Latest news – Page 688
-
News
CPS drops fraud charges in referral-fee case
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped charges against 11 solicitors and doctors after an investigation into an alleged insurance fraud. The group had faced charges including conspiracy to defraud and false accounting in relation to the payment of after-the-event legal expenses premiums as well ...
-
News
Bar aiming to bypass ‘superfluous’ solicitors
Solicitors are dismissed as ‘superfluous intermediaries’ in a new bar consultation paper which recommends making it easier for the public to bypass them and instruct barristers directly. The Bar Standards Board is examining whether barristers should be able to accept direct instructions from clients eligible ...
-
News
Privacy case numbers soar
The number of public figures using privacy arguments has more than doubled over the past year as the controversy over the use of injunctions has grown, according to research from legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell. The firm’s data shows a rise from nine to 24 in ...
-
News
Sir Scott Baker made a fundamental mistake in his extradition review
It must be gratifying for Sir Scott Baker that in Joshua Rozenberg he has at least one champion for his review of the UK’s extradition laws. But Mr Rozenberg’s seems to be very much the minority view on matters of forum and our treaty with the US.
-
News
Aid imbroglio
I was recently telephoned by Bridgend Magistrates’ Court to be told that a client of mine had been arrested on warrant in respect of breaching a suspended sentence order. I arrived at court and saw my client in the cells. He informed me he was working; I completed the CDS14 ...
-
News
Inefficient emails
Emails are now at the point where they are overtaking letters as the preferred form of communication. Emails, traditionally, are more informal and ‘matey’ as well as being far more (though not completely) instantaneous. My pet bugbear is that, with their informality, many senders fail ...
-
News
Troika’s liberalisation drive ‘threatens profession’
European governments are under pressure from the so-called ‘troika’ to rush through reforms that will erode the independence of the legal profession, the Gazette has been told. The reforms include the appointment by governments of non-lawyers to supervise and regulate the profession, with the authority to set fee levels and ...
-
News
Law firms urged to set pro bono hours target
The time has come for a debate on whether firms should set ‘aspirational’ targets for the number of pro bono hours worked by their lawyers and staff, the attorney general’s pro bono envoy has suggested. Michael Napier QC, who is also senior partner at national ...
-
News
ABS ‘threat’ to in-house legal teams
In-house legal teams will be vulnerable to replacement by services run by outsourcing businesses, such as Capita and Serco, once the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is able to license alternative business structures (ABSs).
-
News
'Sea change’ for county court claims
All claims to county courts are to be processed through a central facility in a ‘massive sea change’ designed to slash costs and processing times, the Gazette can reveal. From March, solicitors will no longer need to mail claims with a cheque to individual courts, ...
-
News
Peers target third-party capture
Peers debating civil litigation reform have called for a crackdown on the so-called ‘third-party capture’ practice of insurers approaching claimants directly. Four members of the House of Lords tabled amendments on the subject last week during the second reading of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
-
News
Ministers back virtual courts
Justice ministers have made personal appearances to give their backing to virtual courts and ‘live link’ communications between police stations and magistrates’ courts. Nick Herbert (pictured) and Jonathan Djanogly visited a police station in North Kent and a court in Chester last week to see the video technology in use. ...
-
News
'Serious’ privacy breaches over prisoners' letters
Legally privileged correspondence sent to prisoners is being compromised by solicitors failing to comply with procedures for addressing mail. The National Offender Management Service says there have been ‘many instances where correspondence from legal practitioners addressed or marked incorrectly has led to serious breaches of privacy’.
-
News
News focus: Vince Cable’s employment law ‘bonfire’
Business secretary Vince Cable’s speech announcing ‘radical reform to the employment law system’ reads oddly. It contains contradictions of the sort that do not usually make it into the final draft of a minister’s speech.
-
News
Colombia 'anarchy' is risking lawyers’ lives
The ‘black hand’ of drug smuggling, violence and political corruption has penetrated every level of Colombian society and now wields greater influence than the state itself, according to one of the country’s leading human rights lawyers.
-
News
Strike action disrupts courts nationwide
Courts across England and Wales suffered disruption today as the public sector endured the biggest walkout for a generation. The Ministry of Justice said key services such as family courts and custody proceedings were prioritised following action by the PCS union. Picket lines appeared at ...
-
News
Ken Clarke postpones legal aid reforms and tendering
The government has postponed the implementation of its legal aid reforms by six months and its consultation on price-competitive tendering for crime work by two years. In a written ministerial statement today, justice secretary Kenneth Clarke said the government will push back a consultation on ...
-
News
Family division head seeks ‘immense’ culture change
Family judges need to undergo an ‘immense’ cultural change to help tackle delays in the family justice system, the head of the family division said this week. Giving the Bar Council’s Law Reform Committee lecture, Sir Nicholas Wall (pictured) said that ‘active case management and judicial ...
-
News
Regulator will accept ABS applications from new year
The Solicitors Regulation Authority will begin accepting licence applications for alternative business structures from 3 January, it has announced. The order designating the SRA as licensing authority was laid before parliament today and will come into force on 23 December. The authority ...
-
News
Firms merge to create new £30m practice
City firm Sprecher Grier Halberstam has announced a merger with national firm Martineau after months of talks. The new business - SGH Martineau - will create a team of 360 staff members, of whom 200 are fee earners and 62 are partners. The two firms had ...