Latest news – Page 661
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News
Todner legal aid fear
Gary McKinnon’s solicitor has described the future for criminal legal aid firms as ‘very scary’, amid swingeing cuts and payment problems. Karen Todner, who was last week named the Gazette’s Legal Personality of the Year, said: ‘The system is so restrictive in terms of running a business.’ ...
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Litigation funder targets case ‘portfolios’
One of the UK’s biggest litigation funders is in talks with law firms about using alternative business structures to invest in a ‘portfolio’ of their commercial litigation. The move by Harbour Litigation Funding signals what is expected to become a closer relationship between law firms and ...
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Human trafficking victims failed by defence teams, CCRC alleges
Many victims of human trafficking are being failed by defence teams, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) warned this week. All have ignored clear law in numerous prosecutions, it alleges. The commission says there are numerous cases where inadequate ...
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Aggressive lawyers ‘harm mediation’
Aggression around the mediation table can be counter-productive and damage your client’s chances of success, a leading QC has warned. Bill Wood, vice-chair of the Civil Mediation Council, said he had experienced cases where the two lawyers involved were more angry than the clients. Wood told ...
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Civil rights concern over costs-shifting
Lawyers representing claimants against the police have warned that abuses of state power will go unchallenged under costs reforms coming into force in April. The Police Actions Lawyers Group wants qualified one-way costs-shifting extended from personal injury to cover all civil liberties cases.
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UK contingent in Brazil
The Law Society will tell the Brazilian legal sector today that Britain is the place to turn to for international dispute resolution, as it leads a contingent of UK law firms to São Paulo. President Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, whose visit coincides with the Lord Mayor’s trip to ...
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Wider pool of barristers no threat
In focusing on perceived competition between the two branches of the profession (‘"Baby barrister" threat to solicitors’), what Catherine Baksi overlooks are the opportunities for co-operation between barristers and solicitors created by the Public Access Scheme. The bar’s code of conduct requires barristers instructed on a public access basis to ...
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QASA curtailment beggars belief
I read each week with growing dismay about the long-running saga of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. This misconceived and unwelcome intrusion into the liberties of our profession may one day restrict, if not deny, our hard-won rights of audience in the higher courts.
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Off centre
Taking up where Nye Moloney left off, I have found the County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC) to be lacking. I am uncertain as to how the interaction between the centre and the Northampton Bulk Issue Centre pans out in practice.
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Support costs
Once upon a time we filled in the form to renew our annual practising certificates by hand and then continued to do proper work. Now the Gazette brims with articles on the regulatory process and how to live with it. Charles Plant tells us the ...
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Expensive Saga
At the sort of prices Saga is quoting I do not think the average high street conveyancer should lose any sleep. I just obtained a quote from Saga for a freehold sale at £150k and a freehold purchase at £250k – a typical, everyday transaction outside ...
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Profit a ‘dirty word’ in law, says Dragon’s Den judge
Entrepreneur and investor James Caan has revealed he found a culture where profit was a ‘dirty word’ when he looked to buy a law firm. Former Dragons Den judge Caan, whose private investment company Hamilton Bradshaw bought Midlands firm Knights in June, said he had spoken ...
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Mediation is the future, Falconer says
The Supreme Court’s equal pay ruling yesterday will lead to ‘billions and billions worth of claims’ Labour’s former lord chancellor has predicted. Lord Falconer (pictured) suggested that such claims be mediated rather than leaving them to the ‘vagaries of the legal system’, which he said would be costly and could ...
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Five years on: progress ‘largely static’ towards LSA nirvana
The Legal Services Act has made little difference to standards in the profession, according to a report released today by the Legal Services Board. The baseline report, published five years since the act, found that indicators such as diversity, quality of service and access to legal ...
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Urgent action call over child deaths in custody
Two national charities have called for an urgent independent review of ‘systemic failings’ that have led to the deaths of 200 imprisoned children and young people over the past decade. In a report published today, Inquest and the Prison Reform Trust recommend 13 changes to address ...
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Don’t force accident victims to be speculators - APIL
Seriously injured victims should not have to invest in volatile stock markets to ensure they can fund their future care, claimant lawyers said yesterday. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers is lobbying the government to reduce the discount rate, the percentage deducted from the damages of ...
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Green light for deferred prosecution agreements
The government today announced plans to legislate to create US-style deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) for corporate crime. Publishing a government response to a Ministry of Justice consultation held last summer the justice minister, Damian Green (pictured), said DPAs 'will give prosecutors an effective new tool to tackle what has become ...
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No loophole for fee-ban dodgers, SRA warns
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned it may not grant licences to alternative business structures set up solely to get round the referral fee ban. The organisation today promised to look carefully at ABS applicants’ proposed referral arrangements and block business models not truly operating as ...
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Call for clients to have a say on fitness to practise
Continuing to practise as a lawyer will depend on regular positive reviews from clients and colleagues if the Legal Services Consumer Panel has its way. In its latest submission to the Legal Education and Training Review, set up by the three main regulators, the consumer champion calls on the review ...
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Cut oral hearings, says Slaughter and May’s Boardman
An influential magic circle partner today makes a public call for a reduction in oral hearings to reform a legal system which he says has returned to the ‘dark days’ described in Dickens’ Bleak House. Nigel Boardman, partner at Slaughter and May, says lawyers should ...