Last 3 months headlines – Page 1641
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Bar thinktank proposes contingent legal aid fund
A contingent legal aid fund (CLAF) could ensure access to justice and help solve the legal aid crisis, according to a report published today by a Bar Council thinktank. The Policy Advisory Group, led by former bar chairman Guy Mansfield QC, proposes a self-funding, not-for-profit scheme ...
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LSB consumer panel members will do it for love, not money
‘The common thread that underpins the Legal Services Board’s work is the consumer,’ the LSB declared in its business plan. With this in mind, it is presently recruiting a chair and members for its consumer panel, which the board says will have ‘considerable scope to advise and influence the LSB ...
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Judge removed following OJC investigation
A district judge has been removed from office in the first judicial sacking since 1983. The Office for Judicial Complaints said yesterday that Margaret Short, who was appointed to the South East District Bench in 1993, has been removed following an investigation into ‘inappropriate behaviour’. A ...
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Impact of budget belt-tightening may not last
I’ll bet some of the law’s City types were at home last night tapping away frantically on a calculator, and I’ll bet that 50% figured in most, if not all, of their equations. Yes, the taxman will be pocketing more of their take home pay – and all in the ...
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Someone remind the MoJ what the Legal Services Act is for
This week’s news that price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com is getting into personal injury leads, or referrals as lawyers might see them, is more interesting than it seems in terms of regulation and the new landscape of what a legal business actually is.
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Solicitor-advocates and quality – the issues
The 1990 Courts and Legal Services Act ended the bar’s monopoly on rights of audience in the higher courts. Since then there have been periodic murmurings of discontent from the bar and judiciary about the quality of solicitor higher court advocates. Many observers have seen this as nothing more than ...
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Fight for your rights to better service
The shrinking number of legal IT vendors and the use of Microsoft by those which remain is a good thing, not a bad thing...
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Thomas to chair tribunals council
Jack Straw, the lord chancellor and secretary of state, has appointed former solicitor Richard Thomas as the new chairman of the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (AJTC). Thomas is currently the information commissioner and deputy chairman of the Consumers Association. He has been appointed for four ...
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SRA transparency
A solicitor complained that six months after the Solicitors Regulation Authority had found two ‘minor infractions’, the firm’s partners were told by phone that they had been reprimanded and had to pay £500 in costs (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 9). The solicitor was unhappy the decision would be published ...
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Supreme effort
You were quite right to devote two pages to the importance of solicitors applying to join the judiciary (see [2009] Gazette, 17 April, 10-11).
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Out of service
I write further to your comment ‘Getting back on track’ regarding fast-track claims (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 8), and in particular road traffic accident cases.
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No bar to progress
Your article, ‘Bar regulator "in stone age" over LDPs’ focuses on the views expressed by a sole practitioner who claims that ‘the Bar Standards Board is "single-handedly frustrating government policy" by its tardiness in changing rules to permit barristers to join legal disciplinary practices’ (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 3). ...
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Irrelevant questions
I am not surprised that nine out of 10 solicitors have not replied to a diversity questionnaire.
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Exceptional case
I was pleased to read Carolyn Regan’s commitment to constructive dialogue in reviewing the operation of fixed fees in mental health and including the role of ‘exceptional payments’ (see [2009] Gazette, 19 March, 11). She also indicates that nearly 90% of such exceptional cases are paid as asked.
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Denied assistance
Roger Smith is right to underline the need for effective representation in police stations at a time when that service is being seriously undermined by the extension of the Defence Solicitor Call Centre and CDS Direct to own-solicitor cases. I claim to be one of the founders of the ...
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(Almost) goodbye to the 'crusading cop'
Regarding Roger Smith’s column on the Cardiff Three case (see [2009] Gazette, 17 April, 6), Lord Taylor’s comments on listening to the taped interviews have for me remained the benchmark whenever I attend a client interview at a police station.
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How Pinochet tainted Hoffmann's brilliant career
So, farewell then Lord Hoffmann. The much misspelled judge retired as a law lord this week to earn some real money as an international arbitrator and mediator. He will practise from Brick Court Chambers – whose joint head, Jonathan Hirst QC, proclaimed that Hoffmann’s ‘reputation as one of the leading ...
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Breaking the deadlock
The Ministry of Justice must wish it had never begun reforming the personal injury (PI) claims process. It agonised for a year before announcing the results of its 2007 consultation and then watered down its new process so much that it barely seems worth all the bother. ...
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No rights without responsibilities?
The government says it wants to take its proposed bill of rights and responsibilities to the country for debate. This administration has a less than exemplary record of listening to people who respond to its public consultations, but for the moment we must take ministers at their word.
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East African joint ventures and new public bodies
Mobile Africa: City firm Lewis Silkin advised Made in Africa, an organisation that encourages economic growth in east Africa, on a joint venture agreement with Monitise, a mobile phone banking technology company. Monitise East Africa will bring together multiple banks, mobile operators and ...