Latest news – Page 628
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Rape figures show all-time high in conviction rate
Conviction rates for rape have risen to an all-time high, according to figures published by the Crown Prosecution Service today. The statistics reveal that from April 2012 to the end of March 2013 the CPS prosecuted 3,692 rape cases. Of those, 63.2% resulted in convictions, up ...
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Government has failed to justify EU opt-out, say peers
The government has failed to make a convincing case for opting out of the European arrest warrant (EAW) and around 130 other EU police and criminal justice measures in the Lisbon Treaty, the House of Lords EU committee says today.
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Lords fold on health and safety reform
The House of Lords has backed down over government plans to make it more difficult to sue employers for health and safety breaches at work. Peers were forced to vote for a second time last night on the aspect of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill ...
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Grayling faces new storm over JR curbs
New measures designed to cut the number of judicial reviews received a critical reception from immigration and environmental lawyers today. The measures, confirmed today after a consultation that ended in January, include: - a £215 court fee for anyone seeking a ...
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SRA wants compensation fund to cover intervention bill
The SRA has decided not to impose a one-off levy on solicitors to pay for the rising cost of intervening in failed firms, but wants the multimillion-pound bill to fall on the rapidly diminishing compensation fund instead.
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SRA getting better at complaints – independent assessor
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has ‘significantly improved’ how it deals with complaints about its service, an independent assessor has concluded. The Independent Complaints Review Service (ICRS) upheld or partially upheld 75 cases out of 245 separate complaints issued from October 2011 to the end of 2012. ...
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Collapse of banking deal won’t affect legal services, says Co-op
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has insisted that the collapse of the Co-operative Group’s planned purchase of 632 Lloyds Banking Group branches will have no bearing on its legal services expansion. The Co-op revealed today that it had withdrawn from the process, blaming the economic environment and ...
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CPS: Keir Starmer to step down after five-year term
Keir Starmer QC will step down as director of public prosecutions later this year, the Crown Prosecution Service announced today. Former human rights barrister Starmer, 51, who took up the post in 2008, has indicated that he will not seek to extend his five-year term of ...
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May unveils bilateral treaty to deal with Qatada
The proposed treaty with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that home secretary Theresa May announced today as part of her continuing efforts to deport suspected terrorist Abu Qatada excludes the use of evidence obtained through torture and also allows for the press and public to be excluded from a trial ...
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Revealed: Grayling's plan to drive a wedge between bar and solicitors
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has sought to drive a wedge between solicitors and barristers over the drastic plans to cut criminal legal aid and restructure the market, the Gazette has learned. At a meeting attended by circuit leaders and civil servants yesterday, Grayling said that ...
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QASA gets go-ahead from bar regulator
The Bar Standards Board has approved the handbook for the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. At the regulator’s meeting last night, lay member Malcolm Cohen was the sole dissenting voice. He told the board: ‘The scheme is not proportionate to the perceived risk and I ...
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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 ...