Last 3 months headlines – Page 1529
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A serious fee?
I wonder whether I am in the majority in disagreeing with the findings of the report on referral fees prepared for the Legal Services Board
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Solicitors must do all they can to avoid being victims of mortgage fraud
by Robert Heslettthe president of the Law Society During my year as president, mortgage fraud has been a recurrent issue. We have consistently provided support to members affected by changes in panel terms and conditions, and have worked to influence the approaches of lenders.
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HIPs: the idea may have been praiseworthy but it was poorly executed
The government’s decision to scrap home information packs was a crowd-pleaser that will have resonated with the public as well as solicitors. Alive to the PR potential of the announcement, ministers staged a rather curious photo opportunity on a pavement outside a London estate agency. ...
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Leading international law experts overlook high-profile failures
Ditchley Park is a sublimely beautiful 18th century mansion in Oxfordshire where the Ditchley Foundation holds impeccably well-run conferences on international affairs. Last weekend, the state of international law was debated by some of the world’s leading experts. I was there too.
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Law Society launches privacy rights initiative
The Law Society has joined forces with surveillance watchdog Privacy International to found a privacy rights centre to provide pro bono legal help to victims of ‘oppressive surveillance’ technologies. The centre will coordinate pro bono privacy advice, advocacy and legal action to uphold individuals’ rights. It ...
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Judicial training drive seeks to foster clarity on citizens’ rights
A Europe-wide judicial training programme to establish a common set of procedural rules and citizens’ rights before the law began this week, as it emerged that there are more than 6,000 violations of judicial procedures currently due to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. ...
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UK lawyers raise questions over EU e-justice system
UK lawyers have questioned moves by the umbrella body for Europe’s lawyers to support a common e-justice system spanning the EU. At its meeting in Malaga last week, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) narrowly won support for its plan to assist ...
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Increasing use of Human Rights Act in court
The number of UK court cases making use of the Human Rights Act 1998 has risen for the first time in seven years, according to research by Sweet & Maxwell. The number of cases using the act grew by 6%, from 327 in the 12 months ...
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MoJ announces new ministerial briefs
The Ministry of Justice has revealed the roles of its new ministerial team headed by justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, with the legal aid brief handed to former City lawyer Jonathan Djanogly. Tom McNally, minister of state and deputy leader of the House of Lords, will have ...
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APIL criticises government for dropping damages bill
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has criticised the new government for dropping a bill to implement damages reform. The draft Civil Law Reform Bill, which included proposed changes to the law of damages, was absent from the Queen’s speech on Tuesday. APIL said that ...
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LSC could face judicial review of 'unfair’ family tender process
The Legal Services Commission could face a judicial review of the process and selection criteria used in the recent tender exercise for its new family contract. A family solicitor who did not want to be identified told the Gazette he has got the support of ‘a ...
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‘Big push’ to clear RTA portal backlog
Some personal injury firms handling road traffic accident (RTA) claims are still waiting to be plugged into a new electronic data exchange nearly a month after it launched, due to a backlog of login requests. Introduced as part of Ministry of Justice reforms to speed up ...
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Bar rules delay blamed for low LDP take-up
The delay in the relaxation of rules preventing barristers from entering law firm partnerships has been blamed for the low take-up of the first wave of new legal business structures. According to the latest Solicitors Regulation Authority figures, 216 legal disciplinary partnerships were up and running ...
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Solicitor fears over further legal aid cuts
Solicitors warned of the consequences of further legal aid cuts this week as the government announced it was to slash £325m from the Ministry of Justice’s 2010/11 budget. Law Society president Robert Heslett said it was essential that the axe should not fall on legal aid ...
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Regional firms risk losing corporate talent to London
A sharp rise in recruitment of corporate solicitors in London could set in motion a talent drain from regional firms, recruiters told the Gazette this week. Recruitment consultants said City firms are rushing to hire corporate lawyers after making excessive cutbacks at the height of the ...
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Solicitors celebrate the demise of HIPs
Solicitors celebrated the end of the home information pack ‘disaster’ last week. The coalition government scrapped HIPs after election manifesto commitments from both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to ditch the packs. Sellers will still need an energy performance certificate. The ...
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OFT chief slams 'excessive demands' of defendant lawyers
The delaying tactics and ‘excessive demands’ of defendant lawyers in competition actions are hampering cases and draining the resources of competition authorities, the chairman of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) alleged last week. Philip Collins told the Law Society competition section’s annual conference that the ...
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Paws for thought
It seems new government ministers are not the only ones to go in for ever-so-slightly cheesy photo opportunities.Obiter received this pic from that wonderfully named Leamington Spa firm Wright Hassall, announcing that it has completed some legal work on behalf of pet food producer client Butcher’s Choice. Clearly the lawyers ...
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Denton Wilde Sapte set for transatlantic merger
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte and US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal are set to merge to create a 1,400-lawyer transatlantic firm. The merged firm would have combined revenues of around £500m and would span 18 countries. The firms’ management boards have ...
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Government to scrap ID cards
Identity cards for British citizens are to be scrapped within 100 days, the Home Office announced today. The National Identity Register, the database containing the biographic and biometric fingerprint data of cardholders, is also to be destroyed.