Last 3 months headlines – Page 1643

  • News

    Law Society President on solicitors in the judiciary

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    ‘Yes, I could have been a judge but I never had the Latin, never had the Latin for the judging. I just never had sufficient of it to get through the rigorous judging exams.’

  • News

    LDP disadvantage

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The article regarding the introduction of legal disciplinary practices concluded that because only 14 LDPs were up and running on the day the new regime came into force, the profession has ‘snubbed’ the whole idea.

  • News

    Mistaken identity

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    It does not follow, as argued in your Opinion column last week, that ‘solicitors are going to be early adopters of the ID infrastructure, whether they like it or not’.

  • News

    Unnecessary veto

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Joshua Rozenberg asks if the attorney general should have a power of veto over arrests for war crimes (see [2009] Gazette, 9 April, 7). Such a veto over judicial arrest warrants is unnecessary, given that there is no evidence that this power has been misused by the judiciary.

  • News

    Associate prosecutor fears

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    It is a long time since I practised criminal law, but I have been a civil courts judge for 16 years so I know the value of good advocacy anywhere. I would like to comment on the letter ‘For the defence’ from the chief crown prosecutor Barry Hughes...

  • News

    Worm turns on insurance fraud

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The first private contempt of court case against a lying third-party personal injury claimant marks a tipping point for the insurance industry.

  • News

    Personal injury fraudster found guilty of contempt

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    In a landmark move against fraudulent personal injury claims, the High Court has found a claimant in contempt of court for exaggerating her injuries. She must now pay her own £125,000 legal bill, a £2,500 fine for contempt and half the defendant’s legal costs.

  • News

    KBF executives set up new legal lending firm

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Executives behind the Iceland-funded legal lender that ­collapsed amid last autumn’s banking crisis have launched a new venture, offering a similar service based on what they say is a more robust funding model. Key Business Finance (KBF), which supplied nearly 15% of law firms in ...

  • News

    John Wotton wins Law Society deputy vice-presidential election

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    John Wotton of magic circle firm Allen & Overy is set to become president of the Law Society in 2011 after this week winning the election for deputy vice-president. Wotton, 54, was a partner at Allen & Overy for 23 years and is now a consultant ...

  • News

    Plan for chief legal officer splits local government solicitors

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    A proposal that every local authority be required to appoint a qualified chief legal officer has attracted split responses from 70 different organisations. The Law Society and Solicitors in Local Government have proposed a change in the law to create the new role, replacing that ...

  • News

    Law Society to shoulder 90% of the cost of Legal Services Board

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society will have to bear more than 90% of the initial set-up and running costs of the Legal Services Board and Office for Legal Complaints under plans published last week. Proposals for a levy to raise £15.1m for the new bodies appear ...

  • News

    Family practitioners condemn the government’s flat-fee proposals

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Practitioner groups have condemned as ‘disastrous’ and ‘ill-considered’ proposals to change the way family lawyers are paid, claiming they will leave vulnerable families and children without adequate representation. The Family Justice Council said plans to introduce a fixed-fee advocacy scheme for family legal aid cases from ...

  • News

    MoJ and Insurance Fraud Bureau to share data on fraud

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Data on criminal syndicates and solicitors involved in personal injury compensation scams will be shared between the Ministry of Justice and the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) under a new agreement, the Gazette has learned. The agreement will allow the MoJ and IFB, the insurance industry-funded fraud ...

  • News

    Top city firms tight-lipped on future of graduate training schemes

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Two top City firms have remained tight-lipped over the future of their specialist graduate training schemes after asking prospective trainees to start work a year later than planned. Magic circle firms Clifford Chance and Linklaters, which have asked prospective trainees to volunteer to defer for a ...

  • News

    Olswang to make patent attorney partner in LDP move

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    City firm Olswang has become one of the first big corporate firms to take advantage of new business structure changes enabled by the Legal Services Act. The firm has applied to have one of its patent attorneys made a partner in the firm following the promotion ...

  • News

    Environment initiatives, business enterprises and broadcast news

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Green deal: National firm Addleshaw Goddard advised a number of banks, led by Bank of Ireland, on financing a construction project by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. The 25-year private finance initiative, worth an estimated £4bn, aims to boost recycling and reduce ...

  • News

    How come it’s taken so long for a LinkedIn for lawyers?

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Really interesting little spat going on over at Nick Holmes’s Binary Law blog about whether Martindale Hubbell’s 'Connected' social networking site for lawyers is any good/worth getting into/old before it’s even born, it seems.

  • News

    KBF executives set up new legal lending firm

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    Executives behind the Iceland-funded legal lender that ­collapsed amid last autumn’s banking crisis have launched a new venture, offering a similar service based on what they say is a more robust funding model. Key Business Finance (KBF), which supplied nearly 15% of law firms in ...

  • News

    Interception and surveillance powers to be reined in by Home Office

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The home secretary has announced plans to stop local authorities employing covert surveillance techniques for trivial purposes. Jacqui Smith launched a 12-week public consultation to review the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). It will look at ...

  • News

    Class war still to be fought in the legal profession

    2009-04-17T00:00:00Z

    The law and other professions remain closed shops to many from socially disadvantaged backgrounds (see my story this week on the Cabinet Office report in which this was revealed).