Last 3 months headlines – Page 1272

  • News

    Time to rebuild the small print

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Speaking in the House of Lords on 25 July 1988 in the debate on what was to become the Housing Act 1988, the Earl of Caithness, on behalf of the then government, said: ‘One of the points frequently made about the old-style shorthold tenancy procedure [i.e. the protected shorthold under ...

  • News

    News focus: who will bring a Libor claim?

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Investment bank Liberum Capital estimates that Barclays global exposure to claims arising from staff’s manipulation of the Libor rate could be $6bn - just over a quarter of the bank’s value.

  • News

    Unintended outcomes

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    ‘First, do no harm’ is an injunction generally attributed to the medical profession, and it is a useful one. The phrase sprang to mind in examining the SRA’s plan to scrap the requirement for solicitors to refer clients only to wholly independent financial advisers. As SIFA ...

  • News

    Redress offered for mis-selling interest rate hedging products is hardly draconian

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    by Stuart Brothers, a consultant to SRBlegal Business Lawyers. He contributed to the FSA review and briefed a group of MPs on the issue The Financial Services Authority’s review of interest rate hedging products has resulted in an agreement by the four major banks to offer ...

  • News

    Extradition

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Extradition hearing - European Arrest Warrant - Defendants’ extradition sought by relevant judicial authority pursuant to European Arrest Warrant HH v Deputy Prosecutor of the Italian Republic, Genoa; PH v Deputy Prosecutor of the Italian Republic, Genoa; F-K (FC) ...

  • News

    Review of super-regulators calls for more openness

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Board and the Office for Legal Complaints should open their board meetings to the public and publish all items of spending over £500, a Ministry of Justice Review has recommended. The report of the first triennial review of bodies established under the 2007 ...

  • News

    Case management; murder; and costs

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    The decision in R v Newell [2012] EWCA Crim 650 will do much to ease solicitor concerns about incriminating their clients when completing case management forms, whether in the magistrates’ court or at a plea and case management hearing in the Crown court.

  • News

    Wills and probate company goes ABS

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Birmingham wills and probate company Northwood Banks & Co has become the second company licensed as an alternative business structure (ABS) by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). The firm, which since 1987 has provided will writing and probate services, has now been licensed to ...

  • News

    Our work needs to be informed by the views practitioners

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    This is my last opportunity to write to the profession as president of the Law Society, so I shall use this column to thank all those who have supported me over the past year and to reflect on the issues that seem most important as I hand over to my ...

  • News

    Best of British?

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    The government’s reported decision to expunge understanding of the Human Rights Act from the Life in the UK Test for migrants resurrects the old trope about ‘what it means to be British’. It would seem to presuppose monarchist sympathies, at the very least, as applicants will ...

  • News

    News boos

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Obiter was shocked to learn that catching up with the news in England and Wales’ most widely read legal weekly could land you in trouble. Mike Warren, partner at Chelmsford firm Taylor Haldane Barlex, got in touch last week after being admonished by the chair of a lay bench at ...

  • News

    Trust in Baldrick

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    In its struggle for survival in the face of successive and impending legal aid cuts, Hackney Community Law Centre has some stalwart allies. It hosted a reception in the House of Lords last week to thank its supporters. Two of its patrons, Lord Low of Dalston and the MP for ...

  • News

    Party line

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Last week’s Law Society Summer Party at the Wallace Collection in Marylebone took place in what can only be described as London’s grandest conservatory. Any number of the great and good turned up, including Ken Clarke, whose cheerful insouciance amid a throng not universally well disposed to his policies can ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, 4 July 2002 ‘Underpaid’ solicitors set to quit legal aid

  • News

    PC fee up 5%, Law Society council agrees

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society council today approved a practising certificate fee increase of £16 for 2012/13. The fee for each solicitor will rise from £328 to £344. Individual Compensation Fund contributions rise from £60 to £92. The contribution for firms will increase from £722 to £1,340. ...

  • News

    Patent

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Petition for revocation - Obviousness - Claimant company developing processes for development of pigment Sudarshan Chemical Industries Ltd v Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH: ChD (Patents) (Mr John Baldwin QC (sitting as a deputy judge of the Chancery Division)): ...

  • News

    Society advice on SRA diversity data

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has published a practice note to help firms and sole practitioners comply with regulatory new requirements to collect data on the diversity of their workforce. Data to be reported include job status and role as well as age, gender, disability, ethnicity, religion ...

  • News

    SRA rule change will increase choice but harm consumer

    2012-07-05T00:00:00Z

    Choice is a wonderful thing. Living near Olympic Park I can currently choose between looking at adverts for Coke or McDonalds. Neither is likely, I imagine, to boost my chances of qualification for the 2016 Games. But what if increased choice means increased access to harmful ...

  • News

    NHS reveals £1bn litigation bill

    2012-07-04T00:00:00Z

    Spending by the NHS Litigation Authority on negligence claims has passed the £1bn mark for the first time. Annual accounts for the 2011/12 financial year show that £1.095bn was spent on clinical claims by NHS trusts, foundation trusts and primary care trusts in England. A further ...