Latest news – Page 851
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News
Solicitors rebut claim that they ‘overcharge’ for legal aid work
Solicitors hit back this week at claims that they have been overpaid by nearly £25m for legal aid work, blaming the ‘mountain of bureaucracy’ they face from the Legal Services Commission. A report by the National Audit Office said the LSC had overpaid solicitors by an ...
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UPDATE: Calls for end to single renewal date for PII
The Law Society’s council yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of pressuring the Solicitors Regulation Authority to abolish the single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII), in favour of staggered renewals. Some 55 council members voted in favour of the move, with 14 against and three ...
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Lawyers provide £400m of pro bono work a year
The value of pro bono work done annually by lawyers has soared to more than £400m according to estimates published by the Law Society in advance of next week’s national pro bono week. The estimated value of the pro bono work performed by private practice solicitors ...
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Law Society Council votes against referral fees
The Law Society will lobby the government and Legal Services Board to ban the use of referral fees by all providers of legal services. The Law Society’s council voted to change its policy on referral fees yesterday. It adopted a motion by council member Sue Carter ...
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Government offender management IT project a ‘shambles’
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has branded the government’s delayed and over-budget IT project to set up a single database to manage offenders through the prison and probation services a ‘shambles’, in a damning report published today. Five years after the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) ...
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Family judgments to be made available online in pilot areas
Judgments in some family cases will be made available online as part of a 12-month Ministry of Justice pilot, launched today. Family case decisions of the magistrates’ courts in Leeds and the magistrates’ court and county court in Cardiff will be published in what the MoJ ...
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Law firm partners ‘overpaid’, says Mayson
Law firm partners are paying themselves too much and their businesses will struggle to attract external investment because they are not worth as much as the partners believe, a leading commentator has warned. Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, said partners have ...
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CPS publishes ethical principles
The director of public prosecutions has today published a ‘statement of ethical principles’, setting out what is expected of public prosecutors in England and Wales. Keir Starmer QC said the document, which sets out the ethical principles that underpin and guide the work of public prosecutors, ...
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Red tape cut for forced marriage orders
Local authorities can issue orders to protect vulnerable adults and children from being forced into marriage without seeking the leave of the court, under new powers introduced yesterday. Forced Marriage Protection Orders can include orders to compel a person to hand over passports to prevent someone ...
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LSC launches tender for Community Legal Advice Centre in Barking & Dagenham
The Legal Services Commission has announced the launch of a tender for the new £2.1m Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) in Barking & Dagenham. The new service to provide a one-stop-shop for legal advice and representation will be jointly funded by the LSC and Barking & ...
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Lending credibility
I write on behalf of the Council of Mortgage Lenders in response to Alan Tunkel’s letter (see [2009] Gazette, 1 October, 9). Mr Tunkel states that ‘over the last decade or so the CML has imposed on solicitors who sign certificates of title ever-increasing obligations’.
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Immigration and turning up to court
While thumbing through previous copies of the Gazette I found an article from 4 June 2009 which stated that a defendant had escaped confiscation proceedings because she was unable to find an advocate who was willing to represent her under the legal aid rate. This article emphasised the importance of ...
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LPA error
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has confirmed that on 1 October their website contained an error in the Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), where there was an incorrect additional part C (for the attorney to sign) included in the downloaded document.
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Access is the number one priority
The Gazette reported that the Legal Services Commission was capping the number of firms’ new matter starts (see [2009] href="http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/moj-review-separate-budgets-criminal-and-civil-legal-aid" target="_blank"Gazette, 15 October, >]. The LSC wants to make it clear to all legal aid providers that there is no new rule which says ‘no additional new matter starts’.
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Airport sale, media refinancing and fashion moves
Taking off: Freshfields, alongside City firm Herbert Smith, advised airport operator BAA on its £1.5bn sale of Gatwick Airport to infrastructure asset investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners. Magic circle firm Slaughter and May advised Global Infrastructure Partners, while magic circle firm Allen & ...
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Transport secretary grilled over Freshields fees in Metronet collapse
Legal and professional advisory fees were cast into the spotlight as MPs picked over the bones of Metronet, the collapsed London Underground upgrade consortium whose failure cost the taxpayer up to £410m, at a public accounts committee hearing last week. Magic circle firm Freshfields was the ...
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Recession litigation boom fails to arrive
City litigators have been ‘surprised’ that an expected wave of post-credit crunch disputes has not yet materialised, according to two groups monitoring financial services litigation and dispute resolution.
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Fixed fees rate cuts will drive profession away, say family lawyers
Family law groups have warned that new fixed fees which will slash legal aid rates for some private law cases by up to 50% will drive lawyers away from legal aid and undermine access to justice. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published the new fee structures ...
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APIL rejoins talks on extending fixed fees regime
The Association of Personal Injury lawyers has rejoined talks on extending the fixed fees regime in personal injury cases.APIL had walked out of the talks last month in an unprecedented move for the organisation. The Civil Justice Council is conducting a mediation process to produce industry-agreed ...
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Court case results recording review shows error rate of 25%
HM Courts Service needs to improve the accuracy of its recording of case results ‘as a matter of urgency’, a report by HM Inspectorate of Court Administration (HMICA) found last week. The inspectorate said the Courts Service was not recording case results on the courts register ...