Latest news – Page 645

  • News

    Clarke presses on with judges’ pension cut

    2012-07-17T00:00:00Z

    The lord chancellor has confirmed government plans to cut judges’ pensions to bring them in line with other public sector workers. In a written ministerial statement yesterday Kenneth Clarke said that the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had confirmed to the House that the government ...

  • News

    ‘Cut partner bonuses for diversity failures’

    2012-07-17T00:00:00Z

    Law firm partners who fail to take ‘robust measures’ to meet diversity targets should be financially penalised, according to a leading pro-diversity group. A report from the InterLaw Diversity Forum for LGBT Networks argues that the profession remains ‘stuck culturally in the mid-20th century’. ...

  • News

    City firm overturns TUPE ruling in Jarvis case

    2012-07-17T00:00:00Z

    Employment contracts of solicitors made redundant when their employers go into administration should not automatically transfer to law firms acting for the administrators, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled yesterday. The ruling on transfer of undertakings, protection of employment (TUPE) regulations, will free administrators to instruct their own legal advisers. ...

  • News

    Honorary degree for Rozenberg

    2012-07-16T00:00:00Z

    Legal commentator and Gazette columnist Joshua Rozenberg has been awarded an honorary degree by Nottingham Law School. Later this week he will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the law school, which is part of Nottingham Trent University. The law school acclaimed Rozenberg as ...

  • News

    ‘Alternative’ firm applies to be ABS

    2012-07-16T00:00:00Z

    A self-styled ‘alternative’ law firm which acts for companies such as BSkyB and Nike plans to become an alternative business structure. Halebury has a roster of 14 lawyers contracted to the firm but working on a consultancy basis in-house with corporate clients. The firm was founded ...

  • News

    'Upsurge' in Scottish firms interested in ABS status

    2012-07-16T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society of Scotland has reported an upsurge in law firms north of the border expressing interest in becoming alternative business structures, though it says new regulations enabling them to convert remain ‘some way off’. Today the Society has submitted a proposed regulatory ...

  • News

    Children in custody at five-year low

    2012-07-16T00:00:00Z

    The number of children in custody has hit a record low five years after the start of a programme designed to limit the use of prison, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Justice today.

  • News

    Lawyers may face regulation as MPs reject lobbyist register

    2012-07-13T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers who lobby professionally for their clients should be subject to regulation, according to a Commons committee report out today. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee says the government should scrap current plans for a statutory register of third-party lobbyists as not ‘fit for purpose’. Instead, ...

  • News

    ‘Swift’ justice to become ‘norm’ in criminal cases

    2012-07-13T00:00:00Z

    Dealing with criminal cases in 'hours and days' could become 'the norm' under government plans announced today. Policing and criminal justice minister Nick Herbert published a white paper detailing proposals designed to speed up cases in the criminal justice system. Extended court sittings, increased use of ...

  • News

    Look closer to home

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    I welcome the news that the Welsh government is launching a strategy to attract new legal jobs to the country and urging international London-based law firms to consider Wales as the ‘business location of choice’ for expansion and investment.

  • News

    Odious legislation

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    I am a Legal Executive and in a month’s time I will ‘celebrate’ having worked for 25 years in the legal profession, handling mainly legal aid cases.

  • News

    Salford proceedings

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    In response to Alexandra Adam's letter, I spoke to someone at Salford Business Centre about limitation on the day that the new procedure came into force. I was advised that if you are up against limitation, then you need to prepare proceedings to issue out of the Northampton County Court ...

  • News

    Default system

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    I read the views of Nicholas Cusworth QC. I support his advocacy of an accrual type of matrimonial property regime, but would add two extra aspects.

  • News

    Olympics cases to be fast-tracked

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    Measures to speed up criminal cases with night and weekend courts will be outlined in a white paper due to be published tomorrow by the Ministry of Justice. The changes build on measures adopted to cope with the high number of people arrested during last ...

  • News

    Law applicants unfazed by tuition fee rise

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    The number of students applying to read law at university appears to have held up well this year, despite a near 9% fall in applications across all degree subjects in the UK. Statistics released earlier this week by UCAS reveal that 50,000 fewer UK applicants have ...

  • News

    LinkedIn 'can help profession innovate'

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    ‘Crowd-sourced’ innovations can help lawyers temper the worst excesses of government cuts to access to justice, incoming Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said this week.

  • News

    Support for shot solicitor

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    Wiltshire solicitor James Ward (pictured) remains in a serious condition after being shot in his office last week. The principal partner at Morris Goddard & Ward began breathing on his own on Tuesday for the first time since the attack but remained in a coma, local colleagues said. ...

  • News

    Court pioneer retains funding despite 'failure'

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    England’s first ‘community’ court has failed to cut reoffending rates, a Ministry of Justice report has revealed - but it will continue to receive funding for the next two years. The report on North Liverpool Community Justice Centre (NLCJC), which opened in September 2005, combining courts ...

  • News

    CILEx president in new rights plea

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    Newly qualified legal executives are more experienced and knowledgeable than their solicitor counterparts, the new president of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) claimed in his inaugural speech last week. Nick Hanning said legal executives are ‘the equal of any other type of lawyer’ and ...

  • News

    Law firm bids for TV licence

    2012-07-12T00:00:00Z

    A Birmingham law firm behind a consortium bidding to run a new TV station in the city plans to broadcast a regular legal programme. DBS Law is part of Bham TV, which plans to launch in October if it wins approval from Ofcom for a ...