Last 3 months headlines – Page 1347

  • News

    Immigration

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Leave to remain - Claimants seeking indefinite leave to remain - Claimants convicted of serious offences in the UK R (on the application of Mayaya and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice ...

  • News

    More solicitors make the bench

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors outperformed barristers in two selection exercises for the judiciary completed earlier this year, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has revealed. Eleven solicitors and eight barristers were selected as district judges (magistrates’ court) and 14 solicitors and 11 barristers as lawyer chairmen of the Residential ...

  • News

    Legal Ombudsman eyes voluntary jurisdiction

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has launched a consultation on whether to introduce a voluntary complaints-handling scheme for unreserved work. Its latest business plan discusses the establishment of a ‘voluntary jurisdiction’ for areas of the legal market where providers currently outside its remit may want to offer customers access to redress ...

  • News

    US backs non-lawyer investment, but rejects ABSs

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    The US’s leading legal governance body has taken a step towards allowing non-lawyers to hold a financial stake in law firms, but is rejecting English-style alternative business ­structures.

  • News

    Trading places with Ken

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Justice secretary Ken Clarke will not be on the Christmas card list of many legal aid lawyers this year following some remarks in an interview with the International Bar Association.

  • News

    Monkey business

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Obiter is indebted to Loch Associates, a Tunbridge Wells and London niche employment practice, for these insights into the more eccentric aspects of employing people. Some tales from the firm’s latest newsletter: A hotel cleaner wanted a day off work, but rather than simply asking his ...

  • News

    Window shopping

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Bury St Edmunds firm Gross & Co Solicitors is hoping to win the town’s best-dressed Christmas window competition this year with a display based on the Theatre Royal’s production of Dick Whittington and his Cat. ‘Our displays are designed by Stephane Hanri, a well-known retail designer and visual merchandiser in ...

  • News

    In detention

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    From what we read in the popular prints, today’s young people are no strangers to the nation’s court rooms. Perhaps that’s why the Ministry of Justice is expecting the government’s free schools to snap up many of its newly vacated court buildings. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly told the Commons last ...

  • News

    Human rights

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Inhuman or degrading treatment - Claimed mistreatment while being held in detention - European Convention on Human Rights R (on the application of Mousa) v Secretary of State for Defence and another: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Maurice Kay ...

  • News

    The creation of ABSs offers the chance for others to shape the future of the in-house sector

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    The views of corporate counsel command a high degree of moral authority and respect in the world of commercial legal services. It was not always so, but it is now rare for private practice partners to deride in-house peers as professionals who went in-house because they ‘couldn’t cut it’ in ...

  • News

    Conveyancing solicitors must meet the challenge of competition head on

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    by Peter Rodd, senior conveyancing partner at Boys & Maughan in Margate The new Conveyancing Protocol is eight months old. The growing number of firms accredited under the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) are obliged to follow it, and many others are beginning to do so.

  • News

    Memory lane

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, 8 December 1981 The Royal Courts of Justice, by Rodney Griffith When today we behold the splendour of the interior of the Great Hall of Justice in the Law Courts in the Strand, it is difficult to conceive the ...

  • News

    Solicitors to work ‘unpaid’ until committals abolished in April 2012

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    Committals in either way criminal cases will be abolished from April 2012, the justice secretary announced today. Kenneth Clarke said the change will be effected by bringing into force schedule 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 on a phased basis. The regions where it will ...

  • News

    Top 100 growing fast, Deloitte survey shows

    2011-12-08T00:00:00Z

    The legal sector has been given a welcome boost after new figures showed a sharp rise in income among leading firms. The top 100 have reported an average revenue increase of nearly 10% for the second quarter ended 31 October. A survey by Deloitte showed that ...

  • News

    Retreating partners

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    As many of us know from experience, partners in solicitors’ practices often cannot agree on even writing the most basic strategic plan; yet at this time of extreme change it is more important than ever that law firms have a clear vision as to what the future holds for them. ...

  • News

    Barristers plan escrow scheme for holding client money

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    The bar is looking into a scheme to allow barristers to hold client money through proxies, the incoming head of the bar said in his inaugural speech last night.

  • News

    Charities reveal qualms about seeking legal advice

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    Charities understand little about the law but many are put off talking to a solicitor because of worries about cost, according to a major new study. The Legal Services Consumer Panel asked more than 800 small charities about their legal needs and experiences. Responses showed ...

  • News

    I didn’t forget defence solicitors, says lord chief justice

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    The lord chief justice has thanked defence solicitors for the ‘huge contribution’ made in the summer riot court cases, stressing that they had been included in his earlier praise of the rest of the legal profession. At his annual press conference at the Royal Courts of ...

  • News

    ADR and ODR: the EU acts

    2011-12-05T00:00:00Z

    European policy initiatives are like London buses. After a long wait, a whole bunch arrives together. But their timing is not so mysterious as with buses. No, Eurocrats are clearing their desks before Christmas, having laboured through the autumn to perfect their product. Now the lobbyists have to sacrifice their ...

  • News

    CPS drops fraud charges in referral-fee case

    2011-12-05T00:00:00Z

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped charges against 11 solicitors and doctors after an investigation into an alleged insurance fraud. The group had faced charges including conspiracy to defraud and false accounting in relation to the payment of after-the-event legal expenses premiums as well ...