Last 3 months headlines – Page 1338
-
News
Commercial need
I wonder whether solicitors like your correspondent Franklin Sinclair have considered that, in the long run, they might do their clients, including the most vulnerable, more good by refusing to carry out large amounts of unpaid work for the benefit of an ungrateful taxpayer, than by flogging themselves to death ...
-
News
Cameron told: ‘engage with profession on PI’
The Law Society has urged David Cameron to engage with the legal profession following his attack on the health and safety ‘monster’ and personal injury fees. In a speech last week, the prime minister proposed capping fees for personal injury claims at £25,000 and including ...
-
News
HSBC conveyancing panel size 'could harm consumer choice'
Concerns are growing that the restricted size of HSBC’s new conveyancing panel may harm consumer choice. The bank launched the panel this week to provide services to residential mortgage customers. It has 43 members across the UK, 39 of which are solicitor firms and four licensed conveyancing companies. ...
-
News
LSC faces action on family law contracts
The Legal Services Commission faces the threat of litigation from legal aid firms refused new family law contracts. Between 30 and 40 firms that made technical or clerical errors in the submission of their applications for contracts in the October 2011 bid round are taking advice ...
-
News
PI firms inundated over banned implants
Personal injury firms say they are receiving hundreds of enquiries every week from women treated with now banned PIP breast implants. Up to 40,000 women in the UK have been fitted with implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese. The Department of Health has offered ...
-
News
Law Society wary on shared parenting possibility
The Law Society’s family law committee has cautioned against introducing a legal presumption of shared parenting after divorce, following indications that the government may seek to change the law. Children’s minister Tim Loughton has said that the government is ‘looking closely at all the options ...
-
News
Bottoms and broomsticks
Surveying the dismal content of Berezovsky v Abramovich, Obiter can’t help feeling a little nostalgic for great court cases of the past. Our favourite, of course, is the 1961 ‘Lady Chatterley trial’, R v Penguin Books Ltd. What’s not to like about a trial where ...
-
News
Casting a net
Never let it be said that the Law Society is old-fashioned. Our leaders know there is more to social media than a coffee in the Chancery Lane Reading Room - indeed they’ve even noticed the existence of Twitter and Facebook. Last week the Society issued practice ...
-
News
Habeas corpus
Jurisdiction - Prisoner of war - Claimant Pakistani national being captured by British forces in Iraq Rahmatullah v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and another: CA (Civ Div) (Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger, Lord Justices ...
-
News
Bar chair counsels cooperation
An independent referral bar is in the public interest and has an ‘assured future’, despite increasing competition and changing working practices, according to its new chair. In an interview with Gazette Online, Michael Todd QC said solicitors see value in the continuation of the independent bar. ‘The bar doesn’t want ...
-
News
No ‘hidden agenda’ in Irish legal reforms
Ireland’s government has denied the existence of any ‘hidden agenda’ behind sweeping reforms to the legal system imposed following the country’s bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The minister for justice, equality and defence, Alan Shatter (pictured), was responding to growing international concerns, first ...
-
News
NewLaw makes ABS move
Cardiff-based firm NewLaw has confirmed it is among 44 organisations that have so far applied for alternative business structure status through the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The personal injury firm, established in 2004, submitted its application last week when the SRA became a licensing authority. ...
-
News
Co-op Legal has ‘ambitious’ growth plan
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has launched a recruitment drive as part of ‘ambitious plans’ to expand in the consumer legal services market. The move follows CLS’s submission, at the start of the year, of its application to become an alternative business structure. It is seeking ...
-
News
2011 was a transformational year for regulation
In my column a year ago, I described the year ahead as pivotal for legal services. In the last 12 months we have introduced a radically new way of regulating legal services, including publication of a new Handbook. We prepared intensively for the licensing of alternative business structures (ABSs). And ...
-
News
Matter of opinion
The City of London Law Society has issued a useful Guide to assist practitioners in providing English law opinion letters in financial transactions. The aim of the Guide (available at the website) is to save time and costs spent in discussing which law firm should provide an opinion letter, what ...
-
News
SRA to consider dropping minimum wage for trainees
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to consult on whether to continue to set minimum pay rates for trainees. Current minimum salary levels for solicitors are £18,590 in central London and £16,650 outside, and have been frozen for the past two years. However the SRA board decided ...
-
News
LSC blamed by Jewels for closure
A West Midlands family legal aid firm has blamed delays in payment by the Legal Services Commission for forcing it into administration. Jewels, founded in 1980 by sole director Mark Jewels (pictured), ceased trading on 28 December. The Lexcel-accredited firm, ...