Last 3 months headlines – Page 1210
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Judges begin flexing their Jackson muscles
What with judges’ general dislike of all things costs related, and the latest announcement from the senior judiciary that new costs budgeting rules will not normally apply to disputes of a commercial nature over £2m, one could be forgiven for thinking that our friends on the bench are really not ...
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Central property search register set for test
Property search information could be available from a single national electronic database if a prototype being developed by the Land Registry is successful. The Registry has announced that seven local authorities will take part in a pilot scheme to see if their local land charge information ...
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Lawyer training – a rising EU profile
Last week, I wrote about how EU funding has helped lawyers, through the creation of a Find-A-Lawyer database (some welcomed the money, others saw it is a waste). I should have called it EU funding - part 1. This week comes part 2, which tells how EU funding is supporting ...
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Human rights
Prison – Prison conditions – Disabled prisoner R (on the application of Hall) v University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and another: Queen's Bench Division, Divisional Court: 8 February 2013 ...
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Another PI firm goes into administration
Personal injury firm Calibre Solicitors has been placed into administration resulting in 14 people being made redundant.
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Time running out for ATE to beat Jackson
Applications for after-the-event insurance may miss the 1 April Jackson deadline if they are not made by next Monday, brokers have warned. Commercial litigation broker The Judge has written to all solicitor clients warning of a backlog of files set to slow down the system in ...
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Supreme Court appoints three more male judges
Downing Street has today announced the appointment of three male judges to the Supreme Court, leaving Lady Hale the only female judge sitting in the country’s highest court. The new justices are Lord Justice Hughes, Lord Justice Toulson and Lord Hodge. Lord ...
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My conviction is unsafe, says QC jailed for VAT fraud
A London silk sentenced today to three and a half years in prison after being convicted of a £600,000 VAT fraud says he will fight to clear his name. Rohan Anthony Pershad, who practised from Thirty Nine Essex Street, was convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court earlier ...
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Bulger killers: attorney general is right
The question of how to deal with society’s most undesirable people is one of the most difficult we face. In last week’s excellent Black Mirror TV drama (spoiler alert) the public had turned into voyeuristic vigilantes, replicating a killer’s most heinous act against the perpetrator. It’s ...
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One solicitor makes grade in new QC round
A single solicitor was among the 84 Queen’s Counsel appointments announced today. Karyl Nairn (pictured), litigation and arbitration partner at international firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom was the only successful solicitor-advocate to be awarded the rank. Just two of ...
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Harassment, sexism and progression
In the past week the Liberal Democrats, for whom I once worked, have started to investigate and confront the way that complaints of sexual harassment by party figures were dealt with in the past – announcing two independent inquiries, one QC-led, and co-operating with the Metropolitan police. ...
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SRA's assurances on enforcement under fire from super-regulator
The Solicitors Regulation Authority must focus more on performance and legal services consumers than on the theory of policy, an assessment by the Legal Services Board has found. The super-regulator said the SRA had achieved much since it was formed in 2007, but had yet to ...
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Three solicitors honoured for contribution to the law
Three solicitors and the chairman of the Bar Standards Board are among the eight honorary QCs appointed today in recognition of their contribution to the law outside courtrooms. Eileen Carroll, founder and deputy chief executive of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR); equal pay champion Stefan Cross and Edward ...
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Motoring metaphors break down
To BT’s plush auditorium in Newgate Street to hear Damian ‘two desks’ Green, one of our justice ministers, lecture on ‘Criminal justice reform – from justice delayed to justice delivered’. The event was hosted by thinktank Reform, best known for enthusing about private prisons, but ...
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Handing it to the bar
At last I have discovered why, back in the 1950s, barristers did not shake hands with their instructing solicitors. But then they didn’t have lunch with them either. That was known as ‘hugging the attorney’ and was a disciplinary offence.
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Grayling confirms worst fears with RTA Portal fee cuts
Fixed recoverable costs for RTA Portal claims up to £10,000 will be cut to £500, justice secretary Chris Grayling has confirmed. In a consultation response published today which will confirm the worst fears of the sector, the Ministry of Justice said fixed costs will be cut ...
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SRA sticks to its red tape agenda
The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said today it has approved all 10 amendments to the Solicitors Handbook identified in its ‘red tape initiative’.
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Divorce-related legal complaints most common
Family law accounted for the highest number of complaints dealt with by the Legal Ombudsman last year, a report published today reveals. Of the 7,500 complaints resolved last year, 18% were about divorce or cases related to family law. Residential conveyancing generated the second highest percentage ...
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Profits up at Direct Line despite fall in referral fees
Direct Line, one of the UK’s biggest motor insurers, received £21.1m in referral fees from solicitors in 2012, it reported today. In its annual financial statement, the insurer said revenue from referral fees fell by 24% due to a reduction in non-fault claims volumes. The ...