Latest news – Page 842
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Family mediation pilot achieves mixed results
A pilot scheme making family mediation available at court to legally aided parties in disputes involving children has cost more than expected and achieved modest settlement rates, the Gazette has learned.
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First Sikh to be appointed a judge receives knighthood
The first Sikh to be appointed a judge in England and Wales topped the roll call of lawyers named in the New Year Honours list for 2010. Retired circuit judge Mota Singh QC (pictured), a barrister who sat at Southwark Crown Court, received a knighthood in ...
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Local authorities team up to buy legal services
Birmingham City Council has negotiated a deal that will see it join forces with 38 other local authorities to purchase legal services from 11 law firm panels, involving 12 firms. The council has also extended an invitation to every other local authority in England and ...
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LSB research reveals public ‘don’t know what lawyers do’
More than two-thirds of consumers have ‘little or no knowledge’ of what lawyers do, research published last week has revealed. A YouGov survey of 2,033 individuals commissioned by the Legal Services Board found that 68% were largely ignorant of what lawyers did. And less than half ...
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Scrap the ARP – but take care
I agree with Sarah Foster and Duncan Crine of Henmans, Oxford that no decision on the assigned risks pool should be made in haste, however any plan to eventually remove or reduce the ARP is a positive step.
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Reform rules on migrants
I write with regard to the Immigration: Tier 1 Post Study Work Review and why successful students of the LPC and Bar Vocational Course should be granted Tier 1 Post Study Work (PSW) visas. See Immigration lawyers boost for top firms.
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Last chance for the high street?
Stephen Hanson complains that he was given work no one else could be bothered with and was made redundant in favour of an unqualified conveyancing clerk. In the same edition, John Gurney-Champion says he runs a profitable practice without paying referral fees. The contents of these letters are very closely ...
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HIP hijack
I share shadow housing minister Grant Shapps’s desire to abolish the home information pack. However, we must encourage the seller to instruct solicitors early in the selling process, which is still not happening despite the good intentions behind the HIP. Ideally the solicitor needs to get on with the ‘completion-ready’ ...
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IT failure at LSC delays legal aid payments
Technical problems at the Legal Services Commission have delayed all payments due to be made to legal aid solicitors today. The LSC is set to issue an e-alert later updating the profession on the situation. Payment systems at the LSC apparently ...
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Reform group publishes plans to change HIP rules
A group of property professionals released a ‘white paper’ today putting forward proposals to reform the controversial home information packs in a bid to speed up transactions and reduce abortive sales. The HIP Reform Group, established in November 2009, said the packs should be retained rather ...
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Trainee solicitors face debts of more than £10,000
More than half of trainee solicitors have racked up debts of more than £10,000 before qualifying, according to an annual survey published by law student forum TraineeSolicitor.co.uk. The survey of around 200 trainees revealed that 55% had debts in excess of £10,000, while 35% were more ...
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Swatton Taylor Dutton and Matthew Waite & Co
In our 3 December 2009 edition, we published a letter by Peter Hughes of Hughes & Company, Tring, regarding referral fees. Mr Hughes and the Law Society Gazette are happy to make clear that the solicitors firms Swatton Taylor Dutton and Matthew Waite & Co, of Tring, have never paid ...
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Missing the point
I was saddened to read the letter from Trevor Moore, ‘What is the point?’ (see [2009] Gazette, 3 December, 11). This is not the profession I practise or recognise.
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Fee freedom
Three cheers for recent letters setting out the case for liberation from referral fees. Our firm takes the same position; we also refuse to advertise.
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Notary frustration
I am an English solicitor practising on the Costa Blanca in Spain. I read Gill Mather’s article on the archaic practices of Spanish notaries (see [2009] Gazette, 19 November, 11) immediately after returning from a 200-mile round-trip to a notary’s office to execute a deed on behalf of a client ...
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Wake up and smell the coffee
I am writing in response to recent letters from solicitors who either claim or imply that because their firms don’t pay referral fees they somehow have more integrity than firms that do. Aside from failing to mention that rule 1.02 of the Code of Conduct requires us all to act ...
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Good points well made?
In response to Mr Moore's letter 'What is the point?' I am sorry he sees little point in his job as a solicitor – I love mine and see a great deal of point to it. I am not motivated however, to work in an ivory tower of the 'only ...
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Open and shut case
So Resolution opposes the government’s plans to extend family reporting (see [2009] Gazette, 10 December, 3). The government is quite right to be extending it; the public need to know what is being done in their name.
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Lessons of the recession
That well-known source of reliable information, Wikipedia, helpfully says that there is no generally accepted definition of the word ‘recession’. However, I think it reasonable to accept that it is a sustained period of economic downturn.