Last 3 months headlines – Page 1362
-
News
LSC improves its performance - but still overpays £51m
The National Audit Office has qualified the Legal Services Commission’s accounts for the third year running, due to overpayments made to providers. The commission’s annual report, published today, reveals that in 2010/11 the LSC overpaid legal aid providers an estimated £51 million; £29.5m due to solicitors’ ...
-
News
Victim of crime - part 1
My partner has been praised by the police for helping put a criminal behind bars. She had a go, like the good citizen that she is, and the mean streets of Royal Tunbridge Wells are now just that little bit safer. ...
-
News
Open all hours
Anyone who’s taken time out to read my recent Gazette features will know that I’ve received many pieces of legal services and legal market surveys and research down the years. Sometimes they impress, and sometimes they don’t - and unlike restaurant critics who haven’t worked ...
-
News
SRA consults on client financial protection
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to consult on implementing planned reforms of client financial protection. The changes, announced in April 2011, include: closing the assigned risks pool from October 2013; a 90-day extended policy period from October 2012, for firms which have not taken new ...
-
News
Chambers Guide launched
Lawyer rankings have risen by 8% to almost 9,800 in the 2012 edition of Chambers UK. The client’s guide to the legal profession, which researches factors such as quality and profile of work, incorporating client and barrister feedback, was published last night. ...
-
News
European Day of Justice - are you ready to party?
I suspect that you’ve been waiting all year for the anniversary which comes around on 25th October: the European Day of Justice. You are planning to dress up in lawyers’ robes, and dance in the streets.
-
News
Family justice manifesto calls for rethink on cuts
An alliance of groups opposed to the government’s family legal aid cuts has published a Manifesto for Family Justice, urging MPs to reconsider the proposals. The groups are concerned about the impact that provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill removing legal ...
-
News
Human rights, words and lawyers
Last Saturday I attended part of the ‘Fairness, Justice and Human Rights’ conference, which was organised by the University of Essex Human Rights Centre, the Law Society and others. I was struck by a phrase used in passing by one speaker, who referred to the United ...
-
News
Service by email outside the jurisdiction
Can a defendant domiciled out of the jurisdiction be served by email with a claim form issued in England? That was the question before the High Court in the case of Louise Bacon v Automatic Inc and others [2011] EWHC 1072 (QB).
-
News
Private equity buys into QualitySolicitors
QualitySolicitors has agreed a funding deal which marks the first major investment by private equity in the high street legal market, the Gazette can reveal. Pan-European private equity house Palamon Capital Partners has invested a ‘significant’ sum in QS. The agreement will see it gain a ...
-
News
Solicitors From Hell slander action is thrown out
The High Court has thrown out a defamation claim by the founder of the Solicitors from Hell website against Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson. Rick Kordowski began legal proceedings after a blog from Professor John Flood had alleged that Hudson claimed Kordowski was a ‘criminal’. ...
-
News
RTA portal fee fracas
As the Gazette revealed last month, the government’s plans to ban referral fees in personal injury cases have led insurers to start pushing for a cut in the fixed fees payable to claimant lawyers under the RTA portal scheme. The Ministry of Justice itself acknowledged that the fees would need ...
-
News
New revolt on advocacy accreditation
Solicitor advocates have condemned plans to roll out the ‘bar-centric’ and potentially ‘unlawful’ Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) next April. More than 200 attended a meeting in London this week to voice their opposition to the ‘deeply flawed’ scheme, which some claim is ‘designed ...
-
News
Relationship management to be limited to big firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has given more details of its implementation strategy for outcomes-focused regulation. Its Relationship Management approach to risk-based supervision is to be rolled out to larger firms, after a pilot found that small firms did not require interaction with the regulator on ...
-
News
Human rights
Insolvency - Voluntary arrangement - Approval by creditors Kapoor v National Westminster Bank and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Pill, Etherton, Sir Mark Potter): 5 October 2011 ...
-
News
Mental health
Court of Protection - Practice LG v DK: Court of Protection (Sir Nicholas Wall): 5 October 2011 The Court of Protection held that section 21(4) of the Family Law Reform ...
-
News
Contempt of court
Civil Contempt - Committal - Claimant being responsible for motor accident involving defendants' car Lane v Shah: Queen's Bench Division, Divisional Court (Lords Justice Laws and Simon (judgment delivered extempore)): 5 October 2011 ...