All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 37
-
News
Law Society to intervene in Prudential privilege appeal
The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in Prudential’s appeal to the Supreme Court to extend legal professional privilege (LPP) to accountants and others. LPP currently only applies to certain communications between lawyers and their clients, conferring absolute confidentiality so ...
-
News
News focus: counsel for Europe
Proposals for an EU-wide approach to collective redress exposed deep divisions among delegates gathered in Luxembourg for last week’s plenary session of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE). Collective redress, sometimes called group litigation or class action, was the subject of one ...
-
News
A view from inside the highest court in the EU
From the outside, it could be a Premier League football ground on a day the team is playing away. There is the same sense of enclosed space behind featureless walls, with a vast paved area in the foreground for surging crowds chanting inanities. ...
-
News
EU announces measures for recovery of cross-border debts
The European Union has announced a new initiative to recover the estimated £48bn of debt that is written off every year because of the difficulty of bringing lawsuits overseas. Some 60% of cross-border debts cannot be recovered because, as the law stands, enforcement measures such as ...
-
News
Government seeks views on equal pay audit plans
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is seeking employment lawyers’ views on proposals that would see employers who fail to comply with equal pay laws required to conduct a pay audit of their company. The BIS consultation, published this week, noted that the gender ...
-
News
European Arrest Warrants are 'misused', says FTI
Mismanagement of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) has led to a ‘no questions asked’ extradition regime with severe human and financial costs to those charged with minor offences, according to a report by Fair Trials International (FTI).
-
News
Stress among solicitors remains ‘high'
High numbers of solicitors are seeking help with depression and alcohol addiction problems, according to the latest figures from charity LawCare. The charity’s 2010 annual report, to be published later this year, shows that stress is still by far the biggest problem faced by callers to ...
-
News
Immigration lawyers warn of reforms impact
Limits on the number of professional migrants allowed into the UK are ‘politically-driven’ and risk stalling economic recovery and driving business overseas, speakers at an Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers conference in London warned earlier this month. Delegates heard that the UK was ‘bucking the trend’ ...
-
News
Law Society launches Excellence Awards
The Gazette will shortly be seeking a Legal Personality of the Year as one of this year’s Law Society Excellence Awards. For the second year running, we will be inviting readers to nominate lawyers who over the previous 12 months have made an outstanding contribution to ...
-
News
Where is the evidence of a need for employment law changes?
Those nice folk who gave us the ‘bonfire of the quangos’, not to mention swingeing cuts to legal aid, social care and arts funding, are now turning their gimlet eyes to employment law. The coalition government announced on Tuesday that there is to be a ‘review ...
-
News
Coventry firm launches employment subscription scheme
A law firm has launched a subscription scheme to protect companies against the potentially ‘catastrophic’ costs arising from employment disputes. Coventry firm Band Hatton’s ‘Employment Protection Scheme’ (EPS) charges a set annual fee, which can be paid monthly to provide client businesses of all sizes with ...
-
News
Society issues warning over EU-wide contract law
A proposed new system of contract law that will apply to all 28 member states of the European Union risks adding ‘cost and confusion’ for legislators and businesses, the Law Society has warned. The European Commission (EC) is to push ahead with legislative proposals for an ...
-
News
Sex discrimination case begins
A woman solicitor who alleges that her boss remarked she had ‘all the traits of a blonde’ and should find herself a rich husband has begun tribunal proceedings for sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal. Kate Welch, who worked at Birkenhead firm Nadim Associates from 1 July ...
-
News
European Union is subject to Aarhus Convention, UN rules
Europe’s courts must stop barring citizens and non-governmental organisations (NGO) from challenging European Union decisions that affect the environment, a United Nations committee ruled last week.
-
News
Insurers 'discriminate' against black and ethnic law firms
Black and minority ethnic (BME) law firms are over-represented in the assigned risks pool – but almost twice as likely as their white counterparts to secure market insurance and leave the ARP, according to research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The ARP is the insurer ...
-
News
Society appeal to UN over Mexico human rights abuses
The Law Society has written to the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to call for an end to the ‘atmosphere of impunity’ in Mexico that it claims allows military and state authorities to harass, criminalise and threaten lawyers acting for the victims of human rights ...
-
News
Jail for trust probate executive in £100k fraud
A trust probate executive from Hove has been jailed for 30 months for defrauding four elderly women clients out of a total of £100,000. Jacqueline D’Hazzard (pictured), 44, pleaded guilty to four offences committed while she was a trust probate executive at Brighton firm Engleharts ...
-
News
Network launches for Islamic finance lawyers
A network of worldwide Islamic finance lawyers is to launch next week. Luxembourg-based Islamic Finance Lawyers (ISFIN) said it is looking to recruit more lawyers to provide Sharia-compliant investment advice worldwide. The network aims to bring together specialist lawyers from member law ...
-
News
Human rights LinkedIn launch
The Gazette has launched a human rights LinkedIn group for solicitors interested in civil liberties and human rights issues in the UK and internationally. The group, launched jointly with the Law Society’s international human rights team, will become a leading discussion forum for topics ranging ...
-
News
Law Society will intervene over LPP extension
The Law Society will seek to intervene to prevent legal professional privilege (LPP) being extended to accountants if the matter comes before the Supreme Court, Chancery Lane said last week. Financial services company Prudential was granted leave to appeal a previous Court of Appeal decision ...