Latest news – Page 653
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Industrial work
I have just completed a telephone survey with a very nice lady. The SRA apparently regards us as ‘an industry’. Says it all. Graham Quigley, Waugh & Musgrave, Cockermouth, Cumbria
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Radical PI reforms spell ‘disaster’
Lawyers on both sides of the personal injury sector have rounded on the government after the latest announcement in an unprecedented series of radical reforms. Justice secretary Chris Grayling on Tuesday outlined proposals to raise the upper limit of the small-claims track from £1,000 to £5,000 ...
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MoJ must slash £2.5bn from its budget
The Ministry of Justice will have to cut more than £2.5bn – around 28% – from its budget by the end of the current parliament, the department has revealed following last week’s autumn statement. Spending has already been reined in by £580m this financial year ...
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Family judges backing court welfare reports
Family judges follow the recommendation of court welfare reports in nine out of 10 cases, research has revealed. A study commissioned by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) shows that the reports of family court advisers were accepted in just over ...
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Colombian lawyers still under threat
The Caravana international delegation of lawyers was ‘dismayed’ to learn that assassinations of Colombian judges and lawyers have increased since its last visit to the country two years ago, the Gazette can reveal.
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Land Registry shock at digital difficulty
Electronic conveyancing remains on the agenda of the Land Registry despite proving ‘more difficult to realise than anyone had thought’, the chief land registrar said this week. Speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum on conveyancing, Malcolm Dawson outlined the Land Registry’s vision to be ...
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Law firm websites ‘trail other sectors’
City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner and international firm DLA Piper have scored the highest in a survey of legal websites – which the authors say reveals that law firms have much to learn from other sectors. Of 30 law firms surveyed by Last Exit, a digital ...
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Grayling sets out plan for culling judicial reviews
The justice secretary has set out plans to cut the number of ‘weak or ill-founded’ judicial reviews, which he claims are blocking the system and wasting money. A consultation published today suggests: - Reducing the time limits for bringing planning and procurement ...
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60 years and counting
David Duke-Cohan was admitted to the profession in October 1952, the month that Britain tested its first atomic bomb, the newly formed nation of Pakistan played its first cricket Test match and Birds Eye sold its first frozen peas. Duke-Cohan, now 84, is still practising – ...
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Labour takes aim at whiplash reform plan
The government’s whiplash reforms are an attack on access to justice, the legal profession and genuine victims, according to shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter. Slaughter (pictured) accused the government, which unveiled its proposals on Tuesday, of ignoring root causes of problems with personal injury claims, such ...
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Small claims limit raised to £5,000 in Grayling whiplash plan
Justice secretary Chris Grayling will today unveil his long-expected blueprint for bringing down the number of whiplash claims. In a four-month consultation to be launched this morning, Grayling (pictured) will outline proposals for independent medical panels to diagnose whiplash injuries and raise the small-claims track threshold ...
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Ombudsman warns of dangers from ‘conveyancing factories’
‘Conveyancing factories’ pose a potential risk for housebuyers, the chief ombudsman warns today, saying he is braced for more complaints about services. A report, ‘Losing the Plot – residential conveyancing complaints and their causes’, says that despite the fall in house sales, residential conveyancing accounted for ...
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PC renewals – one-third of the roll still to apply
Almost a third of the expected applications for practising certificate renewal have yet to be started with just four working days until the deadline. Despite repeated pleas from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for early applications, 31% of last year’s PC holders had yet to even start ...
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Unmeritorious appeals ‘clogging the arteries’ of CoA
Increasing numbers of ‘unmeritorious’ appeals could have the effect of ‘clogging the arteries’ of the court of appeal, the registrar of criminal appeals has warned. In the court’s annual review published today, Master Egan QC says that with pressure on funding and as the number of ...
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Unified patent regime clears parliamentary hurdle
London is to hear all European patent cases concerning medical biotechnology, hygiene and chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, following today’s vote in the European parliament in favour of setting up a new court system for a unitary EU patent. The vote signals the final stage of nearly 40 ...
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Human Rights Day warning to prime minister
The Law Society has warned the government that the ‘increasingly worrying tone’ of domestic debate about the Human Rights Act has placed the UK’s reputation for international human rights leadership at risk. In a letter to prime minister David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, ...
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Smallest firms ‘hardest hit’ by fee rises
The smallest law firms have been hardest hit by this year’s increase in the cost of practising certificates, a finance provider has claimed. Professions finance provider Syscap said sole-trader firms had seen the cost of renewing PCs rise by as much as 40% this year. ...
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Diversity boost for lowest rung of judiciary
A quarter of the lawyers recommended as deputy district judges (magistrates’ courts) in the most recent round of appointments were black, Asian and minority ethnic (BME), statistics released by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) this week reveal. The Commission received almost 1,500 applications for the 28 ...
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Civilise the internet, Leveson demands
The internet is not out of reach of the law, but new laws are likely to be required to ‘civilise the internet’, the judge charged with investigating the press has suggested. Speaking at the Communications Law Centre in Australia, Lord Justice Leveson said the internet posed ...
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Call time on court shortcomings
I am writing to ask if your other readers feel the same about the centralisation of the money claims court process.