Last 3 months headlines – Page 1653
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News
Law firm staff win landmark TUPE claim
Firms winning legal service contracts from competitors could face a ‘landslide’ of six-figure claims for unfair dismissal if they do not take on staff on reasonable terms along with the contract, the winner of a landmark employment tribunal case said this week. In the case, Liverpool ...
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Baby P review could end child care court fees
Local authority solicitors have welcomed a government decision that could lead to the ending of court fees for child care proceedings. A review of fees is one of 58 recommendations in Lord Laming’s report into the protection of children commissioned following the 2007 death of London toddler ‘Baby P’. ...
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SRA drops plans for board changes in BME row
The Law Society has dropped a plan to cut short the term of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board as debate continues over ways to tackle the disproportionate number of black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors facing disciplinary hearings. It has also turned down a proposal to co-opt two non-voting ...
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Law Society wins loans pledge from high street banks
The Law Society has voiced fears that increasingly centralised decision-making at Britain’s embattled retail banks could damage the finances of law firms as the recession deepens. Chancery Lane fears that local branch discretion will be reduced and that this will result in banks walking away from more deals and terms. ...
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Lawyers' long march triumphs in Pakistan
Pakistan’s lawyer-led long march demanding the reinstatement of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry withstood baton charges, tear gas attacks and mass arrests, a British solicitor told the Gazette from Lahore. Razi Shah, a partner at Berkshire firm Appleby Shaw and a Law Society council member, said ...
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First ABSs expected by 2011
The first alternative business structures should open for business in 2011, the chief executive of the Legal Services Board predicted last week. Chris Kenny told the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen’s annual conference in Harrogate that the recession would encourage new ventures.
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Tories consider private solution to legal aid shortfall
A future Conservative government may look to the private sector to top up the legal aid budget, the Gazette has learned. Tory policymakers are considering how the UK’s legal aid budget could be financed if they take power at the next general election. Earlier this month, ...
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Release partners for pro bono bench placements, says LCJ
Major law firms should allow junior partners to seek part-time judicial appointments as part of their pro bono activities, the lord chief justice said last week. ‘We must find a way of tapping into the talents of the brightest and best solicitors,’ Lord Judge told ...
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MoJ chiefs face MPs over Crown Court failings
Senior officials at the Ministry of Justice this week denied MPs’ charges of ‘complacency’ and running a ‘dysfunctional organisation’ following an auditors’ report criticising the administration of Crown Courts. At a hearing of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on Monday, chairman Edward Leigh ...
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Court actions soar over bad debts
Top corporate firms are increasingly resorting to court action to secure unpaid legal fees, the Gazette has learned. In the past six months, the number of cases filed in the Queen’s Bench division of the High Court between top-50 firms and clients has more than doubled, ...
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Mission to open the legal services market in Ukraine
City law firms and British government officials will travel to Ukraine next month to try to boost the presence of English firms in Europe’s largest country. The mission, scheduled for the end of April, will include delegates from 10 City firms and officials from UK ...
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Balance sheets, waste technology and Formula 1
On the button: City firm Taylor Wessing advised Ross Brawn, former boss of the Honda GP Formula 1 motorsport team, on buying the Honda team to create Brawn GP F1. The new team has taken on Honda’s drivers from last year, Britain’s Jenson ...
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News
NSPCC – legal aid cuts ‘risk miscarriages of justice’
Children’s charity the NSPCC has warned that government proposals to cut legal aid for vulnerable children and families would ‘risk miscarriages of family justice’. NSPCC lawyer Barbara Esam said: ‘The proposed, repeated cuts in legal support in family law cases comes at the worst possible time, ...
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Get involved, get posting
Now you can have your say on the Gazette website, as Gazette online now includes blogs and the facility for visitors to add their comments to news stories and blog entries. We are making space for more of your letters, as well as a News blog, ...
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New Business Court is too important to wait for
I tip my hat to Frances Gibb at the Times this week for referencing our story revealing that the Business Court, due to replace the various commercial courts in the new Rolls Building, is slipping back into 2011.
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Random justice?
Julian Young is entitled to feel mightily pleased with himself this morning (see this week’s Lawyer In The News).
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News
The French estate of an English client: practical aspects
A case study handling the issue of inheritance between England, Wales and France We are to consider the inheritance of the estate of an Englishman deceased in England and owning property in France. The ...
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Insolvency
Data protection – Serious fraud cases – Transfer of data in the public interest In the matter of Madoff Securities International Ltd: ChD (Mr Justice Lewison): 27 February 2009 ...