Latest news – Page 689
-
News
High Court backs Collyer Bristow
The High Court has found for City law firm Collyer Bristow and two of its former partners in a litigation fund-backed claim that centred on the failure of 19 complex investment schemes. The defendants had faced a claim for £60m, brought by 555 claimants. The claim, ...
-
News
Call for ‘maturity of young adult' test in prosecution
Prosecutors should consider the maturity of a young adult as part of their public-interest test for prosecution, a report by lobbying coalition the Transition to Adulthood Alliance has suggested. The report, published this week, says that police and the Crown Prosecution Service should consider the ‘lack ...
-
News
Local government career least popular option for students
Local government law is the least popular career option for law undergraduates, with less than 1% of 805 students questioned saying they would choose to work for a local authority, a survey has revealed.
-
News
Solicitors must 'wake up and smell coffee' over advocacy scheme
All solicitors will need to sign up to the quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) to ensure their practices are not restricted, a leading solicitor-advocate warned this week as the Solicitors Regulation Authority approved the timetable for the controversial accreditation scheme.
-
News
'Work to rule' blow to troubled civil courts service
New evidence of a civil courts service reaching breaking point has emerged with staff working to rule and one county court asking law firms not to increase its ‘already vast workload’ by chasing work in arrears. Members of the Public & Commercial Services union in the ...
-
News
SARs ruling brings relief to law firms
A Court of Appeal ruling on anti-money-laundering obligations will bring relief for businesses, including law firms, and remind lawyers of the importance of having appropriate systems to evidence concerns leading to suspicious activity reports (SARs). In a judgment last week, the court dismissed a claim made ...
-
News
City firm must defend whistleblower accusations
A City firm is to face whistleblowing and sexual discrimination claims brought by a sacked east Africa-based equity partner following her successful appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). The EAT has told Clyde & Co that it cannot rely upon its previous defence that the overseas-based partner was not ...
-
News
Sole ‘success’
Viv Williams’s recent comments really rubbed salt into a wound which was just beginning to heal. I set up my practice 25 years ago and operated as a sole practitioner for all of those years, highly successfully. I had a superb, loyal following which resulted ...
-
News
Persistence pays off
Edward Foster suggests it is unfair that so few LPC students secure a training contract and that a three-year postgraduate professional apprenticeship may be the way forward. The abolition of the minimum trainee ‘wage’ agreed last week should also help.
-
News
Managing stress
We at LawCare were sorry to read the letter of 10 May from Jean Booth. Sadly her experience of stress leading to debilitating and ultimately career-ending depression is one we hear only too often on the LawCare helpline. We would reiterate Ms Booth’s advice - if you are juggling the ...
-
News
Client confusion
The occasional articles by the Legal Ombudsman should give us all cause for concern. Historically we have, in these articles, had our clients described as ‘customers’ or ‘consumers’. Even the lay members of the ombudsman service ought to know that it is shopkeepers who have customers and regional or national ...
-
News
Co-op goes nationwide with 3,000 new hires
The Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) today announced plans to recruit 3,000 staff and extend its legal services to all 330 of its high street banks, creating the largest consumer law business in the country. CLS, which in March became one of the first alternative business structures, ...
-
News
Official statistics reveal ALS performance shortfall
Three months into its contract to provide court interpreters Applied Language Solutions (ALS) was not meeting its performance targets, statistics published today reveal. Data provided to the Ministry of Justice by ALS, showed that from 30 January to 30 April 2012, ALS provided an interpreter in 81% of the cases ...
-
News
Insolvency exemption in latest no win, no fee U-turn
Insolvency cases will be exempt from no win, no fee reforms until April 2015, the government has revealed in its second climb-down in its struggle to overhaul the civil justice system. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said today that insolvency practitioners need longer to adjust to ...
-
News
Co-op targets family legal aid - with loyalty points
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has a family legal aid contract and is already working on cases, ahead of the launch of its family law service in July, it revealed today. The news followed the announcement of the mutual’s plans to recruit 3,000 staff and expand its ...
-
News
Six months to end 'indiscriminate' prisoner voting ban
Britain has six months to draft new laws to end its blanket ban on prisoners voting in elections or face penalties totalling millions of pounds, it has emerged following a ruling from Europe’s human rights court. The court ruled that Britain’s ‘automatic and indiscriminate’ disqualification of ...
-
News
Judicial diversity must start with lawyers, says Goldring
Senior judges will reach out to the legal profession by mentoring those who feel excluded from high office. Speaking at a conference yesterday, Senior Presiding Judge Lord Justice Goldring revealed members of the profession previously put off because of their gender, race or sexuality will be ...
-
News
Tomlinson judge appointed first chief coroner
The judge who presided at the 2011 inquest that returned a verdict of unlawful killing on newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson was today named as the first Chief Coroner of England & Wales. The Ministry of Justice said that Peter Thornton QC will improve the coronial system ...
-
News
Social exclusivity ‘rife’ in profession
Social exclusivity is increasing in the legal profession, according to a new analysis of lawyers’ schooling published today. Legal recruiter Laurence Simons studied almost 50,000 professionals working in London using the networking site LinkedIn. It found that more than 15% of lawyers - more than 7,000 ...
-
News
General training ‘failing’, consumer watchdog tells review
Regular re-accreditation and an end to the ‘general practitioner model’ of training are among the reforms called for by the Legal Services Consumer Panel in its submission to the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) today. The consumer watchdog tells the review that the current system ...