All articles by John Hyde – Page 349
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News
Solicitors could access fraudster register
Insurers have suggested they may be willing to accede to solicitors’ demands to share information on known fraudsters. Personal injury lawyers have urged insurers to give them access to records of people who have made false claims. The Association of British Insurers is preparing a new ...
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News
TLT creates UK-wide practice
National firm TLT has announced plans to launch operations in Scotland and Northern Ireland to create a UK-wide practice. The firm has merged with Scottish practice Anderson Fyfe to create TLT Scotland, with the deal expected to be confirmed on 1 July. ...
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News
Spectator to face contempt charge over Lawrence trial article
The Crown Prosecution Service is to prosecute The Spectator magazine over an opinion column published during the Stephen Lawrence murder trial last year. The notice to prosecute is the first since the CPS published guidelines that called for prosecutors to assess whether the public interest outweighed ...
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Strikes and work to rule will hit courts from Thursday
Hundreds of court staff will refuse overtime until August as the public sector pensions row threatens to create a backlog in the court service. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union are due to walk out on Thursday for a one-day strike over cuts to ...
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London courts to scale back for Olympics
Courts near Olympics venues and traffic hotspots will significantly cut their sittings from 27 July to 12 August, HM Courts and Tribunals Service said today. Officials are concerned that jurors and witnesses will be unable to attend hearings during a period when hundreds of thousands ...
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Beware of identity thieves, SRA warns
Law firms could be held liable for losses caused by a fraudster stealing their identity even when they are innocent victims, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. New guidance published today warns the profession on how to guard against falling victim to fraudsters. The regulator ...
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News
Singapore move for College of Law
The College of Law (CoL) has formed a strategic collaboration with the Singapore Institute of Legal Education with a view to establishing a permanent presence in the state. The move is expected to be the first of many such projects made possible by the college’s new ownership structure. ...
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Law firm trainee opportunities 'boosted by salary cut'
Removing the trainee minimum salary will increase training opportunities but at a cost of lower wages, a survey has found.
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News
Female partner boost at magic circle
The number of women promoted to partnership at magic circle firms has risen by 50% - but they still make up just a quarter of all the promotions. A total of 95 solicitors were this week elected to partnership at the leading five firms. Of these, 24 were women - ...
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News
'Safe harbour’ compliance advice for whole profession
The Law Society has announced it will offer ‘safe harbour’ compliance advice to the whole profession. The move follows Chancery Lane’s launch last month of the Compliance Reference Group (CRG) pilot for enquiries on regulation from top-100 firms. The service will now ...
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News
Regulators agree to share data on ABSs
A cross-profession agreement should ensure that alternative business structures have to deal with only one regulator. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed this week by regulators from the legal, accountancy, financial and property sectors will enable more information to be shared, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ...
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News
Italian firm applies to become an ABS
A leading Italian law firm has joined the race to become an alternative business structure as the number of advanced applications approaches 100. Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati, which has an annual turnover of €100m (£82m), could become one of the first non-UK law firms to ...
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News
Solicitors highlight five mySRA failings
Solicitors have pinpointed five key failings of the online practising certificate renewal system. MySRA was used for all PC renewals for the first time this year but suffered a host of technical problems. In a survey of law firms carried out following the renewal deadline, solicitors ...
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News
Insurers propose £150 portal fixed fee as ‘negotiating tactic’
The insurance industry has proposed that fixed fees for low-value claims be set as low as £150, the Gazette can reveal. A leaked email, apparently sent to members of the Association of British Insurers by the ABI’s assistant head of motor and liability James Dalton, calls ...
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News
CoA ruling makes parent companies liable for subsidiaries’ health and safety
Parent companies have a responsibility for the health and safety of their subsidiaries’ employees, the Court of Appeal has ruled in a groundbreaking case. The judgment comes after a retired factory worker successfully sued his former employer’s parent company after contracting asbestosis. Cape, which owned ...
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News
Herbert Smith cuts City jobs
City firm Herbert Smith has confirmed it plans to cut staff numbers at its London headquarters by 51. The redundancies, which represent 3.2% of the total London headcount, were announced to staff today as a consultation period was started. The proposed reductions would come principally from ...
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News
Clarke to announce whiplash curbs
The government will this week set out tougher measures in a bid to cut the number of whiplash claims. Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke and transport secretary Justine Greening will jointly outline plans to reform the diagnosis procedure. In a statement to be made on Wednesday, the ...
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News
Mesothelioma U-turn is a pyrrhic victory
Journalists are sometimes accused of misquoting people (not me, you understand, just in case Lord Justice Leveson is reading). So let me give Jonathan Djanogly an opportunity to be quoted in full, without amendments. Here is the justice minister, speaking in the House of Commons, on ...
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News
PI lawyers rule out ‘deal or no deal’
Personal injury lawyers are refusing to play ‘deal or no deal games’ with the government over fixed fees for smaller cases. The government has written to all stakeholders asking them to suggest a limit for the value of claim that solicitors should be able to charge ...
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News
MoJ: ‘up to solicitors’ to police damages
A Ministry of Justice official has said it will be up to solicitors to police a key aspect of the civil litigation reforms. Robert Wright, head of civil litigation and funding at the MoJ, admitted last week there is no way for the government to ensure ...