All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 19
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News
Ukraine eyes EU with code revision
Ukraine has announced a revised criminal procedure code centred on ‘freedom and human rights’ in what is believed to be an attempt to ease its entry into the European Union. Ukraine must meet certain conditions by May if it is to join the EU, including ridding ...
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News
Secret hearings in civil courts to be introduced in weeks
Secretive closed material procedure (CMP) hearings are to be extended into the country’s main civil courts following the House of Lords’ narrow rejection of an amendment to the controversial Justice and Security Bill. Peers yesterday voted by 174 to 158 to reject a Labour amendment to ...
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News
Watchdog may survive ‘bonfire of the quangos’
Government plans to throw a legal watchdog on to its ‘bonfire of the quangos’ have suffered a blow after the House of Commons justice committee opposed the move. The committee said there is not a strong enough case for the abolition of the Administrative Justice ...
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News
Society intervenes in Nepal 'anti-Maoist' human rights case
The Law Society has intervened in the case of a Nepalese human rights lawyer facing prosecution as an ‘anti-Maoist dollar mongerer’. The Society has called on Nepal’s prime minister Khil Raj Regmi to protect lawyer Mandira Sharma from threats of death and violence. ...
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‘Whitehall farce’ border agency to be abolished
The Law Society’s immigration law committee has cautiously welcomed the announcement that the UK Border Agency (UKBA) is to be abolished and brought back within the Home Office under the direct control of ministers. In an unscheduled House of Commons statement yesterday, home secretary Theresa ...
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Pathway to Law scheme boosted by £1.2m grant
An educational charity has secured a £1.2m grant to help 1,200 sixth formers from less privileged backgrounds pursue a career in the law. The Legal Education Foundation has given £1.2m to the Sutton Trust to fund its Pathways to Law programme, open to low- and middle-income ...
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News
Repeat offenders ‘should lose right to jury trial’
Serial offenders who shoplift or commit other petty offences should be denied the right to trial by jury, a senior magistrate has said. Such offenders should have their cases heard by magistrates at a cost of around £900 rather than by a jury in the Crown ...
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News
Supreme Court holds secret hearing in Mellat case
The Supreme Court has submitted to what its president Lord Neuberger called the ‘unhappy procedure’ of becoming a secret court to consider some of an Iranian bank’s appeal concerning the validity of a 2009 order made against it by HM Treasury. The Treasury claimed that privately ...
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News
No justice for Zimbabwean campaigner
It’s almost a decade since the Gazette first reported that Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa had been beaten up and thrown into jail. And now she is behind bars again. The Law Society and the International Bar Association have both called for her immediate release, ...
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Blakemores chief hits out at regulator over shock closure
The managing partner of failed Midlands firm Blakemores accused the Solicitors Regulation Authority of intervening in the firm at the worst possible time last Monday, when the firm was shut down and over 200 solicitors and employees dismissed. But the regulator rebutted Guy Barnett’s claim, ...
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News
Insurers blamed for blocking Atteys sale
The interim manager handling the wind-down of Yorkshire firm Atteys has alleged that the successor practice rules (SPR) allowed ‘the professional indemnity insurance (PII) tail to wag the profession’s dog’. The SPR ensure insurance is in place to cover claims against firms that no longer exist, ...
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News
Apprenticeships ‘risk alienating international firms’
A leading City training specialist has warned that legal apprenticeships may be less appealing to the biggest corporate firms with overseas offices. Tony King, chair of the City of London Law Society training committee, said: ‘Internationally, the lack of a degree will raise issues with ...
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News
New rules for employment tribunals
Employment tribunals are to become the ‘last resort, not the first port of call’ after the government’s announcement today that it has accepted proposals in a fundamental review of procedure for tribunals. The proposals accepted by the government include new strike-out powers for employment tribunal judges, ...
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News
Ten-point plan for solicitors to cut claims delays
Solicitors can cut delays in processing claims at the County Court Money Claims Centre by not stapling forms together, the centre has suggested. The advice appears in a list of ways in which ‘customers’ can help the much-criticised Salford centre, which marks its first birthday ...
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News
National firm takes up higher apprenticeship scheme
National firm Weightmans says it is the first to offer entry into the legal profession via the new higher apprenticeship in legal services. The undergraduate level qualification, which launches today, is part of a government initiative to create more higher level vocational qualifications, increasing access to ...
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News
Businesses cite human rights act in disputes
Businesses are increasingly using human rights arguments in commercial disputes, with the number of such cases increasing from 10 to 45 in four years, new research has revealed. A study by legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell reports cases in 2012 that included a radio station ...
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News
Blakemores intervention will cost up to £3m, managing partner says
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) intervention into Midlands firm Blakemores is likely to cost the profession ‘£2-3m’, the firm’s managing partner told the Gazette the day after all 250 members of staff were told to clear their desks. Guy Barnett said that £2-3m was his estimated ...
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News
250 jobs go as Lawyers2you becomes latest PI casualty
All 250 solicitors and employees of Midlands firm Blakemores, owner of the consumer brand Lawyers2you, were today told to clear their desks and go home after an intervention by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The innovative and fast-growing firm appears to be the latest casualty of a ...
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News
Flexible working needs rebrand, says president
The president of the Law Society will today call for a rethink of flexible working to make law firms and other businesses more attractive to women - and men. Delivering the keynote speech at an International Women's Day event to a London audience of lawyers, ...
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News
Mental health demons
You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps. That’s not a joke that you are likely to see displayed on the wall of a solicitor’s office. Mental illness is no laughing matter. And anyway, all solicitors are reasoning and reasonable, sober and sensible, and fully supportive ...