Last 3 months headlines – Page 1237
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Townsend admits light touch for new ABSs
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has made a conscious decision not to place too many conditions on new alternative business structures (ABSs), its leader has revealed. Chief executive Antony Townsend said the terms of the licence had deliberately been kept simple for the 33 entities that have ...
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Legal aid naivety on display
Lord McNally gave his first speech last week on legal aid since taking over the legal aid brief in the reshuffle. Hats off to him for braving the lion’s den that was the Legal Aid Practitioners Group annual conference – something of a baptism of fire. Legal aid practitioners were ...
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Labour starts to move on from extradition errors
The Labour party has struggled with the controversial issue of the extradition arrangements it agreed with the US and other states when in government. When home secretary Theresa May announced that she would block the extradition of ‘Pentagon Hacker’ Gary McKinnon in the Commons, and ...
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Comparison site attacks online document market
Online price comparison website Compare Legal Costs has partnered with East Midlands firm Nelsons to offer fixed-fee online legal documents to businesses and consumers. Nelsons provides more than 200 online documents suitable for personal or business use, covering building work to prenuptial agreements, divorce, motoring, power ...
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‘No question’ of leaving ECHR - Grieve
Attorney general Dominic Grieve (pictured) has categorically stated the government has no intention of withdrawing from the European convention on human rights. Grieve told the House of Commons yesterday there is ‘no question’ of leaving the convention, despite justice secretary Chris Grayling last week hinting that ...
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Pro bono group expands to Wales
The solicitors’ pro bono group LawWorks has been awarded £180,000 of lottery funding to expand its service across Britain and set up LawWorks Cymru in Wales. The charity heard last week that the Big Lottery Fund will provide the funding over the next three years enabling ...
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Extradition decision exposes double standards
by Nasir Hafezi While most of the British public, including the British families of recently extradited US terror suspects, welcomed home secretary Theresa May’s decision to block Gary McKinnon’s extradition to the US, many will also argue that the decision smacks of double standards and politicians ...
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Gladstone Brookes TV ad falls foul of watchdog
The advertising watchdog has ordered a claims management company (CMC) to stop showing a TV advertisement which exaggerated how long a PPI claim would take. Gladstone Brookes, which instructed almost 71,000 clients in the first eight months of 2012, ran the advertisement stating that ‘reclaiming ...
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Hiring and firing - duty solicitor rotas
There is scene near the beginning of Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd where the hero has just lost his farm. He goes to the local town for the annual hiring fair when farm workers get taken on in new jobs. Gabriel joins the crowd of unemployed men looking ...
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Naming and shaming child offenders
by Penelope Gibbs, chair of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice and director of Transform Justice The conker murder was a horrific crime. Steven Grisales was murdered in Edmonton after remonstrating with a gang of boys who were throwing conkers at him.
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Officials ignored experts’ warning on interpreting contract
Senior procurement officials at the Ministry of Justice did not read a consultants’ report warning of the risks in a £42m contract to provide courtroom interpreters, it emerged at a parliamentary hearing yesterday. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee was taking evidence on the procurement ...
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‘Forum bar’ pledge as May blocks McKinnon extradition
Members on all sides of the House of Commons today cheered home secretary Theresa May’s announcement that she would block the extradition of ‘Pentagon hacker’ Gary McKinnon (pictured). She said she had examined medical evidence, and concluded that if extradited to the US there was a high risk that McKinnon ...
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A compendium of legal news
It never rains but it pours. I go away for a week to the IBA conference in Dublin, and find on my return many developments of interest for solicitors.
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May to announce opt-out of EU justice measures
The home secretary Theresa May will confirm today that government plans to exercise its right to opt out of 130 EU cross-border measures on law and order. She is expected to tell MPs that under an opt-out agreed by the last government when negotiating the ...
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Quindell snaps up second law firm
One of the biggest new entrants to the legal services market has added to its growing stable with the acquisition of personal injury firm Pinto Potts. AIM-listed Quindell Portfolio announced the takeover this morning to the stock exchange and confirmed it has bought the firm for ...
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Survey tells tale of bullying, harassment and discrimination
One in six solicitors has been bullied in the workplace, according to research by the Law Society. Preliminary findings of the Society’s 2012 omnibus survey of the profession reveal that 17% of solicitors say they have been bullied at work. The percentage is higher for ...
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Bar says no to plea-only advocates
The Bar Council has strongly opposed the creation of a category of ‘non-trial’ advocates in the planned advocacy accreditation scheme. The ‘plea-only’ category – originally proposed by solicitor advocates – would put the public at risk and undermine public confidence in the profession and criminal justice system, the council says ...
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Self-defence plans invite vigilantism
by Miranda Ching, an Associate at Peters & Peters LLP This week, the justice secretary and the prime minister announced at the Conservative party conference that the law in relation to rights of homeowners to defend themselves against burglars should be changed.
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Claims manager jailed for insurance fraud
The manager of a claims management company who processed fraudulent insurance claims has been jailed for 21 months. Asif Mallu, 38, organised 10 claims between May and December 2005, making more than £12,000 through solicitors’ referral fees, courtesy car hire and the recovery of vehicles involved. ...
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PI firm buys debt recovery service
National firm Irwin Mitchell has announced it is to acquire a debt recovery company and to apply to license it as an alternative business structure. Oxfordshire-based PDP Management Services will operate as a subsidiary of Ascent, which is in turn a subsidiary of personal injury ...