Last 3 months headlines – Page 1736
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Bitter will to swallow
Readers may be aware of a new business model being launched where the legal profession is encouraged to ‘sign up’ to check online computer-generated wills for free. For more complex wills, the lawyer is able to charge for the service – but at no point would the lawyer meet the ...
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Rights slight
I write in response to Roger Smith’s article stating that readers of the Daily Mail ‘are hysterically opposed to human rights’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, 12). This is an insult to any Mail reader. I read the Mail and anyone who knows me will tell you that it is ...
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Firms shut as cover crisis deepens
High street firms are being forced to close because they cannot afford to pay vastly increased professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums, while hundreds more are destined to end up in the assigned risks pool (ARP), the Gazette has learned.
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LSB chief pledges separation of powers with the Society
Ensuring robust separation between the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority will be a priority of the Legal Services Board, its chairman has promised. In a speech at the Law Society last week, David Edmonds highlighted the weight he places on the proper independence both of ...
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Tory HIPs rethink
The Conservative Party may abandon its pledge to scrap home information packs (HIPs) if elected, their housing special adviser hinted last week. Owen Inskip, adviser to shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, told the National Conveyancing Congress in London that the party’s plan to abolish the controversial ...
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Anger at ‘propaganda’ of MoJ family courts report
Activists have dismissed a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) commissioned survey into family courts’ handling of contact orders as ‘propaganda’. The survey of 11 courts, by Oxford University’s Centre for Family Law and Policy, found that the perception that courts awarded non-resident parents little or no contact ...
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Battle won
Five retired Gurkhas and a serviceman’s widow have successfully challenged an immigration policy preventing Gurkhas who retired before 1997 from settling in the UK. Tuesday’s judgment by Mr Justice Blake at the High Court alluded to the Military Covenant, an agreement between servicemen and the nation to honour debts of ...
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Ghana’s black gold to lure lawyers
Oil and gas-rich Ghana could provide a wealth of opportunities for legal experts as it upgrades its legal and physical infrastructure, according to members of a lawyers’ trade mission. The mission, led by the Law Society’s International Division, met Ghanaian lawyers, government and industry figures ...
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Registry to shed staff
The Land Registry of England and Wales is offering redundancy terms to around 1,250 staff, prompting fears that an ‘exodus of experience’ could harm standards of service once the property market recovers. Revenue at the self-funding agency has fallen sharply in recent months with the collapse ...
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Funding freedom plea
Support remains sharply divided on whether solicitors should be free to contract with clients in whatever way they want – including agreeing to contingency fees. At a debate last week between leading practitioners, third-party funder Susan Dunn said contingency fees should be an option to ...
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Diversity charter threat
The Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) has threatened to withdraw its support for the Law Society’s diversity charter, amid fears it will be watered down. The scheme, initiated by SAL and supported by BT, is modelled on a project in the US. It aims to ...
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CPA plans huge India expansion
CPA Global, the legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider, is to expand its 450-strong team of lawyers in India nearly eight-fold, in response to growing demand from Europe and the US. The company expects to employ 3,500 lawyers in India by 2011, the Gazette has learned. The ...
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In-house lawyers ‘bullied’ by firms
Corporate counsel are being bullied into retaining panels of law firms despite conflicts of interest, a conference heard last week. Counsel at the C5 Reducing Legal Costs event reported taking the decision to drop law firms from their panel because those firms were simultaneously advising competitors – but some said ...
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Nuclear
City firm Lovells advised French energy giant EDF on its £11bn acquisition of British Energy Group, the UK nuclear power generator. Lovells also advised Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas in connection with the deal. Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised British Energy, while US firm White & Case advised the ...
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For richer, for poorer...
Adding back – but when and how? Christopher Tromans reviews the court’s powers when family assets have been dissipated. If a party to a marriage squanders part of the family assets before the final hearing of an ancillary relief application, what can the court do to ...
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Agricultural law: challenging times, rewarding work
As Britian’s farmers grapple with disease, rising costs and red tape, agriculture is becoming a more challenging area of law. Mad cow disease, avian flu, bluetongue and bovine tuberculosis (BTB) have all blighted livestock recently, while rising labour costs and a plethora of new ...
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Law firms' private investigators examined
Grania Langdon-Down peers into the business of the private investigators and heir hunters used by law firms Lawyers who use private investigators to ...
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IP/IT: English courts and patent injustice
The English courts have a reputation for being hostile to patents. There exists a perception that if the validity of a patent is challenged – for example, on the classic grounds that the patented invention is not novel, or that it is obvious, or that the patent does not sufficiently ...
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Law and orders
The abolition of powers of arrest in relation to non-molestation orders can leave the victim questioning the whole process.
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Putting clients first
In her article about mediation, Kate Durcan writes: ‘One might think there is a conflict between being a lawyer, where the object is to generate fee income, and conducting mediation, where the goal is to seek early resolution and save costs. Not so, say lawyer-mediators.’ (see [2008] Gazette, 18 September, ...