury referral fees, shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham told the Gazette this week. The remarks appear to signal a softening in Tory policy, and go against one of Lord Justice Jackson’s key proposals in his ...
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News
Partner exodus forecast once alternative business structures available
Experienced City law firm partners will quit their firms in droves to set up a new wave of boutique practices once alternative business structures (ABSs) are available, leading market commentators are predicting. Professor Richard Susskind (pictured) and Maitland Chambers chief executive Robert Graham-Campbell forecast that the ...
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News
Top legal process outsourcing providers plan ‘aggressive expansion’
Two of the top three legal process outsourcing (LPO) providers are plotting aggressive growth in anticipation of a flood of mandates in 2010, the Gazette has learned. The news comes shortly after the third LPO provider in the trio, CPA Global, announced similarly ambitious plans ...
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News
Conservatives pledge to re-evaluate RTA fees
A Conservative government would re-evaluate lawyers’ fees under the new road traffic accident (RTA) claims system in April 2011, shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham told the Gazette this week. Bellingham (pictured) said that while it is ‘unlikely’ a Conservative government would scrap the new RTA system ...
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News
Lords demand curbs on pleural plaques compensation fees
Solicitors and claims management companies (CMCs) acting in pleural plaques compensation cases should have their legal fees severely curtailed, the House of Lords heard last week.
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News
Chambers of Commerce seek 'fast-track' employment claims
Low-value employment claims should be fast-tracked and dealt with through mediation, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) recommended this week. Claims for less than £3,000 should be resolved within three months, the BCC said in a report on employment regulation. It claimed that employment cases are ...
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Profile
Interview: TNT UK legal director and new C&I group chair John Bleasdale
For a man who has retrained throughout a career spanning civil law, criminal law, the public sector, private practice and in-house practice, it comes as no surprise that education is at the top of John Bleasdale’s agenda. As new chair of the Commerce & Industry Group, the association of in-house ...
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News
Commerce & Industry Group in-house trainee push
The Commerce & Industry Group is to encourage in-house departments to take on trainee solicitors, its new chair John Bleasdale has told the Gazette. Bleasdale said he wants the group’s 4,500 lawyer members to increase significantly the number of in-house training contracts available to Legal Practice ...
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News
Children should give evidence, says Supreme Court
Children in family proceedings should be called to give live evidence in court if the advantage it would bring in deciding the case outweighs the risk of harm to the welfare of the child, the Supreme Court ruled last week. In a unanimous decision, five law ...
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News
Judges face an even tougher task in children’s cases
Judges in family proceedings have been given an unenviable task. Following a decision of the Supreme Court last week, they must now think longer and harder...
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News
Law firms unveil their carbon footprints
The alliance dedicated to reducing the carbon emissions of law firms today unveiled the carbon footprints of 32 firms and the Law Society. Publishing its Carbon Footprint Report, the Legal Sector Alliance (LSA) also claimed that carbon emissions fell by 4% among member firms since publication ...
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News
Claims management companies and law firms certain to merge
Claims management companies and law firms are certain to merge once they can form alternative business structures, conference delegates agreed. All 180 delegates who responded to a poll said that such mergers will happen after ABSs are allowed from October 2011. Delegates were mainly from CMCs, ...
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News
‘Big Brother’ to monitor RTA web portal
The government and insurance companies will act as ‘Big Brother’ over law firms and claims management companies, by monitoring data flowing through the new road traffic accident claims web portal and weeding out those abusing the system, it was alleged last week.
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News
Referral fees ban will ‘drive business underground’, says CSC chair
Banning referral fees will harm the legal profession and have no effect on reducing law firms’ marketing costs, according to Darren Werth, the Claims Standards Council’s chair. Werth, managing director at Accident Advice Helpline, told delegates that it is ‘shocking’ that the Law Society and ...
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News
APIL slams government stance on asbestos claims
Personal injury lawyers have expressed disappointment over the government’s decision not to allow asbestos-related pleural plaques to be compensated. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers called the decision a ‘disappointing end to a long, drawn-out, consultation process’. The Ministry of Justice cited ...
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News
Miners’ solicitors to face court action
Solicitors who handled sick coal miners’ government compensation claims are set to appear before courts across the country, as the first known court actions for alleged undersettlement of such claims begin to emerge.
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News
Referral ban ‘will not reduce costs’
Banning referral fees will harm the legal profession and will have no effect on reducing law firms’ marketing costs, the chair of the Claims Standards Council (CSC) said last week. Speaking at the CSC annual conference in Manchester, Accident Advice Helpline managing director Darren Werth said ...
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News
Political lobby interests disclosed
Two MPs and one lord have taken up new lobbying or advisory roles connected with law firms over the past year, parliamentary registers show. New on the register is John Hutton, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, who was paid £11,000 by national firm Eversheds to ...