Last 3 months headlines – Page 1640
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‘Radical reform’ planned for assigned risks pool
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is soon to launch a consultation on ‘radical reform’ of the assigned risks pool, the Gazette can reveal. It is understood that proposals for consultation could include changes to the conditions for entry or even the demise of the pool. ...
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CPS consults on changes to prosecution code
The Crown Prosecution Service today launched a 12-week consultation on changes to the code for Crown prosecutors. The code sets out the principles that prosecutors must follow when deciding whether or not to prosecute an individual. The test set out in the code, and applied in ...
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How to get a better deal on your firm's mobile bills
You may have read that T-Mobile is being bought by Orange. As someone with a keen eye on the mobile market, it occurs to me that this little merger will take up to two years to get sorted. I suspect that in that time, with the resulting slightly chaotic administration ...
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Litigation funder lists on AIM
Litigation funder Burford Capital has raised £80m following a share placing on the London Stock Exchange’s alternative investment market (AIM). The placing means that Burford has become the second UK-listed third-party litigation funder, after Juridica Investments listed on AIM in December 2007 and raised £80m. Juridica ...
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Strike out for abuse of process: guidance for making and resisting applications
The courts’ wide powers under CPR 3.4(2) and the factors a court will take into account when considering an application to strike out a statement of case for abuse of process were considered by the Court of Appeal in Walbrook Trustees (Jersey) Ltd & Others v Fattal & Others [2009] ...
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New information commissioner Christopher Graham has much to do
The new information commissioner, Christopher Graham, took up his post in June this year. Mr Graham previously ran the Advertising Standards Authority. One of his main challenges will be to tackle the lengthy backlog of cases that his office (the ICO) has been struggling with.
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Employment
Age discrimination – Retirement age R (on the application of AGE UK) (claimant) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills (defendant) & (1) Equality & Human Rights Commission (2) HM Attorney General (intervenors): QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice ...
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Lost for words
A senior lecturer has called on lawyers to abandon complex expressions that are ‘more complicated than they need to be’ [see [2009] Gazette, 1 October, 1].
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SIF referendum
The solution to the professional indemnity insurance difficulties described by Jonathan Jacobs (see [2009] Letters, 24 September, 9) is to resurrect the Solicitors Indemnity Fund. The SIF regime may have had its faults but it was greatly preferable to what we have now.
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HIP overhaul
With a general election approaching, there is much talk about creating a genuinely sustainable alternative to home information packs (HIPs). Attention seems to be focusing on ‘building on HIPS’ and introducing a mandatory legal pack which, it is claimed, will bring about a faster and more certain homebuying process.
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Sole practitioner survivor
The extinction of the sole practitioner has been prophesied for so many years now that the prophets of doom should by now be feeling a little self-conscious. Your own pages have seen some wonderfully confident predictions of disaster in the recent tough round of PII renewals.
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Software glitch
The new lasting power of attorney forms have been made available by the Office of the Public Guardian. Unfortunately, they have specifically blocked the ability for the practitioner to save the document and thus be able to amend it after minor errors have been found.
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PII – the debate continues
I have a great idea. Lets go back to the Solicitors Indemnity Fund model. I recall a friend and council member at the time telling me that voting to go to the market and leave the SIF was like a turkey voting for Christmas. How right she was. I followed ...
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Desperate argument
Rhonwen Barraclough’s letter (8 October) complained about Lord Justice Jackson’s recent suggestion of increasing the small claims limit if a deal cannot be done on fixing legal costs in fast-track claims. Among the various reasons put forward as to why this was a bad thing, the most desperate was:
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101 ways to leave the law
For any readers out there who have been wanting to quit their job for ages but have been too afraid of the senior partner to hand over the resignation letter, help is finally at hand. According to the title of Alex Steuart Williams’ new book, there are 101 Ways to ...
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High-flyers
When is a joke about disability and cruelty to animals acceptable? Answer: when it’s cracked by John Trundle, chief executive of charity Blind in Business. Trundle was welcoming guests to his An Eye for Talent project, aimed at helping law firms and others meet talented blind and partially sighted young ...
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Rhymes and misdemeanours
The Gazette continues to atone for the sin of describing conveyancing and probate as ‘prosaic’ by featuring your poems on said disciplines. This week probate solicitor Elainne Lawrie, late of collapsed Wirral firm Lees Lloyd Whitley, on ‘dealing with the deceased’: ...
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Knock knock
The annual conference of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) may seem an unlikely setting for joviality given the situation endured by many in the face of continued fee cuts. But, you’ve got to laugh, as they say. And Obiter was pleased to see this was something even the legal ...
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Memory lane
Clarence Darrow, a famous American attorney once spoke for twelve hours and a letter concerning discrimination against female articled clerks. Law Society’s Gazette, October 1959 ...