Latest news – Page 718
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News
UK's top law firms see fee income growth
The UK’s top 100 law firms achieved overall fee income growth of 3.9% in the last financial year - but the gap between top and bottom is continuing to grow. Deloitte’s latest Quarterly Legal Sector Survey shows top firms increased productivity by 1.6% up to the ...
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Clarke rules out raid on client account interest
In a small victory for the Law Society, the government has dropped plans to use the interest from firms’ client accounts to bolster the legal aid budget. In its response to the green paper consultation, published after yesterday’s publication of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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Law Society winds up final salary pension scheme
The Law Society is to wind up its deficit-stricken final salary pension scheme, a move that chief executive Desmond Hudson expects to save the organisation £12.5m a year from 2012. Agreement has been reached with global retirement and savings specialist MetLife for a buy-out of ...
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PCS strikers aim to close Supreme Court
The courts will rely on their depleted ranks of senior managers to remain open during industrial action, when Ministry of Justice members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) strike on 30 June in protest at proposed changes to public sector pensions and job cuts. ...
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Djanogly urged to ease legal aid backlog
The president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association has written to justice minister Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) asking him to ‘directly assist’ in tackling the ‘appalling delay’ in legal aid applications and payments. Since the Legal Services Commission (LSC) centralized the administration of legal aid forms ...
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Beachcroft in merger talks with Davies Arnold Cooper
Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper are discussing a potential merger that would catapult the combined firm into the UK’s top 25 by revenue. The pair said today that together they aim to create one of the largest law firms serving the insurance market, both nationally and ...
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Huge debt burden would have deterred most of today’s lawyers from university
A new survey of qualified lawyers has found that under half would have gone to university today, when aspiring solicitors can expect to wrack up massive debts. Legal recruitment firm Laurence Simons found the majority of 224 respondents would have baulked at the total costs of ...
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Elite blames SRA for decision not to enter indemnity market
A leading insurer has said that the SRA’s failure to implement reform more quickly has deterred it from entering the solicitors’ professional indemnity market. Elite Insurance said it will not join the market this year despite initial suggestions it would be writing premiums. ...
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Chancery Lane urges government to fund family justice reforms
The Law Society has backed the Family Justice Review’s ‘far-reaching’ proposals for reform, but urged the government not to proceed with the changes unless it can provide the money to implement them properly. Responding to the consultation on the Interim Report of the review panel, which ...
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Victims of crime failed by criminal justice system
Members of the public have little confidence in the criminal justice system and feel the rights of the accused outweigh their own, a new survey suggests. National charity Victim Support reveals the extent of discontent with the system among recent victims of crime in its latest ...
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Lawyers ‘not trusted’ by majority, says consumer watchdog
Under half of the general public trust lawyers, according to the results of a survey commissioned by consumer watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel. Published today, the research reveals that only 47% of people in England and Wales trust lawyers to tell the truth. That figure ...
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Legal aid and sentencing reforms set to be announced later today
The delayed Justice Bill will be unveiled in the House of Commons this afternoon by justice secretary Kenneth Clarke. He is expected to outline deep cuts to the legal aid budget and plans for an overhaul of civil litigation funding – including plans to charge ...
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Arbitration service launched for libel disputes
A new not-for-profit company to help litigants resolve libel disputes quickly and cheaply has been launched today. Early Resolution is the brainchild of retired High Court judge Sir Charles Gray and Alastair Brett, former legal manager of The Times and Sunday Times. ...
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Djanogly reveals lawyers' pay from legal aid
The justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has provided details of the barristers and law firms paid the most from legal aid over the last year, ahead of the publication of the bill setting out the governments planned legal aid cuts. The figures prompted the Law Society to ...
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Administrators pursue former Halliwells partners for £20m
The administrators of collapsed law firm Halliwells have written to former equity partners demanding the repayment of a £20m ‘reverse premium’ which the partners shared when the firm moved into new premises in Manchester. BDO confirmed it wrote to the partners last week demanding they pay ...
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High Court dismisses challenges to magistrates’ court closures
The High Court has rejected legal challenges to the closures of Sittingbourne and Barry magistrates’ courts. Kent firm Robin Murray & Co brought judicial review proceedings in relation to the closure at Sittingbourne, while Vale of Glamorgan Council acted in the case of Barry. ...
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Board approves SRA application to license ABSs
The Legal Services Board has approved the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s application to become a licensing authority for alternative business structures. At a meeting this week, it also approved the SRA’s new Handbook, which sets out the standards and requirements for principles-based outcomes-focused regulation (OFR). ...
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Colombian government makes human rights a priority
Further to the article ‘Colombian lawyers under threat’ by Jonathan Rayner, I would like to clarify that the government of Colombia is fully committed to the protection of human rights for all and a better judicial system. Contrary to the concept of ‘judicial war’ described in ...
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Become a vet, solicitors
For those of us being driven to seek an alternative career might I suggest becoming a veterinary surgeon, a profession probably almost as old as ours. Our poor old terminally ill cat suffered a serious seizure on Bank Holiday Monday. ...
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Fair and swear
Today, for the first time in my life, I had to get a document notarised. It seems that this is a rather grand title for having my signature witnessed by a notary. At least that was all it entailed on this ...