Latest news – Page 609
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News
Video in courts ‘not being used’
Time is running out for the practice of leaving video suites in courts, the official in charge of computerising the justice system said last week. Paul Shipley, IT director at HM Courts & Tribunals Service, said the Ministry of Justice is demanding that ‘cashable savings’ ...
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Scots protest over legal aid cuts
Lawyers in Scotland demonstrated outside the Holyrood parliament this week, threatening to strike in protest over changes to the country’s legal aid system. The Civil Justice Council and Criminal Legal Assistance bill, currently before the parliament, proposes that defendants with a disposable income of £68 or ...
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Hooper: call police over ‘corrupt’ referral fees
A former Court of Appeal judge earlier this week called for lawyers who pay or receive ‘corrupt’ referral fees to be reported to the police. Lord Justice Hooper told the bar conference that the growth of referral fees, which ‘corruptly’ influence the choice of trial advocate, is the most pernicious ...
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Judges could make ‘ill-informed’ decisions on costs, says Gloster
New costs management rules coming in next April may lead to ‘ill-informed’ decisions on legal costs by judges, a high-profile judge has warned. Mrs Justice Gloster, who was the trial judge in Boris Berezovsky’s failed claim against Roman Abramovich this summer, said that while she had ...
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Jackson ‘will fuel conflicts’
The Jackson reforms will heighten potential conflicts of interest where barristers are dealing directly with the public, experts at the bar conference warned last week. The reforms will alter the rules underpinning conditional fee agreements and introduce damages-based agreements, which will allow lawyers to take a ...
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QASA designed to ‘destroy’
The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) is designed to split the legal profession in order to destroy it, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association alleged. Michael Turner QC said QASA is not being introduced to protect the public from ‘rogue advocates’, but as a necessary precursor to one ...
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Bar builds student appeal despite drop in pupillages
The number of students applying for the bar professional training course (BPTC) soared by almost 17% last year as the number of pupillages continued to drop. The second annual ‘Bar Barometer’ report published jointly by the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board shows that ...
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New call for ABSs complaints data
The Law Society has called on regulators to collect specific complaints data on alternative business structures after failing to persuade the government to create a separate compensation fund for ABSs. The lord chancellor is expected to remove the ‘sunset’ clause in the Legal Services Act to ...
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‘Without merit’ immigration appeals rounded on
Immigration solicitors who lodge last-minute groundless applications to prevent removals will be named and shamed and have their senior partners summoned before the court, the president of the Queen’s Bench Division has warned. Sir John Thomas said the administrative court faced an ‘ever-increasing large volume’ of ...
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BT snaps up legal software giant
Telecoms giant BT has announced its second foray into the legal services world with the £64m acquisition of a specialist supplier of law firm software. BT Retail announced this morning that it has agreed to pay £64.2m in cash for Tikit Group, which supplies financial and practice management systems to ...
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Hundreds of DLA jobs in line of fire
International firm DLA Piper has put 251 jobs at risk across the UK after launching a review of its domestic business. The firm said today it is considering the closure of its Glasgow office, the closure or divestment of its defendant insurance practice and the consolidation ...
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Marsh joins SRA’s first lay majority board
A former Law Society president is among four new members appointed to the first board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority to have a lay majority. Paul Marsh was president in 2008/09 and since then has been central to the creation of the Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme ...
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Norton Rose announces transatlantic merger
International firm Norton Rose has announced a merger deal with a US practice that will cement its place in the top 10 global firms. The firm will combine with Fulbright & Jaworski on 1 June, 2013 to form Norton Rose Fulbright. The ...
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FFW merger deal with Osborne Clarke off
Merger talks between top 40 law firms Osborne Clarke and Field Fisher Waterhouse have collapsed over ‘differences in approach’. The firms confirmed in September that talks had started over a joint venture. But in a statement today, the firms said they had ...
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Legal training system not broken - City
The City of London Law Society has criticised what it calls ‘misconceived’ assumptions underpinning the landmark review of legal education and training. In a response to the Legal Education and Training Review being conducted by the three main regulators, the group representing 15,000 City lawyers says ...
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UK dismisses European common sales law plan
The government has poured cold water on European Commission proposals for an optional common European sales law. In a response to a call for evidence published today, it describes the commission’s plan as ‘an unbalanced proposal which is overly complex, introduces confusion and legal uncertainty ...
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Insurers ‘frustrated’ at small claims limit delays
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has criticised the government for delaying a decision on the future of the small claims process. The Ministry of Justice has yet to produce a response to the consultation, which closed in the summer, on whiplash and the Road Traffic ...
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LSB must go now, says Bar Council chief
The barristers’ profession cranked up its pressure on the Legal Services Board this weekend as the chair of the Bar Council called for the super-regulator to be ‘disbanded'. Michael Todd QC told the bar's annual conference that the LSB was going ‘beyond its brief’, and criticised ...
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Salary ranking shows some good news for lawyers
Lawyers’ average salaries have risen more slowly than the national average since 2006 – but still outflank most other professions, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Analysis by recruitment firm Randstad Financial & Professional found salaries increased by 8.1% since the first full ...
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Osborne’s employment rights trade ‘adds to red tape’
The complexity and costs associated with offering employee ownership in return for the forfeiture of employment rights is likely to deter employers from the scheme proposed last month by chancellor George Osborne, the Law Society warned today. It said that the new 'employee owner' status ...