Last 3 months headlines – Page 1580
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Lawyer fears over Tories’ FSA U-turn
City lawyers have criticised an apparent U-turn by the Conservatives over their plans to scrap the Financial Services Authority (pictured) and hand its fraud-busting powers to a new agency. According to reports, the Conservative manifesto plan to scrap the FSA has been scuppered by the Liberal ...
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Court of Appeal rules on plea bargain sentencing
White-collar criminals sentenced to a year or less in jail should have their sentences suspended if they cooperate fully with related fraud investigations, the Court of Appeal ruled last week. The lord chief justice Sir Igor Judge (pictured), presiding in R v Dougall, chastised the Serious ...
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Ex-lawyer campaigns for civil liberties in China
A man wrongfully detained in a Chinese mental hospital for six and a half years was released earlier this month following pressure from a commercial lawyer turned civil liberties activist. Former commercial lawyer Alice XT Huang, who visited London as a guest of the Law Society ...
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London legal walk
Led by lord chief justice Igor Judge and master of the rolls Lord Neuberger (pictured with Law Society president Robert Heslett), 4,500 lawyers, judges and students took part in the sixth London legal walk this week. Some £400,000 was raised for legal advice and pro bono agencies.
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Class action protocol drawn up for NHS litigation
Lawyers have agreed an innovative collaboration process to handle a class action against a Liverpool hospital that is designed to save the NHS millions of pounds. Liverpool Women’s Hospital faces around 200 claims in relation to alleged negligent treatment by consultant urogynaecologist George Rowland. ...
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Appeal court upholds ruling that CPS case was abuse of process
A prosecution for possession of indecent images of a child has been stayed as an abuse of process after the Crown Prosecution Service refused to make copies of the images for the defence, claiming that to do so would lead CPS staff to commit an offence. ...
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Duncan Lewis boosts turnover by 56%
London legal aid firm Duncan Lewis aims to consolidate its position over the coming year after bringing in more than 100 new staff and upping its turnover by 56%, according to the firm’s recently published accounts. The firm, the largest civil legal aid practice in the ...
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Chancery Lane welcomes coalition government proposals
The Law Society welcomed the new coalition government’s pledge to seek a better balance between state surveillance and privacy this week, while legal aid lawyers said they hoped Kenneth Clarke’s appointment as justice secretary will spell good news for access to justice. Among the proposals set ...
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LSC payment delays spark bankruptcy fears
Delays by the Legal Services Commission in paying solicitors could lead to some firms becoming insolvent, lawyers warned this week. The LSC wrote to firms in March informing them that it would not be making payments on time that month, and payment delays have continued since, ...
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Claims begin to filter through RTA claims portal
Low-value road traffic accident personal injury claims sent through a new electronic data exchange launched three weeks ago have begun hitting insurers’ desks this week, figures show. Of the first 617 claims submitted as the Gazette went to press, liability had been admitted in 386 cases ...
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FSA fines anti-money laundering officer £14k
The Financial Services Authority has imposed a £14,000 penalty on an individual money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), in a case that is likely to raise concerns among those fulfilling the role at law firms.
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Exclusive: QualitySolicitors launches high street network
Law firm marketing alliance QualitySolicitors has launched a national high street branch network in a bid to become the first ‘household name’ legal brand, the Gazette can exclusively reveal. Today sees the opening of the first 15 QualitySolicitors branches across the UK, in a strategy described as a ‘game changer’ ...
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Home information packs suspended
After a week in office, the new coalition government today announced that the requirement for home sellers to provide home information packs will be suspended pending primary legislation to abolish them entirely. The suspension of the controversial sellers packs will take effect from midnight on Friday ...
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The end of lawyers? Pah! This is the time of the 'super lawyer'.
In March, Alastair Moyes stated that 'law firms need to work hard in the face of commoditised legal providers'. Last month he bravely stuck his neck out and suggested that we, today's lawyers, need to embrace radical change...
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The four-year prison term that became a life sentence
The hanging’s-too-good-for-them school of thought on penal reform will probably be unsympathetic, but a recent case shines a spotlight on how inadequate medical care in prison can lead to jail sentences that never end.
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Neuberger calls for curb on legislation
The master of the rolls has called for fewer and more carefully drafted laws to avoid handing too much power to the judiciary. Speaking at the annual conference of the Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) last week, Lord Neuberger (pictured) said: ‘Poorly drafted legislation risks giving more ...
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Lawyers getting connected in the EU
The cliche brands of Facebook, Skype and Google tell us how we have become intimately interconnected, wherever we live on the planet. There will obviously be more of it in the future. One of the great, unsung advantages of the EU is that it is preparing us – not for ...
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Public funding for representation at inquests: equality of arms?
The charitable organisation INQUEST has criticised the current inquest system because ‘there is no equity of arms in terms of legal funding’...
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Referral fees do not harm consumers, LSB research shows
There is no evidence that referral fees have caused consumer detriment in either the conveyancing or personal injury market, according to an economic analysis commissioned by the Legal Services Board which was published today. However, there is concern that a focus on profitability causes some criminal ...
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Ministry of Justice appoints City lawyer as minister
A former City solicitor has been appointed a junior minister in the Ministry of Justice’s new line-up. Jonathan Djanogly, a former partner at SJ Berwin, has become a parliamentary under secretary. The Conservative MP for Huntingdon was previously the shadow solicitor general and a shadow minister ...