Latest news – Page 656

  • News

    Briton held under European warrant as charity calls for extradition reform

    2012-03-20T00:00:00Z

    A British man has been arrested under the European arrest warrant (EAW) system for a crime of which he was cleared some 17 years ago, the charity Fair Trials International said today.

  • News

    Junior lawyers call for pause to minimum wage consultation

    2012-03-20T00:00:00Z

    Scrapping the minimum wage for trainee solicitors without a thorough impact assessment goes against ‘common sense’ and could bar candidates from less affluent backgrounds from entering the profession, junior lawyers warn today. The Law Society Junior Lawyers Division says in a statement that the Solicitors Regulation ...

  • News

    Watchdog calls for regulation of probate services

    2012-03-19T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Consumer Panel calls today for probate and estate administration services to be regulated and made reserved activities along with will-writing. However in a submission to the Legal Services Board, following a call for evidence on will-writing, probate and estate administration services, the ...

  • News

    Harvey Nicks owner gives £20m to law faculty

    2012-03-19T00:00:00Z

    A Hong Kong businessman has given £20m to King’s College London in what the college says is the largest individual donation ever made to a European law faculty. Luxury goods magnate Dickson Poon will fund a recruitment drive for eight new chair positions over the next ...

  • News

    Mind your public language, master of rolls tells judges

    2012-03-19T00:00:00Z

    The master of the rolls has urged judges to use caution in speaking about public matters, warning they risk undermining the independence of the judiciary. Lord Neuberger said judges should be free to comment extra-judicially on a wide range of issues, but that they should be ...

  • News

    Hungarian judicial reforms slammed as breach of rights

    2012-03-19T00:00:00Z

    Legislation enacted in Hungary by Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party threatens the independence of the judiciary and breaches European Convention rights to a fair trial, an independent legal body ruled this afternoon.

  • News

    ‘Grossly overpaid’ interpreters to blame for courts fiasco, says minister

    2012-03-16T00:00:00Z

    Justice minister Crispin Blunt has blamed the ‘grossly overpaid’ interpreters ‘taking advantage of the system’ for the need to outsource the court contract.

  • News

    Stop assessing firms, Law Society tells the LSB

    2012-03-16T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has called for the Legal Services Board (LSB) to forget about regulating the legal market and begin downsizing. The Society says most of the reforms in the Legal Services Act are now coming to fruition, with the establishment of a Legal Ombudsman and ...

  • News

    Accident waiting to happen

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Your feature on work experience made interesting reading. Until a few years ago, I always used to take school students (usually fourth or fifth year) for a week or two. They used to come to court with me and sit in with clients (with clients’ consent ...

  • News

    Passing the buck

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    I was consulted by a client who had become completely lost in the claims management process, and even now I am unsure that I have managed to untangle the complex relationships between the various corporate bodies involved.

  • News

    Fair game

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Although the most obvious response to the letter from David Enright is that the concept of justice cannot be reduced to a mathematical equation, it is nevertheless true that there are objective criteria that can be considered and evaluated in some way. Therefore the concept may have some merit.

  • News

    Simple maths

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    With reference to David Enright's letter, I do not understand why his ‘equation’ for justice: J = FP+EAOFT is not simply expressed J = FP+EA+OFT ie the element ‘OFT’ (objectively fair tribunal) should be an addend not a denominator.

  • News

    Banks face £1bn blizzard of funded suits

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Venture capital firms are backing litigation worth up to £1bn against major banks over the alleged misselling of interest rate hedging contracts, the Gazette can reveal. A group of cases identified by the company that has secured the backing of funds for the claims, Norton ...

  • News

    Law Society survey to probe wellbeing

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors are to be questioned on how rapid changes to the legal landscape are affecting their state of mind. The Law Society will include research on members’ wellbeing as part of its survey of the membership this summer. A membership board report says the Society should ...

  • News

    We’ll cope, says Salford claims centre chief

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Managers at the new county court money claims centre in Salford are confident that it will be able to cope with going fully operational on Monday (19 March) despite a barrage of complaints about its service so far. Manager Jason Latham told the Gazette that ...

  • News

    PM's adoption reform prompts warning

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers have welcomed the prime minister’s proposal for legislation to speed up the adoption process, but warned that changes could lead to increased legal challenges. An action plan due to be launched yesterday will require local authorities to find adoptive parents within three months, or to place children on the ...

  • News

    More time for LDPs to mull ABS options

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Hundreds of legal disciplinary practices (LDPs) have been given more time to decide how to approach the new era of legal services regulation. Under the terms of the 2007 Legal Services Act, some 250 LDPs in England and Wales with non-lawyer managers must decide whether ...

  • News

    Deech confident about QASA roll-out

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    The controversial accreditation scheme for advocates has the support of judges and will go ahead, the chair of the Bar Standards Board has said amid a continuing dispute with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

  • News

    Unite joins interpreting campaign

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Britain’s biggest trade union this week joined a campaign for the Ministry of Justice to bring courtroom interpreting services back in-house from a contract with Applied Language Solutions (ALS). ‘The courts system is descending into chaos, as suspects are not being informed of their rights and ...

  • News

    Industrial disease wins exemption from CFA cut

    2012-03-15T00:00:00Z

    Peers in the House of Lords have voted for sufferers of asbestos-related disease to be exempt from reforms to no win, no fee litigation. The House of Lords yesterday agreed two amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill, allowing claimants continued access ...