Last 3 months headlines – Page 1231
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Employment tribunal
Procedure – Adjournment Iqbal v Metropolitan Police Service and another: Employment Appeal Tribunal (Judge Richardson, Dr K Mohanty and Miss S Wilson): 7 September 2012 The employee withdrew his ...
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Innovators not worried by negligence threat to cancer care
It has been mooted that ‘current law is a barrier to progress in curing cancer’. I disagree. Lord Saatchi feels that ‘fear of litigation for medical negligence is a deterrent to innovation in cancer treatment’.
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Don’t slash personal injury jobs
The Law Society Research Unit informs me that 14% of all solicitors practising in England and Wales undertake personal injury work. In the north-west, it rises to 34% and in Merseyside to 40%. The unanimous view of Ministry of Justice proposals to slash fees for dealing with injury claims is ...
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The long and short of it
Unusually, there have been two pronouncements on judgment writing from high judicial officers in the UK recently (news, 23 November). The long and short of it is a win for the sensible call that judgments need to be clearer and shorter, but that there is also room for improvement by ...
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Clearing up judgments
With regard to your Gazette item on calls for judges to make their judgments more readable, I would suggest that judges go back to read the judgments of the late Lord Denning MR; they are models of conciseness and are also entertaining in a serious way. He used short sentences ...
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The case for the defence
The government has decided, no doubt in an attempt to cut payments from central funds to defendants who are not eligible for legal aid, to reduce the amount of payments from central funds to no more than the legal aid rates. All well and good if this was truly fair. ...
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Doing your duty
I do not believe that we have dealt justice to Peter Elliott after his experience at Manchester’s High Court. He was not asking for, or expecting, legal advice in connection with his case.
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Industrial work
I have just completed a telephone survey with a very nice lady. The SRA apparently regards us as ‘an industry’. Says it all. Graham Quigley, Waugh & Musgrave, Cockermouth, Cumbria
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Radical PI reforms spell ‘disaster’
Lawyers on both sides of the personal injury sector have rounded on the government after the latest announcement in an unprecedented series of radical reforms. Justice secretary Chris Grayling on Tuesday outlined proposals to raise the upper limit of the small-claims track from £1,000 to £5,000 ...
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MoJ must slash £2.5bn from its budget
The Ministry of Justice will have to cut more than £2.5bn – around 28% – from its budget by the end of the current parliament, the department has revealed following last week’s autumn statement. Spending has already been reined in by £580m this financial year ...
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Family judges backing court welfare reports
Family judges follow the recommendation of court welfare reports in nine out of 10 cases, research has revealed. A study commissioned by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) shows that the reports of family court advisers were accepted in just over ...
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Colombian lawyers still under threat
The Caravana international delegation of lawyers was ‘dismayed’ to learn that assassinations of Colombian judges and lawyers have increased since its last visit to the country two years ago, the Gazette can reveal.
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Land Registry shock at digital difficulty
Electronic conveyancing remains on the agenda of the Land Registry despite proving ‘more difficult to realise than anyone had thought’, the chief land registrar said this week. Speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum on conveyancing, Malcolm Dawson outlined the Land Registry’s vision to be ...
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Law firm websites ‘trail other sectors’
City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner and international firm DLA Piper have scored the highest in a survey of legal websites – which the authors say reveals that law firms have much to learn from other sectors. Of 30 law firms surveyed by Last Exit, a digital ...
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Hopes and fears for 2013
There are dire predictions for parts of the legal profession in 2013. The provision of social welfare law will be hit by the full force of the legal aid cuts from April. This is also the date from which the economics of civil claims are ...
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Judicial review changes could be harmful
by Jason Towell, a partner at Cripps Harries Hall In a recent speech to the CBI the prime minister stated that the government would be looking at ways to streamline the judicial review process.
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Breach of confidence
Media – Confidential information Abbey v Gilligan and another: Queen's Bench Division: 20 November 2012 The claimant had brought a claim for breach of confidence or, alternatively, misuse of private ...
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Pre-Christmas rush
I love this time of year: the decorations, the lights, so much to do, everyone else making money, clients. In fact everyone wants everything to be done before Christmas. How I miss those seasonal contact/access applications. At least the pre-Christmas rush of people queuing outside shops to do their shoplifting ...
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Grayling sets out plan for culling judicial reviews
The justice secretary has set out plans to cut the number of ‘weak or ill-founded’ judicial reviews, which he claims are blocking the system and wasting money. A consultation published today suggests: - Reducing the time limits for bringing planning and procurement ...