Last 3 months headlines – Page 1609
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Diversity distraction
I have just received a questionnaire to complete in connection with the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s equality and diversity study. I am absolutely stunned at its content.
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What Lord Justice Jackson’s report left out
In his interim report Lord Justice Jackson gives a number of suggestions, including such ideas as one-way costs shifting in personal injury claims to avoid the necessity for after-the-event insurance.
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Law Society's new president will focus on 'the rule of law'
It is an immense privilege to be able to write this piece as the new president of the Law Society. I do so not only with an immeasurable sense of pride, but also in the knowledge that the year ahead will be a considerable challenge.
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Conveyancing must move toward technological change... Or else
by Timothy Hill, technology policy adviser for the Law SocietyThe recent warning from the British Retail Consortium that high streets could reach a ‘tipping point’, beyond which they will no longer be viable, highlights an important question.
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Crown Prosecution Service does not benefit from an ‘overall vision’
The Crown Prosecution Service must be a depressing place to be at the moment. Criticisms of the way it functions have been coming fast and furious over the past few weeks.
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Civil legal aid contracts delayed by Legal Services Commission
The Legal Services Commission has delayed tendering for civil legal aid contracts by six months, in a move described as a ‘mixed blessing’ by lawyers. The delay means that family solicitors will have to wait longer for the new rules, which will ensure they are paid ...
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Information commissioner opens up access to property search data
The information commissioner’s decision to allow free viewing of property search data held by local authorities has sparked fears that unregulated ‘cowboy companies’ will flood the search market. In a guidance note, the commissioner said that because most search data held by local authorities was environmental, ...
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Major third-party funding case fails in House of Lords
A major negligence case that first brought third-party funding into the public eye was struck out by the House of Lords last week at a cost of around £2.5m to the litigation funder. IM Litigation Funding admitted that the cost of losing the case, which it ...
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CPS criticised by Justice Committee over victims’ rights
Government proclamations that the Crown Prosecution Service is a champion of victims’ rights are ‘a damaging misrepresentation of reality’, a report said this week. The report by the House of Commons Justice Committee praised the CPS for its collaborative working with police, but raised concerns over ...
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Class actions in employment tribunals called for by government research
Unpublished government research obtained by the Gazette has called for opt-out class actions to be piloted in employment tribunals, so as to deal with the thousands of discrimination and equal pay cases clogging up the system. The report by Lexicon Ltd, whose publication has been delayed ...
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Miners win negligence payouts from solicitors over coal health claims
Injured miners who successfully sued their former solicitors for under-settling coal health compensation claims have won tens of thousands of pounds in settlements, it has emerged. Documents obtained by the Gazette from a law firm that has handled miners’ negligence cases show that a small ...
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Legal Services Board seeks powers to impose huge fines on regulators
The Legal Services Board could punish the Law Society and other regulators with multi-million-pound fines if they fail to meet its regulatory objectives, under proposals published this week. The plans, which would give the LSB powers to fine the Law Society up to £28m for non-compliance, ...
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Fox Hayes £1m FSA fine still unpaid
The Financial Services Authority has yet to recover a penny of the £1m fine it levied against collapsed Leeds firm Fox Hayes for its part in a £15m ‘boiler room’ fraud, the Gazette can reveal. The City regulator fined Fox Hayes in February for failing ...
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The FSA: watching the watchdog
I remember seeing a straggly white-haired academic type vent his spleen on the Financial Services Authority on BBC News a few months ago. The man, an American economist, was energetic in delivering his verdict on how the UK’s City regulator and the Securities and Exchange Commission, its American brother, had ...
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PII bills to stay flat for big firms, but rise sharply for small
Professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums for the top 100 law firms look likely to remain flat for 2009/10 despite a slight increase in claims, insurance broker Marsh said today. Insurance bills for small firms, however, are likely to rise significantly. Marsh, which claims it brokes PII ...
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Mr Justice Gross to head Commercial Court
Mr Justice Gross has been appointed judge in charge of the Commercial Court with effect from 1 October. He will succeed Mr Justice Andrew Smith, whose term of office comes to an end on 30 September. Gross will have overall responsibility for ...
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Co-op launches legal services promotion campaign
The Co-operative has launched a high-profile campaign to promote its legal services to the 17 million weekly shoppers in its food stores. The campaign, which includes in-store radio, till screen displays and door-to-door leafleting, will last nine weeks and aims to promote awareness of the range ...
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Provision gap in the east after East Anglia law centres close
East Anglia is currently without a single legal aid law centre after Cambridge Law Centre and Huntingdon Law Centre, the only two centres in East Anglia, closed down after their parent charity ceased trading. Advice for Life, the charity that ran both law centres, stopped trading ...
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Freedom of expression and the UK Supreme Court
It cost £60m to create. Its annual running costs are expected to be £12.3m. And it replaces something that has been running perfectly well for more than 100 years.
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Commoditisation is for everyone, not just for Susskind
Anyone involved in management at solicitors’ firms should have read or be in the process of reading Richard Susskind’s book, The End of Lawyers?