Latest news – Page 655
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Secrets and lies
One might have thought that the proposal for ‘secret trials’ reported in last week’s Law Society Gazette would have prompted something rather stronger than the article which appeared in the 8 March issue.
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CPS commits to serving paper files
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has pledged to continue serving paper documents to defence solicitors amid concerns about its plan to go digital from April. However, the Law Society said this week that criminal solicitors will continue to face ‘financial and regulatory risks’ in preparing ...
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Civil court group anger over Salford system
A body whose membership spends around £49m a year in the civil courts has questioned why the new centralised facility to handle money claims in civil cases was launched earlier this week without its long-awaited payment by account (PbA) electronic system. The vice chair of the ...
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Sole practitioners 'unthreatened' by ABSs
Alternative business structures are more of an opportunity than a threat to sole practitioners, whose numbers are back to pre-recession levels, leaders in the sector have told the Gazette. Latest figures from the Solicitors Regulation Authority show there were 3,568 sole practitioners in February - ...
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'One-size' Jackson-style reforms wrong, Scots told
Scottish legislators have been warned not to simply ‘bolt on’ reforms from south of the border in their Jackson-style review of civil litigation. A public consultation closed last Friday on an 18-month review of the Scottish civil litigation system being carried out by Sheriff Principal ...
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HSE postpones cost recovery plan
The Health and Safety Executive has postponed the launch of its new cost recovery scheme for at least six months. The organisation planned to launch the Fee for Intervention scheme next month to recover costs from health and safety offenders. The money was to cover the ...
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Closing QS member blames Jackson
A two-partner member of the QualitySolicitors network has blamed its closure on the Jackson reforms and the ‘spectre’ of reduced fees for personal injury claims. QualitySolicitors Carters, which carried out personal injury and clinical negligence work, ceased trading at the end of February. The 10-year-old Peterborough ...
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ECHR withdrawal ‘gift to Putin’
Britain’s withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights in favour of a British bill of rights would be Vladimir Putin’s ‘best present ever’, an East European delegate at a Council of Europe event for lawyers told the Gazette last weekend.
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Firms must cut staff, warns RBS
Law firms may have to cut thousands more solicitors to restore profits to pre-2008 levels, according to Royal Bank of Scotland’s 2012 review of the legal profession. The report says that at least 5% of fee-earners may have to be culled.
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MPs call for review of legal aid cuts
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has added its voice to calls for an independent assessment of the impact of the government’s cuts to legal aid. In a hard-hitting report on Ministry of Justice finances, the committee said the government’s own impact assessment ‘has ...
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Claimant firms warned of wind of change
A leading insurance solicitor has urged claimant firms to follow the lead of defendants and change their business model. Anthony Hughes, chief executive of national firm Horwich Farrelly, told the 2012 Claims Management Conference yesterday that change is inevitable in the personal injury market. ...
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‘Primordial role’ no excuse for gender stereotyping, ECHR rules
Gender stereotyping can breach the rights of men and women alike, irrespective of prevailing social attitudes or perceptions of ‘man’s primordial role’, Europe’s human rights watchdog ruled today. It said that it would not be in the public interest to allow someone’s choice of employment to imply that he or ...
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Lukewarm reaction to Osborne's £20bn loan scheme
The legal sector has given a tepid welcome to the £20bn low-interest loan scheme announced by the chancellor in the runup to this week’s budget. William Arthur, consultant at professional services consultancy Kerma Partners, said: ‘There is no sense of a pent-up and unsatisfied demand ...
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Lawyers condemn budget’s £20m legal funding gesture
Chancellor George Osborne today promised £20m a year in new funding for the not-for-profit advice sector over the next two years. The sum was immediately and widely condemned as being not enough to replace shortfalls left by spending cuts. The announcement, in today’s budget, makes available ...
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No referral exemption for charities, Lords rule
The House of Lords has blocked attempts to exempt charities and trade unions from the referral fee ban. The house was debating proposed amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill.
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Women’s criminal justice policy proposal fails
A proposal to establish a women’s criminal justice policy unit within the Ministry of Justice foundered yesterday after a vote on an amendment to the Legal Aid Sentencing and Criminal Justice Bill was tied. Peers voted evenly, with 217 votes for and 217 against, on an ...
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Alarm over Chinese allegiance oath
Chinese lawyers must promise to ‘fulfil the sacred mission of socialism’ or be denied a licence to practise, the country’s justice ministry ordered yesterday. Among other pledges, China’s lawyers must also now swear ‘loyalty to the motherland and its people’ and vow to ‘uphold the leadership ...
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Outrage at £2.60 wage proposal for trainees
Trainee solicitors could be paid as little as £2.60 an hour in their first year under an amendment to the Solicitors Regulation Authority's proposals for ending the minimum wage. The Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) today condemned the move as another step towards making the legal profession the ‘preserve ...
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Advocacy quality scheme deal ‘imminent’
An announcement to break the deadlock over the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) is ‘imminent’, the director of the Bar Standards Board said yesterday.
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MPs call for audit of legal aid changes
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee today adds its voice to calls for an independent assessment of the impact of the government's cuts to legal aid. In a hard-hitting report on Ministry of Justice finances, the committee says the government’s own impact assessment ...