Last 3 months headlines – Page 1211
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News
Future financial remedy proceedings
The recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Petrodel Resources Ltd v Prest [2012] EWCA Civ 1395, shocked the family law world. It has left many concerned about the potential effects it may have on future financial remedy proceedings, and some adamant that it has provided moneymakers with an ...
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News
Hundreds of lawyers attack secret trial plans
More than 700 lawyers have signed an open letter calling on the government to drop its ‘dangerous and unnecessary’ plans to extend closed material procedures (CMPs). The letter, published in today’s Daily Mail, says that the proposals for secret courts set out in the Justice and ...
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News
Slater & Gordon reveals UK profits
Australian firm Slater & Gordon has promised to expand operations in the UK after posting a £2.4m profit on UK revenues of £23m for its first full six months in this country. The firm, which acquired national personal injury firm Russell Jones & Walker in January last year, said the ...
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News
Coats gets key role at new Legal Aid Agency
Matthew Coats, chief executive of the Legal Services Commission, has been appointed to a key role at the new agency that will bring legal aid under the wing of the Ministry of Justice, the lord chancellor has announced.
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Pro bono pressure
My comments on complaints and the pressures of regulation seem to have hit the mark. Thank you for your responses. Strangely no one has written to say ‘let's have more regulation, audits, and KPIs’ or ‘let's make the complaints regime more onerous for us’. I don’t think that is because ...
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News
High Court told of Downing Street deal with insurers
The government and insurers negotiated a deal to cut personal injury legal costs in a series of emails prior to a summit at Downing Street, the High Court heard this morning. In its submission to a judicial review hearing, lawyers acting for the claimant lobby highlighted ...
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Valentine's Day massacre for PI sector
Lord Justice Elias was in full flow when the clerk stopped him mid-sentence. ‘I’m afraid the shorthand writer has disappeared,’ said the clerk, looking like a sous-chef who’d just informed Gordon Ramsey the salmon was off. It only added to the tension, as a packed Court ...
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Defining domicile
There has been much discussion in the press regarding the introduction of a statutory test for residence. The test is welcome and should provide a greater degree of certainty for clients in the context of their UK tax status. It should however be remembered that residence is not the only ...
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News
IBA should apologise
Last Monday’s story headlined ‘Sri Lanka bars lawyers’, quoting Shane Keenan and Mark Ellis of the International Bar Association, was misleading. Your publication is not to blame for the IBA’s crude attempt to castigate the Sri Lanka government when, in fact, the IBA should apologise for trying to sneak into ...
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News
Time to stop bashing Grayling
The continual jibes in the Gazette about poor Mr Grayling’s lack of legal qualifications and (ergo) his supposed unconcern for the rule of law are growing wearisome.
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News
Client interest
In his recent blog, ‘What Mid Staffs and RBS have in common’, Eduardo Reyes asks: ‘Could a greater emphasis on professional ethics have helped prevent failings?’ With the advent of alternative business structures in particular, being a professional now only means that others have a stick with which to beat ...
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News
US eases curbs on foreign in-house lawyers
Foreign-qualified lawyers are to be allowed to work as in-house counsel at US companies in all 50 states for the first time, the American Bar Association (ABA) has resolved.
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News
SRA denies 2,000 firms in crisis talks
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has denied it has ‘serious concerns’ about the financial stability of 2,000 firms, as new figures show the number of firms declining to the lowest level since it began collecting data. Chris Smyth, former head of legal services for bank Cheltenham ...
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PM ‘mad’ to cut legal aid for EU immigrants
Solicitors have condemned David Cameron’s proposal to deprive EU immigrants of access to legal aid. The prime minister told parliament last week: ‘There are many parts of our current arrangements that don’t pass a simple commonsense test in terms of access to housing, access to the ...
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Wales to decide on legal jurisdiction
Wales first minister Carwyn Jones (pictured) is today set to reveal whether he backs a separate legal jurisdiction for the country. His long-awaited response to last year’s consultation is expected to recommend a separation of powers. A move towards a Welsh jurisdiction has been widely predicted ...
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News
Volunteers ‘unable to fill legal aid void’
Volunteers will not be able to fill the gap in advice and representation left by April’s legal aid cuts, the chief executive of one of the largest pro bono organisations has warned parliament. With less than 50 days to go until the Legal Aid, Sentencing and ...
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News
MoJ considers ending lump sum PI damages
Ministers are to consider the case for successful personal injury claimants to receive damages over a period of time rather than in one lump sum. The Ministry of Justice revealed last week that it is considering a change to the current payments regime – as well ...
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NewsRoundtable: conveyancing
While the residential conveyancing market is showing tentative signs of recovery, leading practitioners are focusing on raising standards in a volatile environment