Latest news – Page 731
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Spending cuts 'could threaten' innovative court
Spending cuts could threaten the future of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC), the judge behind the innovative institution has warned. He called for joined-up government to recognise the savings it makes.
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Extended opening hours could boost magistracy
Government plans to extend magistrates’ operating hours into evenings and weekends could increase the diversity of the magistracy, but should not be carried out at the expense of daytime sitting, according to the chair of the Magistrates’ Association. John Thornhill told the Gazette that justice minister ...
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Wales ponders Welsh law
The Welsh government is to start a public debate on separate legal jurisdiction for the principality. A green paper will be launched early in 2012, first minister Carwyn Jones told last week’s Legal Wales conference in Cardiff. In March, the people of Wales voted to ...
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MoJ faces further challenge over legal aid
The Ministry of Justice faces another legal challenge to its legal aid reforms. The charity Disability Law Service has applied for permission to start judicial review proceedings in relation to the removal of civil legal aid funding for welfare benefits cases. The charity argues the ...
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Conveyancers could sue over panels
Conveyancing firms removed from the panels of Santander and Lloyds Banking Group could have claims against the lenders, according to legal advice obtained by a Hertfordshire firm. Paul Judkins (pictured), a partner at Judkins, has received advice from Philip Coppel QC, of London’s 4-5 Gray’s Inn ...
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Family immigration proposals 'unethical'
Solicitors have rejected as ‘venal’ and ‘unethical’ proposals from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to prevent abuses of the family immigration route into Britain. They warn that some of the proposals, part of a package of measures to reduce immigration released for a consultation that closed ...
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Young lawyers will seek 'bespoke incentive plans'
Ambitious young lawyers will increasingly seek ‘bespoke incentive plans’ after as little as three years’ service with a firm, rather than wait decades for rewards under the ‘anachronistic’ partnership system, a City bank claimed this week. In a report on the future of legal services ...
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Clegg censures lawyers on social mobility
The legal profession needs to open its doors wider to new entrants and do more to encourage social mobility, the deputy prime minister told lawyers this week. Speaking to the Financial Services Lawyers Association, Nick Clegg said: ‘Your profession judges and represents people in court, so ...
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A high price to pay
I read Jonathan Goldsmith’s piece with a litigator’s eye. I do not agree that current attacks on the profession (and I have in mind specifically those in part 2 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill) are due to free market economics. ...
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A local solution to mediation
I write in connection with the Comment piece, ‘See the value of mediation'. Some years ago, Devon and Exeter Law Society, as it then was, ran an extremely successful small claims mediation scheme attached to the Exeter group of courts. Our society also trained and ...
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Selective memory
The Ministry of Justice seems to be suffering from amnesia in relation to the road traffic accident portal negotiations (see ‘Change to RTA portal legal fees’. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers was closely involved in the negotiations and we can confirm that the issue of ...
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Djanogly encourages claims managers to team up with solicitors
Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly is content to see claims management companies (CMCs) forge closer ties with solicitors once the referral fee ban for personal injury cases has been introduced. Speaking at a Commons transport committee meeting on Tuesday on the cost of motor insurance, Djanogly said ...
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Lawyers condemn single contract law
Europe neither needs nor can afford the EU-wide single contract law proposed by the European Commission this week, solicitors have warned. Frank Tschentscher, insolvency and re-structuring partner at German firm Schultze & Braun said: ‘Brussels is suggesting bolting on a new 28th law to the 27 ...
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Jackson calls for action on contingency legal aid fund
The ‘time is ripe for action’ on creating a Contingency Legal Aid Fund (CLAF), according to Lord Justice Jackson, architect of the government’s reforms of civil litigation costs. ‘There is clearly a strong will among many in the legal profession to make such a scheme work,’ he said. ...
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Dublin assures Law Society on Quinn collapse
The Irish government has assured the Law Society that solicitors will not be affected by the transfer of some of the business of Quinn Insurance. More than 500 solicitors have run-off professional indemnity insurance cover with the Irish firm, which went into administration last year. ...
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Firms call off Anglo-Scottish merger
An Anglo-Scottish merger between firms Bircham Dyson Bell and Dundas & Wilson has been ruled out. In a joint statement today, the firms said exploratory discussions to create a practice with combined revenues of £100m had not been successful. Donald Shaw, ...
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CPS to go paperless by April, says Starmer
The Director of Public Prosecutions has committed to making the Crown Prosecution Service entirely digital by April 2012. Keir Starmer QC told a Law Society seminar that the criminal justice system needs to move away from a paper-based system and transform the way criminal cases are ...
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Advocacy assurance scheme put on hold for a month
The launch of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) has been delayed and the consultation on its design extended, the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG) announced today. The JAG, set up with representatives of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board and ILEX Professional Services ...
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Clarke to consult on competitive tendering
The justice secretary has confirmed that the government will publish a consultation on the introduction of competitive tendering for criminal defence services this year. In a letter to the Bar Council chair Peter Lodder QC, Kenneth Clarke sets out the government’s intention to press ahead with ...
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Law firm to trade on stock market
A law firm specialising in advising business startups has today announced its intention to list on a stock market. Oxfordshire-based Everyman Legal will apply to become an alternative business structure in early 2012 and seek admission to the market in the final quarter of next year. ...