All articles by John Hyde – Page 339
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News
Don’t be ‘hoodwinked’ over rules, SRA warned
A former senior City watchdog has warned the Solicitors Regulation Authority that it is being ‘hoodwinked’ into liberalising rules relating to financial advisers. The SRA is set to reveal whether it will relax a rule requiring lawyers to refer clients to wholly independent advisers. Arguing that ...
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News
Personal injury firms face rising claims
Negligence claims against personal injury firms for under-value settlements are increasing rapidly, the Gazette has been told. Professional negligence lawyers say that firms’ reliance on under-qualified staff, a lack of face-to-face contact with clients and failure to understand medical reports are all factors in the trend.
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News
ABI claims milestone as fraud register launched
Insurers will add suspected fraudsters to a list that will be shared by all other insurance companies – even if the claimant has not been convicted. The Association of British Insurers today confirmed the creation of the Insurance Fraud Register containing details of what it calls ...
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News
Sorry, but the SRA is right
I want you to sit down and take a deep breath. Perhaps have a stiff drink to hand. Maybe one of those stress balls too. I’m going to write something in support of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Before I start let me make it clear I’m ...
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News
Dickinson Dees and Bond Pearce plot merger
National firms Dickinson Dees and Bond Pearce have begun merger talks. The pair confirmed in a statement that discussions are under way to explore the option, although there will be no further comment until those discussions are completed. If it does go ...
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News
Complainants going it alone on PPI claims
Consumers are increasingly making their own compensation claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance rather than rely on claims management companies or law firms, according to research published today. The Financial Ombudsman reported that nearly half of all new complaints during the past six months were made ...
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News
MoJ backtracks on victim compensation cuts
The government has announced it will delay proposed changes to compensation for victims of crime – just three days after defending its plans in parliament. On Friday, new justice minister Helen Grant backed the government’s proposals to cut compensation for victims claiming less than £2,500. However ...
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Grant: crime compensation scheme ‘not sustainable’
Helen Grant, the newly appointed justice minister, has reiterated the government’s intention to cut compensation for victims of less serious crime. Grant (pictured) said the new scheme, due to be implemented at the end of this month, will save the taxpayer around £50m a year and ...
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News
Call for ‘sanity’ on whiplash as claim numbers fall
Lawyers have called for a rethink on whiplash injury compensation after the government’s own figures showed that the number of claims fell by almost 24,000 last year. Records uncovered by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) showed 547,405 claims for whiplash in 2011/12, compared with ...
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News
Automatic fines ‘top of shopping list’ for SRA
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will call on the government for permission to impose on-the-spot fines for firms that fail to comply with regulatory deadlines. Hundreds of firms are thought to have failed to submit nominations for compliance officers more than a month after a deadline ...
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News
Oligarch case whets appetite for more
A leading City lawyer says he would welcome more foreign litigation coming to London after the conclusion of a high-profile case involving two Russian oligarchs. The High Court last week found that exiled Russian Boris Berezovsky (pictured) had no claim to the business interests of Roman ...
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Could wishes of legal aid campaigners be Granted?
She is a mixed-race woman who grew up on a council estate and was educated away from Oxbridge. Cynics will suggest it was inevitable that Maidstone MP Helen Grant would be parachuted into a ministerial role, despite entering parliament only in 2010. But is there more ...
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News
Admiral reveals referral fee income
Insurance giant Admiral has revealed that it rakes in £7 in personal injury referral fees for every vehicle it covers. The figure appears in the company’s half-year financial report, which lists modest increases in ‘other revenue’, including income from referral fees. Admiral insures 3.5m cars in ...
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News
Accutrainee welcomes first recruit
A groundbreaking scheme that finds trainees and seconds them to law firms on a temporary basis has welcomed its first recruit. Flora Hussey has become the first trainee to sign up to Accutrainee since it was launched last September. Trainees are taken on by Accutrainee but ...
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News
Summertime blues as 250 law firms shut
More than 250 law firms have ceased conducting business since the start of summer, but observers are divided on whether the trend is the first sign of long-awaited consolidation or a statistical blip. Data published this week by the Solicitors Regulation Authority show a total ...
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News
Find your own referral-fee workarounds, SRA tells firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned that it will not provide law firms with ‘safe harbour’ guidance to deal with the forthcoming referral fee ban. In a discussion paper released yesterday, the regulator says solicitors and firms should be able to work out from the legislation ...
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Fresh faces at justice ministry after reshuffle
A criminal law barrister and former Labour-supporting law firm founder are among the new faces at the Ministry of Justice after a sweeping reshuffle of ministerial posts. After replacing Kenneth Clarke with Christopher Grayling as justice secretary, Downing Street confirmed this morning that ministers Crispin Blunt, ...
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SRA considers lighter touch for whistleblowers
Whistleblowers who give evidence against colleagues suspected of misconduct may be offered a more lenient punishment for their own involvement under new Solicitors Regulation Authority guidelines. The regulator is this week expected to approve proposals to offer mitigation to witnesses who come forward.
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News
Cameron turns right in sweeping justice reshuffle
Prime minister David Cameron has confirmed that Chris Grayling will become justice secretary in what was emerging as a comprehensive clear-out of ministers at the Ministry of Justice. Earlier today Kenneth Clarke became a high-profile casualty of Cameron’s first major reshuffle since coming to office. ...
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Insurers fight uplift ruling
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has appealed against the Court of Appeal’s decision to increase general damages. Three senior judges ruled in July that a 10% uplift to be applied to all personal injury awards from April 2013 applies also to cases launched before that ...