Last 3 months headlines – Page 1680

  • News

    Blow for third-party funding

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    A leading Australian litigation funder has pulled out of its European joint venture less than six months after it set up, the Gazette can reveal. In a blow to the nascent third-party funding market, IMF has withdrawn from Claims Funding International (CFI), which it formally launched ...

  • News

    Courting the regions

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Claimants will no longer be forced to come to London to have administrative cases heard, under plans to improve access to justice due to be announced by the Ministry of Justice. The Gazette has learned that four regional centres of the Administrative Court are to open ...

  • News

    Child care cost case fails

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Councils have failed in their attempt to challenge increases in court fees for child care and placement applications. High Court judges last week dismissed a claim brought by four local authorities that the policy of ‘full cost recovery’ in family proceedings was unlawfully introduced. Since ...

  • News

    Legal aid burden

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Job cuts at the Legal Services Commission (LSC) could increase administrative burdens on legal aid solicitors, practitioner groups have warned. The LSC announced last week it is to shed 600 posts, reducing its workforce to 1,100, and close seven of its 13 offices. ‘More efficient processes ...

  • News

    KBF back in business soon?

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Troubled legal lender Key Business Finance (KBF) could be back in business within weeks – but money already paid to KBF would remain in the hands of its administrators. Gazette sources said KBF’s management team is looking to buy ...

  • News

    'Right to reject' goods at risk

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Plans for a new European directive on consumer rights would place UK consumers in a weaker position, the Law Commission has warned. Commissioners said the Consumer Rights Directive could lead to the abolition of the ‘right to reject’ faulty goods for a refund within a reasonable ...

  • News

    New assault on third-party capture

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors are joining forces to attack the practice of insurance companies ‘capturing’ personal injury clients. The move reflects continuing concern that some insurance companies are pressurising claimants into instructing companies’ panel solicitors, rather than their independent solicitor, and to accept reduced compensation.

  • News

    Fee-cap 'outrage'

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Practitioners have condemned as ‘outrageous’ government proposals to cap payments for acquitted defendants’ legal costs that would leave innocent people out of pocket. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) last week published a consultation on reform to the system of reimbursing the legal costs of people acquitted ...

  • News

    Pro bono lesson

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Attorney General Baroness Scotland launched the seventh national pro bono week with a mock trial at the Royal Courts of Justice, led by the National Centre for Citizenship & the Law. BPP Law School students debated knife and gun crime with a jury of young people from the Behaviour Support ...

  • News

    'Fragmentation' fears over regulation review

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    A review of solicitor regulation must not be allowed to fragment the profession, sole practitioners have warned. Hamish McNair, chairman of the Sole Practitioners Group (SPG), said: ‘Sole practitioners and solicitors at magic circle firms may have very different clients, but it is important to ...

  • News

    HMRC warned over barristers

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    HM Revenue & Customs prosecutors have relied too heavily on too small a pool of barristers to fight cases, the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts said this week. According to its report on the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office (RCPO), one set of chambers, ...

  • News

    Mixed half-year results picture

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Big UK firms have endured mixed fortunes so far this year, with the half-year revenue estimates released so far showing large variations in growth. At the top end of growth, City firm Trowers & Hamlins estimated fee income up 16% to £42m for the first half ...

  • News

    Flying tonight

    2008-11-13T00:00:00Z

    Crispy duck ovens are not all they are quacked up to be. Westminster City council, precipitating a crisis that threatened to banish the dish from eateries across Chinatown, had condemned the ovens for failing to meet European carbon monoxide emission standards.

  • News

    Mixed half-year results picture

    2008-11-12T00:00:00Z

    Big UK firms have endured mixed fortunes so far this year, with the half-year revenue estimates released so far showing large variations in growth. At the top end of growth, City firm Trowers & Hamlins estimated fee income up 16% to £42m for the first half ...

  • News

    Local government: a new code of conduct

    2008-11-06T00:00:00Z

    Pity the poor Local Authorities (Model Code of Conduct Order) 2007 – the 18-month-old toddler, currently scampering innocently around local and police authority floors, has been given a proposed sentence of death by the government.

  • News

    Constitutional law

    2008-11-06T00:00:00Z

    Abuse of power – Changos Islands – Colonial legislation – Legitimate expectation – Prerogative powers R (on the application of Louis Olivier Bancoult) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: HL (Lord Hoffmann, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, ...

  • News

    Human rights

    2008-11-06T00:00:00Z

    Immigration – Human rights – Asylum seekers – Children – Removal EM (Lebanon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: HL (Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Carswell, Lord Brown ...

  • News

    Police

    2008-11-06T00:00:00Z

    Human rights – Independent police complaints commission – Police detention – Severe injuries – Scope of statutory duty R (on the application of Graeme Reynolds) (appellant) v Independent Police Complaints Commission (respondent) and Chief Constable of Sussex (interested party): ...

  • News

    Martyn Day: fierce advocate for the people

    2008-11-06T00:00:00Z

    One could never criticise Martyn Day for lacking the willingness to have a go. ‘I’m absolutely determined to find the right case,’ says the senior partner of claimant firm Leigh Day & Co, when asked if he would be prepared to have another crack at suing tobacco companies on behalf ...

  • News

    Beyond price

    2008-11-06T00:00:00Z

    I’m delighted to report that the Law Society’s Excellence Awards were a tremendous success. Old Billingsgate, overlooking the Thames, made for a spectacular venue and Kirsty Wark from BBC2’s Newsnight was a great host. This year saw a record number of entries, and the awards are now widely considered to ...