Last 3 months headlines – Page 1582
-
News
Solicitor laureate?
As if Obiter needed any convincing about the poetic abilities of Solicitors of the Supreme Court, Mike Redpath, a self-employed solicitor in Salisbury has – quite out of the blue – sent us this little topical ditty. ...
-
News
Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, November 1959 Mr Barrington Myers wrote to the Gazette in October 1959 asking how to explain the work of a solicitor to ...
-
News
Lend us a hand
After completion some lenders require the mortgage deed to be deposited with the Land Registry (eg The Mortgage Works), while others require the mortgage deeds themselves (eg NatWest).
-
News
Who is really writing this blog?
All the other bloggers are revealing their true identities, so why shouldn’t I? Here goes: I only pretend to be a journalist working on the Gazette. All that stuff I write about employment law and personal injury and mental health and lawyers in local government. It’s not the real me.
-
News
Fee abomination
The payment of referral fees is an abomination which is destroying our profession. I am so pleased the Law Society’s Council has decided to call for their abolition.
-
News
What a waste
Mr Booth’s concerns and Mr Fenton’s response (letters, 12 November) highlight the real problem with HM Courts Service. It likes to dictate how things should be organised when alternative, local methods of working would be more appropriate.
-
News
Amending the Code by the back door
As your readers will be well aware, practising solicitors are currently bound by a Code of Conduct which runs to more than 200 pages. The code is being regularly amended, often making it very difficult for solicitors to know what regulatory rules they have to obey on any given occasion.
-
News
Europe's notaries need to modernise and abandon their pompous ceremonies
by Gill Mather, a sole practitioner based in Colchester, Essex I heartily agree with Jonathan Goldsmith’s Euro blog ‘Notaries in revolt’ that much of what notaries do is ceremonial, unnecessary and ludicrously expensive.
-
News
Demonstrating little benefit: the assigned risks pool is draining resources
This autumn has seen by far the most difficult professional indemnity insurance renewal for many years. The number of firms in the assigned risks pool (ARP) – the system under which solicitors who have been unable to obtain insurance on the open market are given temporary ...
-
News
Stock Exchange activity, WHSmith expansion and new fire stations
Sovereign wealth: Magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised a number of underwriters on issuing the government of Dubai’s inaugural sukuk, worth around $2bn (£1.2bn) in total this year. It is believed to be the largest sovereign sukuk ever issued. City firm Taylor ...
-
News
Office of Fair Trading probes insolvency lawyers' fees
Fees paid to insolvency lawyers are set to come under scrutiny by the Office of Fair Trading after the competition watchdog launched a probe into corporate insolvency. The City of London Law Society’s insolvency committee was due to convene to discuss the OFT’s market study as ...
-
News
Top City firms look to banks to cover further redundancy payouts
Top City firms are preparing for a possible second wave of job cuts by making sure they have secured adequate lines of credit from banks to cover further redundancy payouts, according to one of the sector’s major lenders. Meanwhile, mid-tier law firms are being squeezed ...
-
News
Whistleblowing proposals could give ‘improper bargaining power’ to claimants
Government proposals on whistleblowing could give ‘improper bargaining power’ to claimants and allow serious allegations to escape investigation, employment lawyers have warned. Under proposals contained in a Department for Business Innovation & Skills consultation, whistleblowing claimants would be able to decide whether the employment tribunal should ...
-
News
Solicitors issue advice warning over child neglect cases
Solicitors representing children in cases of chronic neglect are being obliged to act without the advice of a guardian or social worker, lawyers warned this week. A shortage of guardians at the Children and Family Courts Advisory Service has led to courts directing solicitors to appoint ...
-
News
Jack Straw urges magistrates to keep cases in own court
Justice secretary Jack Straw has called on magistrates to deal with more cases themselves rather than sending them on to the Crown court. Speaking at the Magistrates’ Association conference in Birmingham, Straw noted that the number of cases in the magistrates’ court fell by 9% in ...
-
News
Solicitors blamed for delays in conveyancing process
Homebuyers and sellers have blamed solicitors more than estate agents for delays during the conveyancing process, according to research published by the Office of Fair Trading. The consumer watchdog published four reports undertaken as part of its market study into home buying and selling. One showed ...
-
News
Private equity investors focus on legal sector
Private equity investors are becoming much more interested in doing deals with law firms, a report on the Legal Services Act 2007 launched today has revealed. A study by public relations company Byfield Consultancy, in association with law firm Fox Williams, shows that private investors ...
-
News
ABI to introduce new voluntary code on third-party capture
The Association of British Insurers is to introduce a voluntary code of conduct on third-party capture early next year in an effort to appease critics of the controversial practice, it emerged last week. However, claimant lawyers have dismissed the initiative as a tactic to allow insurers ...
-
News
Silverbeck Rymer faces six-figure repayment to former miners
Liverpool firm Silverbeck Rymer could repay more than £100,000 to former miners after being rebuked by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for its handling of their government compensation claims. Partners James and Charles Rymer were reprimanded by the SRA for deducting £117,000 in total from 189 miners’ ...
-
News
Conservatives pledge to apply brakes to alternative business structures
A Conservative government would seek to slow down the introduction of alternative business structures, shadow justice minister Henry Bellingham revealed last week. Describing ABSs as ‘one more assault on the high-street solicitor’, Bellingham (pictured) predicted that big names would enter the market and cherry-pick the more ...