Last 3 months headlines – Page 1747
-
News
Leeds: legal powerhouse
Leeds’ legal market is so strong, some even believe it has become overcrowded. What makes the city so attractive to law firms?
-
News
Making light of hard work
The relationship between trainees and law firms is heavily biased in favour of the latter
-
News
Anonymity balance
In his comment, Ian Kelcey, chairman of the CLSA, argues that witness anonymity could seriously damage a defendant’s right to a fair trial, and acknowledges that ‘there may be some cases where it is desirable to achieve a conviction [sic], but at what cost?’ (see [2008] Gazette, 17 July, 8). ...
-
News
Searching for answers
We do not accept private searches on behalf of clients or their lenders and would insist on carrying out a proper local authority search, because the conditions of such searches contain a proviso that the information has been obtained by a personal inspection of public records and other legitimate sources ...
-
News
A model campaign
Your last edition rightly concentrated on the government’s proposals to (mostly not) change the system for claims for personal injury, housing etcetera (see [2008] Gazette, 24 July, 1). You framed much of your coverage in terms of the winners and losers – the government, the unions, insurers – essentially asking ...
-
News
Who should safeguard equality?
Whose job is it to make sure that the legal profession is not institutionally racist or sexist? It is an awkward question, but one that needs to be addressed urgently. There are, undeniably, serious issues to be tackled, not least because the majority of new entrants ...
-
News
Protecting a valuable species
The Court of Protection must address the ‘catastrophic impact’ of the Mental Capacity Act on visitors. Court of Protection (CoP) appointed deputies, managing the affairs of those who lack mental capacity, and receivers (pre-Mental Capacity Act 2005), benefited substantially over the years from the wisdom and ...
-
News
Barking eyes new legal markets
Local government will take a further step towards entering the open legal services market this week when the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham announces the reorganisation of its legal team along private sector lines. The council has lured three senior ‘partners’ from neighbouring authorities: ...
-
News
Automatic higher rights plan 'threat to standards'
Proposals to give solicitors automatic rights of audience in all courts undermine consumer interest and will enable barristers to market themselves as superior advocates, the chairman of the Bar Council has told the Gazette. Tim Dutton QC said the proposals to end the current requirement for ...
-
News
Indian niche firms pique UK/US interest
Indian lawyers are leaving traditional family firms in increasing numbers to set up niche corporate operations – which are then being courted by UK and US firms, new research has shown. UK and US firms are keen to form ties ahead of the Indian legal market ...
-
News
Planning Bill under fire
Two key parts of the government’s planning reforms have come under attack from environmental law experts this week. Members of the UK Environmental Law Association’s (UKELA) planning and sustainable development working party described some provisions of the Planning Bill – which has been delayed in ...
-
News
'Quotas undermine diversity'
Intense competition between firms eager to demonstrate their diversity credentials and the use of quotas to measure recruitment of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff only serve to undermine equality, Stuart Popham, senior partner at magic circle firm Clifford Chance, has warned. Popham claimed the trend ...
-
News
RICS drops Quinn from PII list
Quinn Insurance, which provides lawyers with professional indemnity insurance (PII), has been removed from the preferred PII list of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Gazette has learned. RICS, whose preferred insurer list mirrors the lawyers’ preferred insurer pool, removed Quinn after it withdrew ...
-
News
'Shoddy' phone advice for bail defendants
The telephone advice service for people detained by police on less serious offences is giving a ‘shoddy service’ to some defendants arrested in breach of bail terms, a leading criminal lawyer has claimed. Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said practitioners were beginning ...
-
News
Changes in dentistry prompt hike in negligence claims
The decline in NHS dentistry and an increase in cosmetic dental treatment have led to an surge in negligence claims referred to solicitors, practitioners have told the Gazette. Simon Elliman, head of clinical negligence at regional firm Withy King, said the department has seen more enquiries ...
-
News
Starmer sets out CPS brief
Ensuring the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has the public’s full confidence will be top of the newly appointed Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) to-do list, Keir Starmer QC has told the Gazette.
-
News
Alcohol test for care cases
A new rapid call-out service to test for evidence of alcohol abuse by parents might be used to speed up the launch of child care proceedings, its manufacturers claim. Trimega Laboratories says hair samples will be taken within 90 minutes of an initial request. Test results, ...
-
News
Lawyer hits out at Red Cross confidentiality
A leading human rights lawyer has condemned the Red Cross’s confidentiality policy as ‘colluding in the secrecy’ of regimes that torture and breach the rule of law, and called for its charitable status to be questioned.
-
News
Equality under the law: a fairer future?
It is the lot of every solicitor that there will be a specific dinner party question that folk cannot resist asking. That question will be specific to each area of law and will usually be raised over the After Eights as if for the first time ever.