Latest news – Page 731
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News
Conveyancers pressured into tax avoidance
Conveyancing solicitors are being pressured to become involved in stamp duty land tax (SDLT) avoidance schemes that cost the public purse around £35m, the Gazette has learned. To protect solicitors and help them challenge requests from clients or third parties to become involved in such schemes, ...
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Debt advice service to close
The Financial Inclusion Fund’s (FIF) free national debt advice service is set to close after the government axed its £25m-a-year funding. Last month, the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, confirmed that funding for the free face-to-face advice service, which has operated since 2005, will ...
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ABS: retrograde step?
May I add to the ruminations of Peter Jones concerning alternative business structures? Some 47 years in private practice has engendered within me but one confidently held opinion, which is that the law is vastly more complex than it ever was, and becomes more so by ...
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ABS: retrograde step?
May I add to the ruminations of Peter Jones concerning alternative business structures? Some 47 years in private practice has engendered within me but one confidently held opinion, which is that the law is vastly more complex than it ever was, and becomes more so by ...
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Changing perceptions on tackling negligence
Another day, another insult, but are we so apathetic that we sigh and say ‘oh well’ when Mike Penning MP throws 'ambulance chasing insults' at us The landscape is changing, yet many lawyers I speak to do not appear to fully realise the potential impact ...
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Unbalancing the scales of justice
I admit to a certain amount of grim amusement at the howls of protest from the profession at the proposals in respect of legal aid and conditional free agreements (I have clients who fund their cases under both regimes).
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SRA makes training appointments in advance of review
Slaughter and May human resources and training chief Louise Meikle has been appointed as one of five external members of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s education and training committee, which is to conduct a fundamental review of training. Meikle is responsible for the recruitment, development and retention ...
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Regulator presses for steeper fines against ABSs
Alternative business structures (ABSs) must face fines far in excess of the £150m maximum proposed by the Legal Services Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority recommended last week. Responding to an LSB consultation on the issue, the SRA said that ‘the largest commercial entities might require a ...
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LSC and consumer bodies call for complaints publication
The Legal Services Commission is pushing to obtain access to 'detailed information' about successful complaints made against solicitors, which it will use to assess the performance of its providers. Responding to a Legal Services Ombudsman (LeO) consultation of what information it should publish on the complaints ...
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Profits continue to fall at Scottish legal firms
Scotland's solicitors’ profession is becoming increasingly polarised as the downturn continues, new figures show. Smaller firms in Glasgow and Edinburgh are continuing to suffer sharp declines in profitability, but the biggest practices, including cross-border firms, are showing strong signs of recovery. ...
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MoJ confirms delay of Bribery Act
The Bribery Act will not come into force in April, the Ministry of Justice confirmed today. An MoJ spokeswoman said that the ministry is working on implementing guidance ‘to make it practical and comprehensive for business’. Business leaders had criticised the legislation ...
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Replace ARP with three-month ‘grace period’, Law Society says
The assigned risks pool (ARP) should be scrapped and law firms should instead be given a three-month grace period by insurers in which to either find alternative professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover, merge, or close down, the Law Society is to recommend. Outlining the Society’s proposal, ...
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Law Society warns over control orders
The government’s new counter-terrorism measures continue to put at risk the UK’s unrivalled reputation for upholding the principles of freedom and fairness, the Law Society warned this week.
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National Grid slashes legal panel
National Grid has cut the number of law firms it employs on its panel by a quarter, the utilities giant announced today. The company said that it has ‘sought to introduce fixed pricing and other innovative billing solutions wherever possible under the new arrangements, which also ...
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MoJ pledges £29m for victims of crime
The Ministry of Justice has announced that £29.4m will be dedicated to support vulnerable victims of crime over the next three years. The victim and witness voluntary sector will receive £9.8m annually from the MoJ. This will include £3.5m a year to support the work of ...
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Legal aid cuts spark child abduction fears
Leading family solicitors have warned that withdrawing legal aid for private law family cases could lead desperate parents to abduct their children. Lawyers also predicted that the government’s reforms would prompt people to make false allegations of domestic violence in order to obtain legal aid. ...
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Campbell privacy ruling exposes 'deeply flawed' CFA system
Bumper success fees for lawyers in libel cases will soon be a thing of the past following last week’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Naomi Campbell case, solicitors predicted this week. Kevin Bays, partner at London firm Davenport Lyons, who ...
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VAT victory on personal injury medical reports
Personal injury clients will not have to pay VAT on the cost of medical reports following a successful appeal by a Nottingham law firm, supported by the Law Society, in a tax tribunal last week. Nottingham personal injury and clinical negligence firm Barratt Goff & Tomlinson ...
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New duty for barristers to report misconduct
Barristers will face a duty to report misconduct by their colleagues under new rules proposed by the bar’s regulator. The Bar Standards Board last week published its fourth and final paper in a series of consultations designed to modernise and clarify the bar’s code of conduct. ...
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Jackson attacks government's partial reform plan
Lord Justice Jackson criticised the way the government plans to implement his reforms to civil justice costs in a sternly worded letter to the justice secretary last week. Jackson (pictured) said the detailed package of reforms aimed at reducing civil litigation costs, which he published last ...