Latest news – Page 669
-
News
Commercial need
I wonder whether solicitors like your correspondent Franklin Sinclair have considered that, in the long run, they might do their clients, including the most vulnerable, more good by refusing to carry out large amounts of unpaid work for the benefit of an ungrateful taxpayer, than by flogging themselves to death ...
-
News
Cameron told: ‘engage with profession on PI’
The Law Society has urged David Cameron to engage with the legal profession following his attack on the health and safety ‘monster’ and personal injury fees. In a speech last week, the prime minister proposed capping fees for personal injury claims at £25,000 and including ...
-
News
HSBC conveyancing panel size 'could harm consumer choice'
Concerns are growing that the restricted size of HSBC’s new conveyancing panel may harm consumer choice. The bank launched the panel this week to provide services to residential mortgage customers. It has 43 members across the UK, 39 of which are solicitor firms and four licensed conveyancing companies. ...
-
News
LSC faces action on family law contracts
The Legal Services Commission faces the threat of litigation from legal aid firms refused new family law contracts. Between 30 and 40 firms that made technical or clerical errors in the submission of their applications for contracts in the October 2011 bid round are taking advice ...
-
News
PI firms inundated over banned implants
Personal injury firms say they are receiving hundreds of enquiries every week from women treated with now banned PIP breast implants. Up to 40,000 women in the UK have been fitted with implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese. The Department of Health has offered ...
-
News
Law Society wary on shared parenting possibility
The Law Society’s family law committee has cautioned against introducing a legal presumption of shared parenting after divorce, following indications that the government may seek to change the law. Children’s minister Tim Loughton has said that the government is ‘looking closely at all the options ...
-
News
Bar chair counsels cooperation
An independent referral bar is in the public interest and has an ‘assured future’, despite increasing competition and changing working practices, according to its new chair. In an interview with Gazette Online, Michael Todd QC said solicitors see value in the continuation of the independent bar. ‘The bar doesn’t want ...
-
News
No ‘hidden agenda’ in Irish legal reforms
Ireland’s government has denied the existence of any ‘hidden agenda’ behind sweeping reforms to the legal system imposed following the country’s bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The minister for justice, equality and defence, Alan Shatter (pictured), was responding to growing international concerns, first ...
-
News
NewLaw makes ABS move
Cardiff-based firm NewLaw has confirmed it is among 44 organisations that have so far applied for alternative business structure status through the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The personal injury firm, established in 2004, submitted its application last week when the SRA became a licensing authority. ...
-
News
Co-op Legal has ‘ambitious’ growth plan
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has launched a recruitment drive as part of ‘ambitious plans’ to expand in the consumer legal services market. The move follows CLS’s submission, at the start of the year, of its application to become an alternative business structure. It is seeking ...
-
News
SRA to consider dropping minimum wage for trainees
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to consult on whether to continue to set minimum pay rates for trainees. Current minimum salary levels for solicitors are £18,590 in central London and £16,650 outside, and have been frozen for the past two years. However the SRA board decided ...
-
News
LSC blamed by Jewels for closure
A West Midlands family legal aid firm has blamed delays in payment by the Legal Services Commission for forcing it into administration. Jewels, founded in 1980 by sole director Mark Jewels (pictured), ceased trading on 28 December. The Lexcel-accredited firm, ...
-
News
Immigration service users unaware of its closure
Clients of the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) remain unaware that the not-for-profit provider went into administration six months ago and are still trying to gain access to its premises, the Gazette has learned. There is no guidance information on the locked doors of the central London ...
-
News
Asbestos fund still on agenda, says government
The government has assured people suffering from asbestos-related disease that a ‘fund of last resort’ is still on the agenda, nearly two years after a report called for its creation. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister Lord Freud is understood to be in ...
-
News
Referral fees in spotlight as MPs slam cost of whiplash claims
MPs today call for the bar to be raised if claimants are to receive compensation for whiplash injuries following motor accidents. A report by the Commons Transport Committee into the cost of motor insurance concludes that the rise in personal injury claims is the ‘main reason ...
-
News
Solicitor jailed for money laundering
A solicitor has been jailed for 12 months for money laundering, perverting the course of justice and prejudicing a money laundering investigation. Nicholas Heywood, 45, of High Bank Lane, Bolton, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court (pictured) on 11 January for facilitating the laundering of money ...
-
News
McNally brushes off LASPO criticism as ‘report fatigue’
Justice minister Lord McNally (pictured) has dismissed a wave of criticism of the impact of legal aid cuts by saying the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is starting to suffer from ‘report fatigue’.
-
News
Firms in ARP given April deadline
Firms remaining in the insurance Assigned Risks Pool have been given until April to secure cover or to shut down. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has contacted each of the 31 firms which, of 3 January, were still open and covered by the ARP, and will make ...
-
News
Court statistics ‘support case for reform’, government says
Care proceedings take on average more than a year to resolve, statistics released for the first time by the Ministry of Justice have revealed. New data on the average length of civil and criminal cases published this week from the third quarter of 2011 showed that care proceedings took an ...
-
News
Merger expectations grow among small firms
A third of small and medium sized firms expect to merge in the coming year as the trend to join forces continues, according to research by the Law Consultancy Network. The fourth set of six-monthly statistics complied by consultant Andrew Otterburn showed that 21 of the ...