Last 3 months headlines – Page 1327
-
News
Investment clubs
Recently I was asked about the law relating to investment clubs. The investment club had been going for many years, with meetings arranged on a monthly basis, and had about 50 members each contributing a reasonably modest amount per month. A problem arose when their broker, who supplied investment advice ...
-
News
Child access for father in lesbian family case
The appellant was a 'donor' father seeking a fuller relationship with and contact to his son. A ('the father') and B ('the biological mother') conceived M, a boy aged 2, via artificial insemination. M lived with the mother and C, the mother’s long-term lesbian partner ('the psychological mother'). ...
-
News
New York wants to wake up in a city without ABSs
New York state legal authorities have reaffirmed their resistance to non-lawyer ownership of firms. In a decision likely to affect international firms, New York Bar Association this week ruled that lawyers cannot practise in the state if their firm is owned by non-lawyers, even if the owners are overseas.
-
News
Ditch the Porsche and fund an ‘apprentice’
A packet of wine gums at a provincial cinema; a large cappuccino at Starbucks; or maybe 10 minutes of Premier League football. That’s what a trainee will be able to buy for an hour’s work when the Solicitors Regulation Authority does away with the minimum wage.
-
News
Where should lawyers go to meet the public?
This morning I bought my newspaper from a branch of a national chain of newsagents. As has been well reported, other branches sometimes include a stall run by lawyers whose firm has joined a national franchise. It is one of the supposedly big scary initiatives that will enable this franchise, ...
-
News
Advocacy compromise deal includes judicial assessment
Judicial assessment will remain a ‘central element’ of the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates, legal regulators announced today. However it will apply only to Crown court advocates. Accreditations will begin this summer. Under an agreement on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) announced ...
-
News
Lord Young shuns meeting with profession’s regulator
Lord Young of Graffham turned down an offer to meet with the solicitors' regulator in advance of his report on health and safety and the ‘compensation culture’, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. The SRA said it had ‘offered to engage’ with Young during the research ...
-
News
Claims portal won’t cope with expansion, say solicitors
Solicitors have warned the government there is no way to fast-track employer and public liability claims through the existing low-value scheme. The Ministry of Justice met key stakeholders yesterday for discussions on the proposed expansion of the road traffic accident (RTA) portal scheme. ...
-
News
Lenders move to common approach on panel management
The Law Society has welcomed a move by lenders to create a single national repository of data about firms on conveyancing panels. Leading lenders, including Lloyds Banking Group and Santander, have set up a working group, facilitated by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, to develop the repository. The group ...
-
News
Manchester PI firm goes under
National firm Irwin Mitchell has agreed a deal to take on the files of Manchester personal injury firm Donns which went into administration today. Some 50 staff members are thought to have been made redundant. Irwin Mitchell confirmed this afternoon that an arrangement had been made ...
-
News
Intellectual property
European Communities - Database rights - Infringement Football Dataco Ltd and other companies v Yahoo! UK Ltd and others: Court of Justice of the European Communities (Third Chamber) (Judges Lenaerts (Rapporteur), president of the Chamber, Malenovský, Juhász, Arestis and ...
-
News
Green leases
Last year I took part in a debate on sustainable, or ‘green’ leases, at one of the events organised at the Law Society by Pamela Castle OBE, chair of the National Centre for Biorenewable Energy, Fuels and Materials. It brought together scientists, lawyers and policy makers in public debate. Also ...
-
News
Further reforms to the NCBC
My recent article dealt with the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 4) Rules 2011 (SI 2011/3013) which came into force on 19 March 2012. These rules, together with practice direction (PD) changes in update 58, dealt with the necessary procedural changes caused by the establishment of the National Civil Business Centre ...
-
News
Tip of the iceberg
I couldn’t agree more with the letter ‘Passing the buck’ from Howard Shelley. However, what Mr Shelley identifies is only the tip of the iceberg. I am currently researching the accident compensation process for road traffic accidents with a value of £10k, as part of a ...
-
News
Secrets and lies
One might have thought that the proposal for ‘secret trials’ reported in last week’s Law Society Gazette would have prompted something rather stronger than the article which appeared in the 8 March issue.