Last 3 months headlines – Page 1566
-
News
Website for blacklisted solicitors plans expansion
A website that blacklists solicitors and law firms is set to expand its capacity, with the number of visitors to the site now exceeding 1,000 a day, its owner claimed this week. Rick Kordowski, who runs solicitorsfromhell.co.uk, told the Gazette that he plans to expand the ...
-
News
Firms feel the burden of SRA regulation
More than three-quarters of firms think the regulatory burden imposed on them by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority is excessive, research commissioned by the Law Society has shown. However, the study showed a high level of satisfaction with the SRA’s ethics helpline, and an understanding ...
-
News
Is media access to the family courts endangering children?
Ministry of Justice research published this week found that since access by the media to the family courts was widened last April, relatively few journalists had taken the opportunity to attend hearings.
-
News
Unpalatable answer
If referral fees are such a smart idea, why don’t barristers, accountants or chartered tax advisers permit them? The answer is unpalatable. Collectively, they have integrity and intelligence. Solicitors do not.
-
News
Conflicting interests
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is consulting upon relaxing the rules on conflicts of interest for solicitors (see [2010] Gazette, 21 January).
-
News
Unlevel playing field
Lord Justice Jackson is to be applauded for bringing forward proposals which will so clearly reduce the cost of litigation by providing a cap on success fees, non-recoverability of after-the-event insurance premiums, and fixed fees across the fast-track.
-
News
Law firm ‘disarray’ over retirement proposals
Proposed changes to the mandatory retirement age would pose management challenges for law firms and throw succession plans into ‘disarray’, employment lawyers have warned. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published a series of proposals this week to allow people, including solicitors, ...
-
News
Clampdown on mortgage fraud by lawyers saves lenders £15m
A campaign by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to target solicitors involved in property fraud has saved lenders £15-20m over the past nine months, the SRA claimed this week. Its inspectors have made emergency inspections of firms where property fraud was suspected and the SRA has given ...
-
News
Love is in the air
As the worst night of the year for going out for dinner, otherwise known as Valentine’s Day, approaches on 14 February, lawyers might be interested to hear this little tale:
-
News
Septuagenarian associates – coming to an office near you
Imagine you have won £6.5m. Even if you just tuck it under your mattress, that’s a cool £100,000 a year tax free for the next 65 years. You have an exquisite choice. You can kiss goodbye to the commute, the dark winter mornings...
-
News
Law firms set up terror victim compensation scheme
The pro bono work of lawyers at two City firms has played a key role in the establishment of a new scheme to compensate British victims of terrorism abroad. Over the last three years, Lovells and Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW) have been working on a scheme, ...
-
News
Should we fear a European contract law?
The phrase ‘European contract law’ often sets alarm bells ringing in common law circles. Those bells will have begun shrieking in the relevant brains after the hearing before the parliament of the new EU commissioner for justice, Viviane Reding.
-
News
Don’t stereotype your support staff
Tube journeys in London are a wonderfully varied experience. One minute you are chatting to a friendly tourist about where Harrods is, the next you are wondering if the enormous person who has parked themselves next to you has bought two tickets, to cater for the fact that they are ...
-
News
Estate agents not influenced by referral fees, survey reports
Referral payments made by solicitors are ‘the least important consideration’ for estate agents when deciding which law firm to recommend, research has suggested. In a survey of more than 100 estate agents carried out by conveyancer and home information pack provider The Partnership, only 3% ...
-
News
Will clients accept new conflicts rules?
The SRA’s latest, fast-tracked consultation on conflicts of interest is expected to receive a warm welcome in the City.Indeed, it is the City of London Law Society that has been pressing for the reform, which will allow law firms to act for ‘sophisticated’ clients in any situation in which there ...
-
News
Government unveils strategy to tackle overseas bribery
The government has today announced a four-pronged strategy to tackle overseas bribery. The strategy aims to strengthen the UK’s bribery laws through the new bribery bill; encourage UK companies to apply appropriate ethical standards; support law enforcement agencies in the detection of corruption; and reduce the ...
-
News
Charities may be in for a difficult year, but there remains cause for hope
Charities may still be facing the worst effects of the recession after suffering mixed fortunes during 2009, say practitioners looking ahead to the coming year.
-
News
Media law: protecting informants
Financial Times Limited and others v United Kingdom (application number 821/03), 15 December 2009.From time to time, an anonymous brown paper envelope finds its way mysteriously onto a reporter’s desk. That envelope contains leaked confidential documents telling a hell of a good story. ...
-
News
Negligence
Breach of duty of care – Negligent misrepresentation – Solicitors Cabvision Ltd v (1) Leonard Paul Feetum (2) Stephen Richard Marsden (3) Simon Alan Smith (4) Dean & Dean: ChD (Mr Justice Norris): 21 December 2009 ...
-
News
Mediation success
The story ‘Family mediation pilot achieves mixed results’ (news, 7 January) suggested that court-based mediation in the pilot scheme had disappointing results.