Latest news – Page 695
-
News
Firm offers £1,500 advance for PI victims
A personal injury firm with ambitions to open 50 outlets this year is offering a £1,500 cash advance for accident victims who make a claim. GT Law, which has also applied to be an alternative business structure, will require a medical report and insurer’s admission of ...
-
News
Strasbourg reform ‘watered down’
The coalition’s blueprint for the reform of Europe’s human rights court in Strasbourg achieved only limited changes after proposals to help clear the backlog of more than 150,000 cases were watered down or removed during negotiations.
-
News
SRA costs plan 'a burden' says Society
The Law Society has told regulators that solicitors should not be expected to pay for losses incurred by uninsured firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority proposed last week that payments would be taken out of the Compensation Fund from later this year. The fund, paid for by ...
-
News
Court interpreter situation 'improving'
Large numbers of court hearings are still being hit by interpreter problems nearly three months after new contracting arrangements began - but the situation has improved, new figures indicate.
-
News
Private prosecution pioneer opens
A firm thought to be the first private prosecution specialist in Britain opened in London last week to ‘fill a gap in the tackling of economic crime’. Edmonds Marshall McMahon, established as a legal disciplinary practice, will specialise in fraud, counterfeiting, regulatory offences, corporate crime and ...
-
News
Chancery Lane slams ‘flawed’ BSB report
The Law Society has condemned as ‘flawed and self-serving’ a Bar Standards Board survey alleging a decline in the quality of advocacy. The report, Perceptions of Criminal Advocacy, found that a majority of barristers responding to an online survey blamed pressure on criminal legal aid ...
-
News
Solicitor rapped for ‘frustrating’ tribunal
The president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has backed an employment tribunal’s finding of ‘appalling’ behaviour by a solicitor in a strongly worded judgment.
-
News
Move to close criminal advice loophole
A legal loophole that has allowed police to deny suspects their right to consult a solicitor could be closed by a change in the law. Home Office officials have agreed to propose an amendment to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984, imposing a ...
-
News
Difficult to comprehend
I have followed with interest and mounting concern the Gazette’s coverage of fears about the declining standards of interpretation in UK criminal courts, most recently ‘Interpreter mistake causes trial to collapse'.
-
News
Why the overlap?
I note the debate about the future of the Legal Services Board. I remain intrigued and confused. I thought that the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority represented our professional and regulatory body respectively. Alas, it would seem that this is not the case, ...
-
News
‘Light touch’ OFR?
In her speech on 19 April announcing the delayed dates for the submission of nominations for the appointment of COLPs and COFAs, SRA executive director Samantha Barrass is reported to have said that in support of the nomination ‘a senior manager from the firm must confirm that the firm has ...
-
News
Outmoded example
I do not seek to comment on the broad issues raised by the author of the letter ‘Smelling a rat', but I do take strong issue with the facts set out in the two cases he cites in his argument. In each case he mentions that ...
-
News
PI lawyers rule out ‘deal or no deal’
Personal injury lawyers are refusing to play ‘deal or no deal games’ with the government over fixed fees for smaller cases. The government has written to all stakeholders asking them to suggest a limit for the value of claim that solicitors should be able to charge ...
-
News
MoJ: ‘up to solicitors’ to police damages
A Ministry of Justice official has said it will be up to solicitors to police a key aspect of the civil litigation reforms. Robert Wright, head of civil litigation and funding at the MoJ, admitted last week there is no way for the government to ensure ...
-
News
Supreme Court dismisses Seldon age discrimination appeal
The Supreme Court today ruled against a former equity partner who had brought an age discrimination case against his law firm for unlawfully making him retire aged 65. It sent the case back to the Employment Tribunal to decide an issue that remains outstanding.
-
News
Whiplash claims need objective evidence, say insurers
The body representing the insurance industry has called for compensation for whiplash claims to be withheld until there is ‘objective evidence’ of injury. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has urged the government to look at radical action to tackle growing numbers of whiplash claims. Speaking ...
-
News
Legal aid bill back in Commons for latest ping pong round
The government suffered three more House of Lords defeats to its plans to cut legal aid last night, setting the scene for a further tussle in the Commons today. The parliamentary ping pong follows 11 defeats initially inflicted by peers on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of offenders bill, ...
-
News
Clarke in Jackson reform climbdown
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke today made a surprise U-turn to postpone Jackson reforms for mesothelioma cases. The issue has been the most controversial aspect of part two of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill, with the Lords voting for a second time on ...
-
News
Double ABS first for NewLaw Legal
A personal injury firm based in Cardiff has become the first Welsh practice to be licensed as an alternative business structure (ABS). NewLaw Legal, founded in 2004, was confirmed as the fourth ABS by the Solicitors Regulation Authority today. It is also ...
-
News
Will-writing must become reserved activity, LSB says
Proposals to regulate all providers of will-writing and estate administration come a step closer today as the Legal Services Board confirms plans to make the services ‘reserved activities’. Under proposals published today, designed to provide greater consumer protection, all providers of such services would be regulated. ...