Last 3 months headlines – Page 1637

  • News

    In the Hunt for fresh ideas

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Lord Hunt’s preliminary report on legal regulation is almost worth reading for its flamboyant and elegant prose alone. How often in documents of this type does one come across coinages such as ‘omphaloskepsis’ (‘navel-gazing’). We suspect a classical education. More seriously, the Gazette urges every solicitor ...

  • News

    Ethics must be entrenched in a solicitor’s training

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    When I opened the Law Society’s Leadership Summit in February, I called for a debate on the future of the profession to spring up across the country. I repeated that call a few days later in the Gazette.

  • News

    Old World countries must try harder on human rights

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Britain should take steps to ban complicity in torture, the most senior elected official at Europe’s largest representative body said in London this week. I don’t suppose the government was too worried. It would be cruel to say that Terry Davis is not a household ...

  • News

    Corridors of uncertainty

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    What makes the movie In The Loop (pictured) so funny is the way it portrays the chaos lurking just behind the veneer of government. Proof of its realism, if any were needed, came in a classic botch-up experienced by the Gazette last week. On Tuesday, we ...

  • News

    Movers and shakers

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Staff from the Manchester office of national firm Simpson Millar are setting out once again to prove that big is beautiful – if it not necessarily fast. They are donning sumo suits to wobble along the tarmac in the 10k Bupa Great Manchester Run on 17 May, to raise £2,000 ...

  • News

    Staging an Inquest

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Death-in-custody group Inquest is hosting Q&A sessions after two performances of the Chickenshed Theatre Company’s As the Mother of a Brown Boy this month. The production, ‘a moving and powerful piece, using dance, physical theatre, live music and multimedia to present an extraordinary story of injustice, identity and love’, was ...

  • News

    Lawyer’s big news

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Nearly four years after Big Brother Series Six was aired, former contestant Vanessa Layton is back… as a lawyer. And she’s not shy about it. Layton survived seven weeks in the reality TV show. Now in her penultimate year of study at law school, the 23-year-old tells us she ...

  • News

    Indemnity costs can add woe to a losing party’s bill

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    The recent High Court case of Noorani v Calver [2009] EWHC 592 (QB) has provided valuable guidance as to the factors a court will take into account when deciding whether to award costs to a party on an indemnity basis.

  • News

    Employment

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Employment status – Limited liability partnerships - Members M Kovats v (1) TFO Management LLP (2) The Family Group of Companies: EAT (Mr Justice Birtles, T Motture, D Welch): 21 April 2009 ...

  • News

    Sentencing

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Imprisonment for public protection – Indecent photographs of children – Risk of re-offending R v Robert Lwellyn Hicks: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Thomas, Mr Justice Blake, Mr Justice Burnett): 21 April 2009 ...

  • News

    Marketing matters: why standing out from the crowd is important

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    With the recession apparently settling in for the long haul and law firms feeling the pinch, it is unsurprising that many are looking hard at what cuts can be made to outgoings to maximise dwindling profit margins and ensure as many jobs as possible are saved. One might be tempted ...

  • News

    When asking ‘why’ all the time is the right thing to do

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    You know how it is; you tell a young child that you’re going to cut the grass, redecorate the bathroom or whatever, and you’re asked, ‘Why?’ Each answer you give is met with another ‘Why?’

  • News

    Which political party gets your vote on human rights?

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    All three major political parties have recently showcased their human rights and civil liberties credentials at the British Institute of Human Rights in London. First up was the Tory Nick Herbert MP, who explained the party’s plans to scrap the Human Rights Act (HRA) and replace it with a Bill ...

  • News

    Solicitors launch national brand with bean protest

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Law firms appeared outside the Royal Courts of Justice today to stage a symbolic demonstration against the prospect of supermarkets and banks running legal services. To mark the launch of a new brand name QualitySolicitors.com, law firm members handed out cans of beans labelled: ‘Legal services by supermarkets is as ...

  • News

    City watchdog ‘not yet ready’ to debate regulation of mortgages

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    City watchdog the Financial Services Authority is not yet ready to even begin the debate on regulation of the mortgage market, let alone offer recommendations, its chairman Adair Turner admitted today. Speaking at the FSA’s mortgage conference, Lord Turner said that the FSA’s detailed analysis of ...

  • News

    Solicitors favour sharp rise in employment tribunal claim limit

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    More than two-thirds of solicitors are in favour of scrapping the present £25,000 cap for breach of contract claims in employment tribunals, research by the Law Society suggests. The web survey found that 61 (70%) of 87 respondents thought the £25,000 cap should not be retained, ...

  • News

    SOCA ‘motoring’ on money laundering prevention

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    A solicitor figured among 67 criminals charged with money laundering following investigations by the Serious Organised Crime Agency last year, according to the agency’s annual report, published today. Stuart Creggy, former magistrate and senior partner at Mayfair law firm Talbot Creggy, pleaded guilty to a charge ...

  • News

    Legal services at the cliff edge

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    The Law Management Section’s conference Rupert White mentioned a few days back was, I believe, a great success. Richard Susskind and Stephen Mayson, along with other contributors, delivered an excellent overview of the current state of and future challenges for the legal profession.

  • News

    Enforcement: Charging and third-party debt orders

    2009-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Section 24(1) of the Limitation Act 1980 (‘the 1980 act’) provides that an action cannot be brought on any judgment after the expiration of six years from the date on which the judgment became enforceable, unless an extension is granted on application by the judgment creditor.

  • News

    Human rights lawyers expose violence against their Colombian counterparts

    2009-05-04T00:00:00Z

    Sara Chandler is director of pro bono services at the College of Law, and is the Law Society Council member for the voluntary sector, and a member of the Law Society’s International Human Rights ...