Latest news – Page 626
-
News
Company service business takes ABS route
Legal Clarity, a Birmingham-based business offering drafting and company secretarial services to ‘accountants, solicitors and entrepreneurs’, is one of the latest batch of organisations to win approval as an alternative business structure (ABS). It said registration, which became effective on 1 November, would allow ...
-
News
‘Diplomates’ fuel surplus debate
In his letter to the Gazette, Ben Hope was quite right to say that it is very difficult for ‘diplomates’ – those who have gained the diploma in legal practice – to obtain training contracts. Unfortunately, he confuses matters by calling them ‘law graduates’ and goes on to argue that ...
-
News
Demolition of the welfare state
I write in connection with your interview with shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan. It is a shame that he failed to mention the impact of the impending legal aid cuts on our migrant communities and foreign nationals within the UK prison system.
-
News
How to avoid a court crash
All practitioners in family law will recognise the scene: it is 9.45am and already the small waiting room in the county court is heaving with barristers, solicitors and parties to the proceedings. Often the morning session blurs into the afternoon and ‘justice’ is not swift. What ...
-
News
Low legal aid fee ‘scandalous’
Karen Todner is right to be concerned for the future of publicly funded criminal defence firms. My firm recently represented a 13-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of murder. A qualified solicitor spent nine hours and 42 minutes on a Friday evening and Saturday advising him, with ...
-
News
London care pilot to make £1m saving
A pilot to speed up care cases has more than halved the time taken to resolve matters and is on track to save the public purse £1m a year. In April, three London boroughs – Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham – began ...
-
News
US plea to curb third-party funding
A US lobby group has called for immediate government regulation of third-party litigation funding. The increasing influence of third-party funders has caused controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. Both the US, and England and Wales, currently have voluntary regulation, but there have been repeated calls ...
-
News
Divorce ruling branded ‘cheat’s charter’
Lawyers have branded as a ‘cheat’s charter’ a Court of Appeal landmark ruling that an oil tycoon need not hand over to his wife £17.5m in assets held by his companies. In Petrodel Resources Ltd & Ors v Prest & Ors [2012] EWCA Civ 1395 the ...
-
News
Goldsmith warning on confidentiality
Lawyer-client confidentiality is under authoritarian attack on several fronts, threatening the future of the profession, the secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe has warned.
-
News
Mediators go for ‘gold’ in Hong Kong
Demand for mediation services in Hong Kong – which adopted Woolf-style obligatory mediation in 2010 – has prompted the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) to create a panel of 22 mediators in the region. Mark Side, partner and head of dispute resolution at Tanner ...
-
News
SRA ‘confident’ over PC renewals
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has expressed ‘confidence’ that this year’s practising certificate renewal season, which began today, will pass more smoothly than last year’s troubled process. 2011 was the first year that the SRA attempted online renewal and payments, through its mySRA portal. Well-publicised difficulties with ...
-
News
Lyons Davidson looks to capitalise on ABS status
Lyons Davidson has been granted alternative business structure (ABS) status, which the national firm hopes will help it capitalise on changes in the UK legal market. Managing director Mark Savill told the Gazette that the move is key to its strategic relationship with insurers in preparation ...
-
News
Disappointment at costs council decision
Costs lawyers have expressed disappointment at the government’s decision not to create a costs council as recommended in Lord Justice Jackson’s civil justice reforms. On Monday this week, the Ministry of Justice announced in a written statement that the work of the disbanded Advisory Committee on ...
-
News
Leniency for legal whistleblowers
Whistleblowers involved in misconduct will face more lenient penalties under proposals being considered by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The regulator today launched a consultation on the introduction of co-operation agreements, under which solicitors who may have been involved in misconduct or failed to report it, but ...
-
News
Grayling promises clampdown on unrecovered legal aid
Wealthy defendants will have their cars seized and sold under a government plan to claw back £10m a year in contributions to legal aid. Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, will today publish a consultation on measures to ensure defendants co-operate with means testing and make ...
-
News
Bar broadside on referral fees ‘confused and self-serving’
The Law Society today rebutted bar claims that solicitors are putting pressure on barristers to enter referral fee arrangements that damage the interests of clients. Chancery Lane accused the Bar Council of ‘confusing the public interest with barristers’ interests’ in new advice to the bar which ...
-
News
Applied founder blames ‘intimidation’ for court interpreter debacle
The founder of the company at the centre of the court interpreting debacle today blamed ‘intimidation’ and ‘quite horrendous’ threats by interpreters boycotting his company for its failure to meet targets.
-
News
ABSs still a minority interest in flat market, says PwC survey
Alternative business structure status remains of interest only to a minority of big firms as a way of building business, according to a long-established annual snapshot. In the Law Firms Survey 2012, compiled by consultancy PwC, 11% of top-100 firms see ABS status as one of ...
-
News
Citizens Advice can bid for Lottery cash
Citizens Advice bureaux and law centres can bid for a share of £65m promised by the Big Lottery Fund on condition that they prove they can modernise their approach and improve collaboration. Advice providers and community-based organisations will be in contention for the funds if they ...
-
News
Repeat medical errors fuel NHS legal bill
Errors in maternity care that landed the NHS with a £3.1bn legal bill over 10 years are still being repeated, a new report has warned. The study by the NHS Litigation Authority found there were 5,087 maternity claims between 2000 and 2010. It was the most ...