Last 3 months headlines – Page 1202
-
News
Why I quit the Lib Dems over secret courts
by Jo Shaw, executive director of Rosa, the UK women’s fund Last November, the new president of the Supreme Court, Lord Neuberger, gave a lecture entitled: ‘No Judgment, No Justice’.
-
News
Spotlight on the European courts
It’s time to look again at the European courts in Luxembourg. I shall start with the particular, two recent and interesting cases affecting lawyers, and move to the general, the courts’ record in relation to efficiency and the appointment of judges.
-
News
North and south
High street practices may be crumbling before our eyes and intervention costs about to cripple the profession, but the legal services scene is not all doom and gloom. Indeed, according to a report published today by lobbyists TheCityUK, legal services contributed £20.9bn to UK gross domestic ...
-
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 ...
-
News
Poll predicts cull of north-west firms
Almost a fifth of law firm managing partners in north-west England are considering closing down their firm, according to a survey published today. The poll of 300 firm leaders by Liverpool firm O’Connors found the vast majority of respondents believed that planned changes to civil ...
-
News
Press royal charter looks like a winner for lawyers
When one door closes, another opens. So, if your legal aid or PI business looks a little shaky at the moment, have you considered opportunities in media law? The Recognition Panel whose royal charter was approved today in the latest tortuous step of the Leveson process opens up plenty of ...
-
News
Fast-track for ‘lower-risk’ ABS applications
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has announced it will fast-track lower-risk applications for an alternative business structure licence. The authority has responded to criticism that the authorisation process takes too long with new guidance and a fresh approach to existing law firms. The ...
-
NewsRoundtable: diversity in the law
It is not enought to pay lip service to diversity when progress is so slow
-
News
Hanging on the telephone
News reaches Obiter of a Midlands tug-of-war as the SRA competes with the NHS – for call centre staff. Chief executive Antony Townsend says the SRA contact centre’s decline in performance is partly due to ‘staff attrition’. The problem stems from the SRA’s move to Birmingham, leaving staff who had ...
-
News
Edmonds: single legal regulator ‘possible within three years’
Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds said today that a single rolled-up regulator for solicitors and barristers could be created within three years. Edmonds (pictured) told the House of Commons justice committee that the current framework of multiple regulators for different areas of the legal profession ...
-
News
Explosive allegation
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. The words of psychedelic drug campaigner Timothy Leary (1920-96) were quoted by Bar Council chair Maura McGowan QC (pictured) at last week’s Law Society event to mark International Women’s Day. ...
-
News
Career opportunities
Obiter hears that skills minister Matthew Hancock rather put his foot in it at last week’s launch of the higher apprenticeship in legal services. The minister waxed lyrical about new possibilities for non-graduate entry into the legal profession, while seemingly unaware of the Chartered Institute ...
-
News
Pitch that takes spin
The Ministry of Justice press office was full of good news the other day, pitching the heart-warming story of Chris Grayling saving the family law service provided by the CAB at the Royal Courts of Justice. However the press release didn’t have space to explain ...
-
News
Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, March 1938Road traffic tribunals The Law Society and the Bar Council made joint representations to the Ministry of Transport that the right of audience before Road Traffic Tribunals should be restricted to members of the legal profession and, in certain cases, to ...
-
News
Seeing the positives in change
Complaints allowed before we’ve even signed up the client? This can’t be true, you may cry. Well, I’m afraid it is, but behind every threat is an opportunity waiting to be seized. The news that even potential clients can now complain about you, following the ...
-
News
Chancellor cheers conveyancers, as Scots vote on ‘sep rep’
Chancellor George Osborne today cheered conveyancers by announcing in his budget dramatic new measures to boost the housing market. A help-to-buy scheme is to be introduced for prospective purchasers struggling to find mortgage deposits. This will include £3.5bn for shared ...
-
News
Strike disrupts courts service as another walkout is planned
Thousands of court workers across England and Wales today walked out on strike as the union began a three-month programme of action. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union took industrial action to mark budget day after talks broke down over cuts to pay, pensions, ...
-
News
Osborne imposes further £142m of cuts on MoJ
Chancellor George Osborne today imposed a further £142m of cuts on the Ministry of Justice, which will have to be implemented before the 2015 general election. The MoJ is one of the government departments required by Osborne’s budget to reduce its spending by 1% for the ...