Last 3 months headlines – Page 1625

  • News

    Show of separation

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Social stigma around marital breakdown isn’t what it used to be. News has just reached Obiter of a new event in the social calendar, the Divorce Show. Launched to a fanfare of softly weeping violins, the show at the NEC is aimed at more than two million people in the ...

  • News

    Dressing down

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Judicial interest in the fashion sense of female lawyers is not a purely British phenomenon. We read in the New York Times that a distinguished panel of US judges has been debating this vital issue. According to the newspaper, Judge Michael P McCuskey, chief judge ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Gazette, 16 June 1999 We are not the enemy, lawyers sayLegal aid solicitors last week called on the ...

  • News

    Navigating mental health law

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    A barrister friend sent me a copy of Jonathan Rayner’s moving and disturbing article on his family’s experience of the law and mental health (see [2009] Gazette, 5 March, 14).

  • News

    On the brink

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Commission says that my figures in respect of the number of firms that may fold following implementation of best value tendering (BVT) are ‘inaccurate’ (see [2009] Gazette, 4 June, 2).

  • News

    Providing answers

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    In last week’s Gazette, the LSC’s spokesman said the commission is working with representative groups and planning how best to support providers.

  • News

    Clarity on TUPE

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    In your article titled ‘Law Society calls for halt to BVT rollout’, [Law Society chief executive] Des Hudson expressed concerns about BVT (see [2009] Gazette, 21 May, 3).

  • News

    We cannot ignore the arrival of alternative business structures

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    You may have noticed that lawyers opposed to the prospect of supermarkets, banks and other non-legal firms running legal practices recently protested outside the Royal Courts of Justice (pictured, left). They handed out cans of baked beans labelled ‘Legal services by supermarkets is as ridiculous as lawyers selling beans’. ...

  • News

    Solicitors need to take initiative and plan for the future

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, has not spoken much about the organisation of the legal profession since assuming the role, which made last week’s slightly cryptic call to arms all the more interesting. There was some head scratching at the Institute of Legal Executives luncheon ...

  • News

    New fixed-fee deal could cut payments for low cost accident claims

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors handling the hundreds of thousands of straightforward road traffic accident (RTA) claims brought every year look set for a significant cut in the fees they receive, the Gazette can reveal. Talks to agree a new fixed-fee claims process for RTA claims worth less than £10,000 ...

  • News

    Defence fee caps will be final blow for legal aid, practitioners say

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Government proposals to cap payments made to acquitted defendants who have paid privately for their defence are the ‘final nail in the coffin’ of criminal legal aid firms, a leading practitioner group has warned. The Ministry of Justice announced this week it is to press ...

  • News

    Chancery Lane defers decision on compensation fund levy

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society’s Council yesterday deferred a final decision on the level of this year’s compensation fund levy until its next monthly meeting in July.Society president Paul Marsh said this was to accommodate further discussion with the SRA on the matter. Papers for yesterday’s meeting include ...

  • News

    Switzerland moves to protect in-house privilege

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Switzerland could become the most attractive location for corporate general counsel in Europe if the country’s parliament accepts a government proposal to grant professional privilege to in-house lawyers. The Swiss Federal Council has published draft legislation that would grant in-house lawyers ‘professional secrecy’ concerning the ‘products ...

  • News

    Cut-price HIPS boost interest

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors could oust estate agents as the first port of call for home sellers if a trend started in Merseyside catches on nationally, a conveyancer claims. Liverpool firm MSB says that after launching a cost-price home information pack (HIP) it has had a 500% surge ...

  • News

    Law Society research shows women’s share of the profession growing

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The number of women admitted to the profession grew five times faster than the rate for men in the 10 years to July 2008, new Law Society research reveals. The latest Trends in the Solicitors’ Profession study, carried out by Chancery Lane’s research unit, paints ...

  • News

    LCS puts coal-compensation claims on hold

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Complaints Service has gone against the advice of its watchdog by refusing to re-open around 160 complaints against Yorkshire law firm Raleys concerning compensation payments to miners. The LCS, which suspended investigations in March, said it will not reopen the cases until the ...

  • News

    Global Managing Partners Summit - exclusive report

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    When times are tough, it’s good to talk – no matter how big or how tough you think you are. But the annual Global Managing Partners Summit in London, chaired by Law Society vice-president Robert Heslett and Gazette editor Paul Rogerson, kicked off with an observation that this year’s financial ...

  • News

    All-party group boosts legal aid

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Michael Mansfield QC (pictured standing) criticised the government’s ‘short-sighted and completely erroneous’ approach to the provision of legal aid services at last week’s launch of an all-party parliamentary group on legal aid. The group, chaired by Labour MP Karen Buck, aims to promote parliamentary and public understanding of the role ...

  • News

    Lord chief justice calls for profession to work together

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    The lord chief justice has called on lawyers to take the initiative in shaping their future and not wait for events to shape it for them. Lord Judge said he would be ‘delighted’ if barristers, solicitors and legal executives ‘would together and separately address the ...

  • News

    SRA immigration ‘loophole’ exposed

    2009-06-11T00:00:00Z

    Loopholes that allowed a solicitor to practise for two years in England despite being an illegal immigrant are still in place, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed. Jitendra Kumar Sharma, 44, of Southall, London, was last week jailed for seven years for a multi-million-pound visa scam.