Latest news – Page 677
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News
Shock as firms fail in family legal aid bid
An unexpectedly high number of failed applications for family legal aid contracts has caused surprise in the sector. The Legal Services Commission announced this week that 93% of those who bid for the new family law contracts had been successful. Contracts have been offered to ...
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Civil advice phone gateway plan slammed
Government plans to make phone calls the main conduit for publicly funded advice in civil cases could increase the average time needed to give advice, according to new research. The government has proposed making a telephone helpline the ‘gateway’ to all legal aid advice in civil ...
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Chief magistrate praises defence solicitors over riots
The chief magistrate has praised the ‘exemplary skill and professionalism’ of defence solicitors in the summer riot courts, calling them ‘unsung heroes’. Senior district judge Howard Riddle said that without defence solicitors’ efforts the criminal justice system would not have been able to respond as it did to the unprecedented ...
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We must not swallow the argument that the police and courts initially responded well to the riots
I absolutely agree with Julian Young in respect of the under-acknowledged efforts of defence practitioners at the time of the riot arrests and courts.
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One-sided review
I read with interest the article by Joshua Rozenberg, and the letters from David Bermingham and Jago Russell.
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The state we’re in
Under the auspices of austerity measures, we are heading for cuts to legal services which will prevent most citizens, apart from the wealthy, challenging those in authority; particularly the state. Legal aid was never available for tribunals. It was removed for personal injury claims. Now it ...
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Jargon is not new
For those readers who rail at the gobbledegook that often seems to inhabit modern legislation and yearn for the golden age of law, when statutes were brief and drawn with clarity and care, here is an extract from a 1935 case (Wickhambrook PCC v Croxford) grappling with section 2.3 of ...
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How confidential?
We all know that confidentiality is the bedrock of a solicitor’s duty to his client. But how many conveyancing solicitors freely discuss their client’s business on the telephone with the selling agents of other parties, solicitors not connected with the client’s own transaction? And how ...
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Supreme Court’s ruling on cohabitees welcomed
Family lawyers have welcomed the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment on the division of assets between former cohabiting couples - but say the case highlights the need for law reform. The long-awaited judgment in Jones v Kernott concerns beneficial interest in property where the legal ...
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‘Long way to go’ on diversity, warn lawyers
The legal profession’s progress towards diversity may be about to falter, lawyers warned at this week’s launch of the Black Solicitors Network’s sixth annual Diversity League Table. They warned that women and black and minority ethnic (BME) lawyers remain under-represented in the higher echelons of the ...
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Coalition to lobby Lords on referral fees
A coalition of insurers and lawyers is to lobby for tougher measures banning referral fees. The Civil Justice Group aims to promote a private member’s bill introduced by the former justice secretary, Jack Straw, which would make paying or receiving referral fees a criminal offence. A ...
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End of the line for Solicitors From Hell
The founder of the controversial Solicitors from Hell website has finally admitted defeat after the High Court ordered him to remove the site from the internet. Rick Kordowski said he will bow out from what he described as a ‘campaign to expose apparent wrong-doing’ in the legal profession. ...
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LASPO may ‘undermine access to justice’, says Lords committee
A House of Lords committee has warned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill threatens the rights of access to justice and availability of legal advice to those in police custody. The Constitution Committee published a report today considering the constitutional implications of ...
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Referral-fee refusenik enters PI market
A new law firm has entered the personal injury market promising neither to pay nor charge referral fees. Acorn Law, backed financially by national firm MTA Solicitors, says it is the first to be set up since the government announced plans to ban referral fees in ...
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Solicitor faces £20,000 bill for not co-operating with regulator
The Legal Ombudsman has won a landmark court case against a solicitor who failed to co-operate with an investigation. Howard Robert Gillespie Young, a solicitor who practised in Bolton, Lancashire for CMG Law, did not provide documents requested by the ombudsman after a complaint was made ...
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District judges ‘more custody-minded’ than lay magistrates
Custodial sentences are more likely to be given in cases heard by a district judge than lay magistrates, according to research commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. The study, published this week and carried out by Ipsos MORI, shows that district judges gave custodial sentences in 7% of cases, while ...
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City law firms must remain ‘open for business’ - Hudson
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has urged the government not to consider any further cuts to business migration limits. This week a report commissioned by the City of London Corporation warned the UK was in danger of creating a perception it was not open for ...
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Code for third-party litigation funders gets green light
A code of conduct for third-party funders of litigation has cleared its final hurdle and will be published later this month, the Gazette can report. The voluntary code, drafted by a working party set up by the Civil Justice Council as a means of providing a ...
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Tribunal cases will soar after legal aid cuts, charity warns
Scrapping legal aid for employment advice will increase the number of cases going to employment tribunals, the charity Citizens Advice has warns. Responding to the government’s consultation on promoting economic growth through a strong and efficient labour market, Citizens Advice says removing legal aid for employment ...
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Give a hand to self-litigants, says CJC
Everything must be done to ‘simplify and demystify’ the law to help the increasing number of self-litigants, according to the Civil Justice Council (CJC). In a report to the lord chancellor and lord chief justice published yesterday the CJC calls for action to assist litigants ...