Last 3 months headlines – Page 1271
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Right message
Camden Community Law Centre was pleased to see the Law Society’s support for equality in the item about same-sex marriage. We congratulate the Society on speaking out. We believe that the Society should speak out on issues of equality in the law. ...
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Immigration
Leave to remain - Indefinite leave to remain - Claimants applying for judicial review R (on the application of Gurung and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court (London) (Mr Justice Eady): ...
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Closing the door
I have never before, in over 30 years in the law, been moved to write to the Gazette. However, the article by Solicitors Regulation Authority board chair Charles Plant so incensed me that I felt the need to put pen to paper.
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We can’t give up
A Adoki suggests that we should let the system implode, rather than do what we can to mitigate the inevitable and serious adverse consequences that we all recognise will result from legal aid cuts. As chair of the Law Society’s Access to Justice Committee, I cannot agree.
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Jurisdiction
Conflict of laws - Whether proceedings should be stayed Joint Stock Company Aeroflot Russian Airlines v Berezovsky and others: Chancery Division (Mr Justice Floyd): 18 June 2012 The Commercial Court ...
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Plain speaking
Here is a test for your readers. Read aloud, without pause, the full names of the following (all taken from a single edition of the Gazette): LDP, ABS, SDT, RTA, ABI, APIL, CLS, ADR, CBA, CFA, COLP, COFA, ALS, MoJ, LSB, CQS and SRA. Of course, as a profession we ...
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Clarity at a price
It was helpful to refer solicitors to part 3 of the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook, particularly the set of voluntary sample letters ‘designed to help ensure complete clarity’.
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Stopping extradition
Much has been made of the home secretary’s anger at article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (private and family life), preventing deportations from the UK (see Rights and Wrongs). Article 8 has, however, played little role in extradition cases, at least until the Supreme Court’s important judgment ...
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Site falls short
Joshua Rozenberg, in his article on the National Archives searching for volunteers to update the online statute book thought law librarians would be clamouring to volunteer. What we certainly would do is clamour to correct his statement that ‘legislation.gov.uk is a comprehensive website of primary and secondary legislation to 1267’. ...
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Legal Ombudsman delays complaints publication
Publication of complaints made to the Legal Ombudsman about solicitors has been deferred, the Gazette can reveal. The ombudsman (LeO) had intended to collate all complaints from the first quarter of the 2012/13 financial year to post firm-by-firm details online this month. But the LeO’s office ...
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SRA outlines ‘race bias’ action plan
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has reasserted its commitment to transparency in regulatory decision-making following allegations of discrimination against black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers. Following talks with its External Implementation Group (EIG), which represents minority and BME practitioners, the regulator has drawn up a list ...
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Company markets 'first criminal legal insurance policy'
A criminal barrister has formed a company to market what he says is the UK’s first criminal legal insurance policy. For an annual premium of £29.99, the policy provides up to £20,000 worth of cover for a defendant’s means-tested Crown court legal aid contribution or their privately funded legal fees.
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Bar conviction disclosure rule ‘misguided’
The Law Society and Bar Council have strongly opposed proposals to impose a duty on barristers to disclose clients’ previous convictions. Chancery Lane described as ‘misguided’ a Bar Standards Board suggestion that a barrister should advise a client that they must cease to act if the ...
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Law Society steps up pressure on Fiji
Fiji’s continued refusal to allow foreign scrutiny of its rule of law has come under public criticism from outgoing Law Society president John Wotton. Wotton’s move follows the publication of a highly critical report by the Law Society Charity, first revealed in the Gazette.
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Entity regulation - solicitors beware!
Amid all the publicity surrounding the introduction of alternative business structures and outcomes-focused regulation, a third part of the revolution in the regulation of legal services has attracted little comment - the move to entity regulation. Yet it is at least as important as either of the other two, and ...
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Barclays ‘faces $6bn in Libor scandal claims’
Barclays Bank Plc could face claims totalling $6bn globally following revelations that staff members were involved in the manipulation of the London inter-bank offered rate (Libor), the Gazette has learned.
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IFA rule under scrutiny
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has signalled that it is likely to scrap the requirement for lawyers to refer clients only to wholly independent financial advisers, as opposed to advisers contracted to sell the products of one or more providers.
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Society plans accreditation scheme for will-writing
The Law Society is to launch a will-writing and probate accreditation scheme along the lines of its Conveyancing Quality Scheme, it emerged last week in a speech by the chief executive. The speech also contained calls for solicitors to exploit the potential of will banks ...
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Top-100 annual results show PEP up by 8%
The first batch of top-ranking law firms to publish annual financial results for 2011/12 have reported average growth in profit per equity partner (PEP) of 8% (see table below). However, this figure masks wide variations in trading performance which have also been complicated by merger activity.
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Indian call for legal liberalisation
India’s top law firms and largest companies are desperate for the country’s legal market to be liberalised, according to new research. A YouGov poll, in association with magic circle firm Allen & Overy, found near-unanimous agreement among more than 300 Indian legal stakeholders. In total, 96% ...