Latest news – Page 594
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News
MoJ announces new deal for courtroom interpreters
The Ministry of Justice today announced measures which it said would increase the take-home pay of interpreters in a bid to improve the quality of the service to courts and the justice sector.
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Whiplash claims at five-year low, official figures reveal
The number of whiplash claims has fallen by almost 60,000 in the past year, according to the government’s own figures. A freedom of information request to the Department for Work and Pensions’ compensation recovery unit has revealed there were 488,281 whiplash claims in Great Britain in ...
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Society warns against muddling funding for interventions
The Law Society has called for ‘proper transparency’ if regulators are to pay intervention costs out of compensation fund reserves. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed on Wednesday it wants to cover an estimated £7m overspend on interventions this year by using money held in the compensation fund. The SRA says ...
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Chris Grayling: criminal ignorance
Chris Grayling’s comments about the restriction of legal aid for prisoner complaints are either another example of political posturing from the justice secretary or, more worryingly, show an alarming ignorance of how such cases have been funded for over three years.
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Competition flaw
There are a number of difficulties and risks associated with the government’s proposals on price-competitive tendering. I am sure that the representative bodies will do an effective job of highlighting many of these flaws. I wish to highlight a major operational risk.
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‘Client’ care
Adam Sampson (8 April) decries the use of the word ‘client’ in favour of ‘customer’. Despite him possibly confusing Julius Caesar with Cicero as a renowned lawyer in the Roman courts, Mr Sampson should be wary of rejecting the client relationship. In classical times there was a mutuality of obligation ...
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Qualified success
This profession has been squeezed to bursting point through government and consumer pressure. The new legal brands promise the world for half the price of ‘conventional’ firms, but how realistic is that? Efficiency through IT and management processes may allow legal services to be provided more cheaply, but the biggest ...
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Tendering proposals an ‘attack on justice’
Solicitors this week condemned the government’s proposed criminal legal aid reforms as impractical and an attack on the quality of justice. Richard Atkinson (pictured), chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, said plans to introduce price-competitive tendering for criminal defence work are ‘unworkable’ for firms ...
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ABS delay frustrating for Scottish lawyers
Firms in Scotland are growing increasingly frustrated by delays to the advent of alternative business structures north of the border, according to senior lawyers. The Law Society of Scotland confirmed last week that its plans to be an approved regulator of the new entities are on ...
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Firm defends police officer Kelly Jones in kerb claim
The personal injury firm at the centre of a media furore over a claimant police officer has insisted its client is right to press on with the case. National firm Pattinson & Brewer said Norfolk officer PC Kelly Jones is continuing with a claim against a ...
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Trust is ‘key to breaking South Africa legal market’
Long-term relationships are all-important when breaking into the South African legal services market, a UK lawyer has advised on the eve of a Law Society-led delegation’s visit to Cape Town. Kerry Underwood, senior partner of Hertfordshire firm Underwoods, who has been lecturing and practising in South ...
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Europe reviews cross-border claims
The European Commission is to review the operation of a cross-border claims service, after admitting it has failed to make an impression with consumers. The European Small Claims Procedure was launched four years ago to resolve cross-border disputes worth less than €2,000. ...
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Judiciary ‘not ready’ for Jackson reforms
A High Court judge has told parties involved in some clinical negligence claims to ignore the Jackson reforms for at least six months. A practice note written last month and distributed to law firms by Master Roberts, one of two High Court clinical negligence masters, revealed ...
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Supreme Court justices sworn in
The Supreme Court last week swore in its two new justices. Lord Justice Hughes (pictured, top left) succeeds Lord Dyson and Lord Justice Toulson (pictured, top right) succeeds Lord Walker. Hughes will first hear a case from Northern Ireland concerning the admissibility of electronic fingerprinting ...
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SRA moves to calm fears over indemnity insurer
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has sought to reassure hundreds of law firms using Balva for professional indemnity cover after the Latvian company was placed under new restrictions. The Financial Conduct Authority has updated its register following a decision by Latvian regulators to prohibit Balva from writing ...
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Conveyancers want more training to tackle fraud
Mortgage fraud and money laundering are the biggest risks facing conveyancers, but three-quarters of firms want more training to tackle them, according to research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. In a thematic review of conveyancing, the regulator revealed that a quarter of 100 randomly selected firms ...
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Human rights accession breakthrough
A ‘decisive’ breakthrough has been made in the 33-month-long negotiations on how the EU is to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights. Negotiators for the EU and for the 47 Council of Europe signatories to the convention finalised a draft accession agreement on ...
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Chancery Lane wants voice at whiplash inquiry
The Law Society has demanded that solicitors’ voices are heard when MPs come to hear evidence on whiplash. The House of Commons transport select committee will invite witnesses to appear in parliament later this year having today closed the call for evidence. ...
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Reforms must work, family division head warns
‘Revolutionary’ reforms to the family justice system to speed up cases and cut costs must be made to work, the head of the Family Division has warned practitioners. In an update to the profession on the ‘revolutionary’ changes, Sir James Munby (pictured) noted the family justice ...
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Cabinet Office to tackle ‘excessive complexity’ of legislation
The rule of law is among the victims of unnecessarily complex legislation, the government’s chief legislation-drafter warns today. In a report examining the causes of complexity, Richard Heaton, first parliamentary counsel and permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, says the ‘current degree of difficulty’ is neither ...