Last 3 months headlines – Page 1588

  • News

    Law firm partners ‘overpaid’, says Mayson

    2009-11-02T00:00:00Z

    Law firm partners are paying themselves too much and their businesses will struggle to attract external investment because they are not worth as much as the partners believe, a leading commentator has warned. Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, said partners have ...

  • News

    CPS publishes ethical principles

    2009-11-02T00:00:00Z

    The director of public prosecutions has today published a ‘statement of ethical principles’, setting out what is expected of public prosecutors in England and Wales. Keir Starmer QC said the document, which sets out the ethical principles that underpin and guide the work of public prosecutors, ...

  • News

    Red tape cut for forced marriage orders

    2009-11-02T00:00:00Z

    Local authorities can issue orders to protect vulnerable adults and children from being forced into marriage without seeking the leave of the court, under new powers introduced yesterday. Forced Marriage Protection Orders can include orders to compel a person to hand over passports to prevent someone ...

  • News

    LSC launches tender for Community Legal Advice Centre in Barking & Dagenham

    2009-10-30T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Commission has announced the launch of a tender for the new £2.1m Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) in Barking & Dagenham. The new service to provide a one-stop-shop for legal advice and representation will be jointly funded by the LSC and Barking & ...

  • News

    Law firm standards should inform their commercial behaviour

    2009-10-30T00:00:00Z

    Regular readers will know that I am an advocate of law firms getting their acts together as businesses, but this is not to say that solicitors should in any way give up the particularly high service standards set for the protection of clients’ best interests.

  • News

    Does the UK spend too much on legal aid?

    2009-10-30T00:00:00Z

    England and Wales has ‘one of the highest per capita spends in the world’ on legal aid, the Ministry of Justice said this week. Well there’s no surprise there; that little snippet is regularly trotted out by the government when it is responding to Gazette reports on legal aid cuts.

  • News

    QLTS will ensure all UK solicitors will meet the highest standards

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    For several years the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been working on a new scheme to help ensure that the public can be confident that all solicitors, regardless of how they qualified, are competent to practise in England and Wales. The importance of this is indicated by the fact that about ...

  • News

    Data page for October 2009

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    The data page is the financial rates and data complied for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the data page for October 2009 belowdata page 20 October 2009 (163kb)

  • News

    How law firms can use social networking to stay ahead of the pack

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Over the past two years or so, the way solicitors network, interact and go about business development has undergone a profound, but almost unnoticed, change.Back in 2007, I wrote a feature for the Gazette on how social networking would change the way solicitors did business with each other and with ...

  • News

    Probate: privileged wills and not-so-helpful help

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Just how unusual it is to have a modern case on privileged wills is, perhaps, indicated by the comment of judge Peter Langan at the start of his judgment in Re Estate of Ashley Edward Servoz-Gavin, deceased 14 September 2009: ‘The case has involved a forensic journey on a path ...

  • News

    Personal injury

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Armed forces – Compensation – Medical treatment Secretary of State for Defence v (1) Anthony John Ross Duncan (2) Matthew Richard McWilliams: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Keene, Carnwath, Elias): 12 October 2009 ...

  • News

    Employment

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Employers’ duties – Honest belief – Strict liability – Transfer of undertakings Royal Mail Group Ltd v Communication Workers Union: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Waller, Hughes, Rimer): 14 October 2009 ...

  • News

    Lending credibility

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    I write on behalf of the Council of Mortgage Lenders in response to Alan Tunkel’s letter (see [2009] Gazette, 1 October, 9). Mr Tunkel states that ‘over the last decade or so the CML has imposed on solicitors who sign certificates of title ever-increasing obligations’.

  • News

    Immigration and turning up to court

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    While thumbing through previous copies of the Gazette I found an article from 4 June 2009 which stated that a defendant had escaped confiscation proceedings because she was unable to find an advocate who was willing to represent her under the legal aid rate. This article emphasised the importance of ...

  • News

    LPA error

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has confirmed that on 1 October their website contained an error in the Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), where there was an incorrect additional part C (for the attorney to sign) included in the downloaded document.

  • News

    Access is the number one priority

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    The Gazette reported that the Legal Services Commission was capping the number of firms’ new matter starts (see [2009] href="http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/moj-review-separate-budgets-criminal-and-civil-legal-aid" target="_blank"Gazette, 15 October, >]. The LSC wants to make it clear to all legal aid providers that there is no new rule which says ‘no additional new matter starts’.

  • News

    A touch of Frostrup

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    A sprinkle of stardust descended on last Thursday’s boisterous and extremely well-attended (recession, what recession?) Law Society Excellence Awards at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. No, not in the person of the BBC broadcaster Mishal Husain, who conducted proceedings with consummate aplomb. An even brighter star was present, the ...

  • News

    Gag ladies

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    David Mosey is not the only solicitor to be involved in a shameless publicity stunt this week (see Mott on the landscape). Jeanette Miller, co-founder of Manchester firm Geoffrey Miller, gave staff a surprise earlier this month when she asked them to put on gags and go out into the ...

  • News

    Mott on the landscape

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Can anyone spot the lawyer amid these aging rockers? Yes, construction lawyer David Mosey of Trowers & Hamlins is third on the right, pictured with Mott the Hoople members (left to right) Ian Hunter, ‘Overend’ Watts and Verden Allen. Mosey met the not-quite-so-young dudes during their reunion tour, and like ...

  • News

    Art of law

    2009-10-29T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society art group has thrown down an interesting challenge to solicitors. The group has been going since 1958 (see Memory Lane) and next January, to celebrate its 50th anniversary (okay, perhaps they are better at painting than maths) the group’s annual exhibition will take the theme of ‘legal ...