Last 3 months headlines – Page 1499
-
News
Slur on my firm's services
I can only applaud the action taken by Hertfordshire firm Judkins and its partner Paul Judkins. My own firm has recently had its appeal concerning removal from the Santander panel, for Abbey, denied. I regard this as an act in restraint of trade and a slur on my firm’s services. ...
-
News
Solicitors are still having difficulty with service of proceedings
The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) are generally seen as being a success. True, they have not brought down the cost of litigation, but they have given a degree of certainty as to procedure. The fact that solicitors are still falling foul of the CPR when it comes to service by ...
-
News
Future LPC students need to be better informed about career prospects
In your article ‘LPC aptitude test risks "clones"’, you quote Kevin Poulter of the Junior Lawyers Division as stating that ‘there are between 10,000 and 20,000 LPC graduates currently looking for training contracts’. This almost certainly overestimates alarmingly the oversupply of LPC graduates. No one knows how many LPC graduates ...
-
News
Civil procedure
Committal for contempt – Suspended committal orders – Judgment debtor’s failure to attend court Broomleigh Housing Association Ltd v Emeka Okonkwo: CA (Civ Div): 13 October 2010 The appellant (O) ...
-
News
Relevance of happiness to the legal profession
There is something for everyone in Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder’s book The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law. Levit and Linder are law professors at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and what they say about the US is relevant to the English legal profession. ...
-
News
Local authority publicity and housing possessions
That the government shop is under new management is clear. It has a radical new look and feel – and an impatient determination to slim the entire operation and to reshape fundamentally the focus of policy. These impressions were reinforced on 29 September when Communities and Local Government issued its ...
-
News
Where will the legal aid lawyers of the future come from?
As uncertainty over the future of legal aid contracts deters firms from taking on the expense and commitment of traineeships, one wonders who is going to train the next generation. Two weeks ago, I attended the Legal Aid Practitioners Group annual gathering in Leeds. Given the ...
-
News
Freeman tops ranking of high-profile solicitors
Defence lawyer Nick Freeman topped the rankings for the solicitor most frequently mentioned in the national press over the last year, according to figures compiled by Sweet & Maxwell. Freeman (pictured), founder of Manchester firm Freeman & Co and known as ‘Mr Loophole’, was the most ...
-
News
Who's afraid of computer generation?
Significant parts of Richard Susskind's The End of Lawyers? focus on the role of technology and automation in the production of legal documents. In particular he looks at the use of software that enables the client, with the use of what is basically a decision tree, to generate employment contracts ...
-
News
Abolish single PII renewal date and review conveyancing, says report
The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped, and there should be an investigation into whether more regulation is needed in the conveyancing process, according to a ‘root and branch’ review of client financial protection commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
-
News
Unregulated will-writers and building case studies
The Law Society has asked members to inform it of any problems their clients may have experienced with unregulated will-writers.
-
News
Regulators consult on tougher rules for law degrees
A joint committee of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board has released two consultations on the future of the undergraduate law degree. The first Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) paper asks for views on whether students who have failed a single foundation subject within ...
-
News
Immigration lawyers issue warning over appeals fee
Immigration lawyers have warned that immigrants could be ‘penalised’ as a result of government plans to introduce fees in certain immigration and asylum appeals. Court fees of up to £250 could be charged for immigration and asylum tribunal appeals. No fees are currently charged.
-
News
Lord chief justice calls for reform of family system
The adversarial court system is not appropriate for settling parental disputes over the custody of children, the lord chief justice said today. Giving evidence to the House of Commons’ justice committee, Lord Judge (pictured) said he has ‘real concerns’ that the adversarial system ‘leaves a ...
-
News
The right to choose your own lawyer – part 2
A year ago, I wrote about the Eschig decision of the European Court of Justice, which held that insured individuals in a mass tort case retain the right to choose their own lawyers. Now there is another case on its way to the European Court of Justice on the same ...
-
News
New advocacy proposals ‘prejudice’ solicitors
A proposed new quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates could prejudice solicitors because it places too much weight on the views of judges, an advocates’ group has warned. The Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has voiced concerns over the ‘over-reliance’ on judicial evaluation proposed ...
-
News
Support victims of rape, says Stern
The government must support the victims of serious violent crime despite financial constraints following its spending review, Baroness Stern said last night. The crossbench peer, who led the independent review into how rape complainants are treated by public bodies, said justice had to be balanced, and ...
-
News
Des Collins named Gazette Legal Personality of the Year
High-profile civil litigation solicitor Des Collins, senior partner of Collins in Watford, was named Gazette Legal Personality of the Year at the Law Society’s Excellence Awards last night.
-
News
Children at risk over court fees
Solicitors have warned that local authorities may be deterred from placing vulnerable children into care, following the government’s decision not to scrap the controversial court fees paid by local authorities in care and supervision cases. In a written ministerial statement yesterday, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) ...