All articles by Jonathan Rayner – Page 58
-
News
Disability on firms' radar
A national charity has launched an action plan to help law students with disabilities overcome barriers to pursuing a legal career such as going to the ‘wrong sort of university’. Some 21,350 first-year undergraduates declared a disability in 2007, with law students making up 12% ...
-
News
Investigation into lawyer assassinations
Colombia is setting up a special prosecution team dedicated to investigating the assassination of human rights lawyers following talks between government officials and a delegation of high-profile UK legal professionals.
-
News
Lawyers risk action over rogue advisers
Solicitors who allow dishonest immigration advisers to work in their practices will not be allowed to claim ignorance as a defence, the immigration advisers’ regulator has warned. Immigration services commissioner Suzanne McCarthy told the Gazette that her office is working closely with the Solicitors Regulation ...
-
News
SRA advocacy plans slammed
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) proposals to introduce a scheme of voluntary accreditation for solicitor higher court advocates could lead to ‘incompetent solicitors’ appearing in court, the College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute has claimed. The institute called instead for mandatory assessment and compulsory accreditation in ...
-
News
Medical costs on the up
The legal cost of defending doctors and other medical professionals against fitness-to-practice investigations by the General Medical Council has increased fifteen-fold, or 31% annually, over the last decade, according to the Medical Defence Union (MDU). In its annual report, the MDU, a charity founded in 1885 ...
-
News
Lawyer kicks off FA insurance battle
A sports lawyer is threatening to sue the Football Association (FA) for failing to insure club footballers against loss of earnings arising from injuries, the Gazette can exclusively reveal. The FA requires all clubs to have at least £5m of public liability insurance. However, it leaves ...
-
News
ECJ in disability ruling
A law firm could be the first of many thousands of employers to face a disability discrimination claim following a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on ‘discrimination by association’, employment lawyers have warned. Legal secretary Sharon Coleman, who has a disabled son, left London firm ...
-
News
Pleural plaques threat
A government consultation on whether people with pleural plaques should be able to claim damages has been criticised by a leading insurance lawyer as threatening to undermine the ‘constitutional separation of the judiciary and executive’. The government announced the consultation last week after the House of ...
-
News
Human traffic warning
Immigration lawyers must become more ‘victim-focused’ if they are to stop giving unwitting help to human traffickers, a top European lawyer has told the Gazette. Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, a lawyer and deputy secretary-general of the Council of Europe, said trafficking could go undetected when practitioners endorsed ...
-
News
PI reform delay leaves solicitors ‘in limbo’
Defendant and claimant lawyers have condemned the government’s delay in publishing its plans to reform the personal injury claims process, saying it leaves them and clients ‘in limbo’. Recommendations which were due to be implemented by early 2008, according to Lord Falconer, the then Lord Chancellor, ...
-
News
Client account reform
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has backed controversial proposals to allow non-solicitors in law firms to handle client money – despite opposition from members of a profession labelled ‘historically obsessed with status’, the Gazette has learned. The SRA board decided at last week’s meeting to recommend ...
-
News
Net-surfing lawyers warned of compliance risk
Solicitors risk breaching conduct rules and could face insurance claims if they use non-specialist online sources for legal research, a leading QC solicitor has warned. Evidence has emerged that increasing numbers of solicitors, from trainees to senior partners, are putting clients and their own practices at ...
-
News
Law websites found wanting
Law firm websites look too similar, use too many words and lose ‘75% of people’ before web users move beyond the home page, consultants have warned.
-
News
Smaller firms feeling the strain of money laundering regulations
COMPLIANCE: many struggling to meet reporting duties.
-
News
Fraud 'sea change'
Two men have been jailed for insurance fraud in a case that personal injury lawyers say highlights a 'sea change hardening' in the courts' attitude towards scammers.
-
News
'European lawyer' code wins approval
The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has voted to develop a code of common professional standards to define the role of the ‘European lawyer’ across all member states. Peter Koves, president of the CCBE, told delegates his ‘vision of the European lawyer’ ...
-
News
Firms still hostile to judicial ambitions
More than half (57%) of solicitors eligible for judicial appointment say that they could not rely on the support of their firms when applying for the bench, according to research to be published by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the Gazette can reveal. In contrast, 80% of barristers are confident ...
-
News
Acted for Ian Brady in prison application
Who? Corinne Singer, 51, a mental health consultant at virtual national firm Scott-Moncrieff & Associates (Scomo). Why is she in the news? Acted for moors murderer Ian Brady in his application to be moved from Ashworth maximum security hospital back to prison. Singer submitted that, because Brady is not benefiting ...