Latest news – Page 856
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News
MoJ announces review of legal aid delivery
The Ministry of Justice has today announced a review into the delivery of legal aid to ensure the £2bn budget is spent correctly. Legal aid minister Lord Bach has asked Sir Ian Magee, a former permanent secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, to assess the ...
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Chancery Lane ‘dismay’ at Co-op’s panel cull
The Law Society has expressed its ‘dismay’ at the decision by Co-operative Financial Services to cut 3,600 sole practitioners from its conveyancing panel. The Society said that the Co-op has jeopardised its ethical image by threatening consumer choice and putting solicitors’ livelihoods at risk. Access to ...
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Lord Hunt publishes regulation review
A wide-ranging review of solicitors' regulation commissioned by the Law Society and conducted by Lord Hunt of Wirral (pictured) is published today. Among the Tory peer's 88 recommendations is a proposal for what he describes as 'authorised internal regulation', under which law firms of all sizes would regulate themselves subject ...
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Society's PII helpline to target assigned risks pool
The Law Society has announced that from next Monday, 5 October, its professional indemnity insurance helpline will expand its service to assist firms that have fallen into the assigned risks pool because they were unable to obtain cover before the renewal deadline.
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Horses for courses
A friend passed me an article entitled ‘Taking the reins’, by Lucy Trevelyan, about equine law (see [2008] Gazette, 7 August, 14). As I am a life-long horsewoman (and journalist who sometimes writes for the equestrian press) I found it really interesting.
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Let’s be practical
As a newly qualified lawyer, I note with interest that the Legal Services Policy Institute is proposing that the training contract be scrapped. Yes, it is difficult to get a training contract in the current climate and yes, it is even more difficult to secure employment after completion of training. ...
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Valuable training
I am disappointed to read of the Legal Services Policy Institute’s suggestion that training contracts be scrapped and that students qualify immediately upon completion of the LPC (see [2009] Gazette, 24 September, 1).
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Discouraging words
The headline ‘Firms "over the worst" of recession’ (see [2009] Gazette, 24 September, 1) may have been intended to be encouraging, but readers will have been struck by the extraordinary insensitivity of the wording of the report, which said that firms were ‘finally reaping the rewards of staff cuts’.
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Solution to the insurance crisis
As someone who practises in the field of property mortgage fraud claims, it gives me no comfort to say that I foresaw that PI premiums would escalate and – coupled with the drop in conveyancing caused by the recession – create the financial crisis for solicitors reported in your front-page ...
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Serious Fraud Office to demand privilege waivers in plea bargains
Companies wanting to enter into plea bargains with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will have to waive privilege rights over previous internal investigations, a solicitor suggested this week, after the SFO completed its first successful prosecution of a British company for overseas corruption. British bridge contractor ...
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Insider dealing prosecution
Two former City lawyers charged with eight counts of insider dealing by the Financial Services Authority have been committed to stand trial at Southwark Crown Court. Andrew Rimmington, former partner at US firm Dorsey & Whitney, and Michael McFall, former partner at US firm McDermott Will ...
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Law firm bankruptcies predicted as Lees Lloyd Whitley closes
Insolvency experts have predicted a rise in the number of law firms that will face bankruptcy in the coming months, after a well-known firm in the north-west closed its doors last week. Lees Lloyd Whitley (LLW) – a 190-year-old Merseyside firm with 90 staff – ceased ...
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Watchdog to review Solicitors Regulation Authority
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will appoint an independent reviewer to oversee the way it handles complaints in a bid to improve efficiency. The SRA plans to introduce a single complaints-handling policy that will deal with all complaints, including those involving discrimination. ...
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Inspectors praise CPS Organised Crime Division
The independent inspectors of the Crown Prosecution Service have praised its specialist Organised Crime Division (OCD) for high-quality case preparation and decision-making, in a report published this week. The HM CPS Inspectorate commended the CPS’s specialist organised crime prosecutors for their availability to give pre-charge advice ...
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Law firm to offer all services online with new website launch
A north-west law firm will next week launch a website that offers the full range of consumer legal services 24 hours a day, for a fixed fee. Canter Levin & Berg claims to be the first firm to provide a full range of services online. ...
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Jackson considers raising personal injury small claims limit
Lord Justice Jackson has hinted that he might recommend increasing the small claims limit for personal injury cases if there is no deal on fast-track fixed costs, the Gazette can reveal. His last public address before going into report-writing purdah is being seen as a warning ...
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Ministry of Justice tackles ‘spiralling’ defamation legal costs
The Ministry of Justice has introduced new rules aimed at cutting ‘spiralling’ legal costs in defamation proceedings by making changes to the rules for ‘no win, no fee’ arrangements.
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Personal injury lawyers hit by new fees for RTA claims
Claimant personal injury solicitors face a cut of up to 53% in the fees they receive under a new road traffic accident claims process agreed last week. However, the claimant groups which negotiated the deal with insurers said this will be balanced by a more streamlined ...
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Chancery Lane responds to PII concerns – statement from the chief executive
The Law Society has moved to address growing disquiet among practising solicitors about the problems they have encountered renewing their professional indemnity insurance. Chancery Lane announced last month that it had written to the Association of British Insurers and individual insurers asking them for an ...
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MP rallies miners for legal action against legal adviser
Hundreds of injured former coal miners are being rallied to sue their legal adviser in the first coordinated legal action for alleged under-settling of government compensation claims, the Gazette can reveal. John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, told the Gazette he is gathering potential claimants to ...