Last 3 months headlines – Page 1527
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Research reveals widening social divide in the profession
More than one in seven lawyers come from private schools, despite just one in 50 of the population receiving private education, new research has suggested. While 93% of the population are state educated, only 85% of lawyers went to non-public schools, according to an analysis of ...
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Increase alcohol tax to fund legal aid, says Law Society
The government should increase tax on alcohol to fund legal aid, in recognition of the extent to which criminal behaviour results from alcohol abuse, the Law Society has suggested. In a report to be published today reflecting the findings of the Society’s Access to Justice Review, ...
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Government unveils overhaul of legal aid and civil litigation costs
Legal aid providers as a whole will see their income slashed by up to £154m annually, it emerged today, as the government unveiled its plans for reform of the system. A wide range of civil cases will no longer be eligible for legal aid, and fees ...
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New solutions should deliver access to justice
by Robert Bourns, senior partner at national law firm TLT Those charged with promoting regulatory change – the government, the Legal Services Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and other regulators - are clear that access to justice is not only a primary regulatory objective but also ...
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LSC extends family contracts
The Legal Services Commission has today extended the present family and combined family/housing legal aid contracts until 30 November next year. The contracts had previously been extended until 14 December 2010. The LSC said the additional extension of almost a year ...
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Chinese human rights and the one that got away
The Chinese authorities have begun deploying a ‘softer type of violence’ against dissidents. That’s the good news told to me by Professor Fu Hauling, head of the University of Hong Kong’s law faculty. ...
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SRA to launch ‘strategic review’ of training
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to undertake an ‘independent, strategic review’ of education and training, in collaboration with the Bar Standards Board and the Institute of Legal Executives. The three regulators will form a joint ‘review group’ to inform the research, which will be a wide ...
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SJ Berwin drops merger plans with US firm
City firm SJ Berwin and US firm Proskauer Rose have decided against a merger, the firms announced today in a statement. ‘At this stage in our discussions, we recognised that the timetable necessary to reach the agreements that would ensure the successful integration of our firms ...
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Solicitors ‘not doing enough’ to market themselves as ABSs approach
Nine out of ten solicitors think they are not doing enough to promote their businesses in the face of forthcoming competition from alternative business structures, research seen exclusively by the Gazette has suggested. A survey of 330 solicitors by law firm referral service Contact Law found ...
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Family law
Ancillary relief – Financial provision orders – Fresh evidence Erik Maurice William Robson v Chloe Annabel Robson: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Ward, Hughes, Patten): 27 October 2010 The appellant ...
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Employment
Automatically unfair dismissal – Disciplinary procedures – Redundancy Douglas Cartwright v King’s College London: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Sedley, Rimer, Patten): 27 October 2010 The appellant former employee (C) ...
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Human rights
Criminal procedure – Admissibility – Police interviews Cadder v HM Advocate: SC (Lords Hope (deputy president), Rodger, Walker, Brown, Mance, Kerr, Sir John Dyson): 26 October 2010
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Pre-nups – now worth the paper they're written on
The long-awaited decision of the Supreme Court in Radmacher (formerly Granatino) v Granatino [2010] UKSC 42 is a significant step in the recognition of pre- and post-nuptial agreements. The starting point is that parties should be held to properly drawn up agreements unless certain circumstances arise.
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Concern over use of 'Henry Vlll' powers to overturn acts of parliament
The coalition’s approach to legislation is neither conservative nor liberal. That much is clear from the new Quangos (Bonfire) Bill, or the Public Bodies Bill as it is more properly called in parliament. It is through this legislation that the government intends to reform nearly 500 ...
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How the south-west legal market is battling recession
The south-west’s economy has recently brightened after the gloom of the recession, recording a rise in the Business Activity Index at the end of the summer from 52.8 to 54.1. This is good news for the large, commercial firms in the region, which confirm that their own numbers have improved ...
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Orwell and good
As Christmas approaches, some of you may have started thinking about what to buy for those awkward friends and relations. If these include members of the judiciary (and they can be awkward), the perfect gift idea could be a copy of George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language. ...
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Born to hang
It was, we recall, a singing Telly Savalas (aka Kojak) who crooned that a ‘picture paints a thousand words’. And how right he was. To that end, we urge you to lay down your pen (or iPad, BlackBerry – whatever) and pick up your paintbrush. For more submissions are requested ...
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Hands across the water
It would only take a small improvement in the value of sterling against the US dollar and we’d be touching down at JFK, headed for courtroom 14B, 500 Pearl Street, Lower Manhattan in the hope of being put straight by judge Jed Rakoff. He is not a man shy of ...
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History lesson
Jeff Skidmore, a partner at Roy Thomas Begley & Co in Swansea, writes in to point out an error in last week’s item by James Morton about Ewen Montagu. The latter was indeed mastermind of 'The Man Who Never Was', but the deception plan was carried out in the Mediterranean ...
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, October 1990 Lightening up on ‘legaldeegook’How many words does it take to tell someone that a house is ready for occupancy? Seventy-eight if you’re ...