Latest news – Page 740
-
News
Advocacy assurance scheme is ‘bar-centric’, solicitor claims
A significant number of solicitor advocates will not qualify for higher rights advocacy under a proposed ‘bar-centric’ Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), the chair of the Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has claimed. SAHCA chairman Jo Cooper said that advocacy regulator the Joint ...
-
News
Society sends letter of claim to Solicitors from Hell owner
The Law Society sent a letter of claim to the owner of the Solicitors from Hell website last week, as it prepared to launch a class action against him on behalf of the profession. The letter demands that website owner Rick Kordowski must close the site, ...
-
News
Lawyers see rise in insolvency and employment work
Law firms have seen a surge in insolvency-related work and employment advice, as tough economic conditions continue to affect clients. Figures from law firm referral service Contact Law showed a significant rise in calls from members of the public and businesses relating to employment and insolvency. ...
-
News
Halliwells partners appoint Irwin Mitchell to fight claims
Fourteen former partners at collapsed law firm Halliwells have appointed national firm Irwin Mitchell to represent them as they fight claims brought by the firm’s administrator. The group comprises individuals who did not transfer to one of the four firms that acquired parts of Halliwells’ business ...
-
News
Society to set up pro bono riot helpline for victims
The Law Society is to launch a telephone helpline next week which will direct small independent shopkeepers and other victims of the recent riots to pro bono legal advice. The Society will be working in collaboration with participating law firms and pro bono legal advice charity ...
-
News
Solicitors report ‘chaotic scenes’ as rioters processed through court
Defence solicitors and prosecutors have reported scenes of chaos as they worked day and night to represent or prosecute more than 1,000 alleged rioters and looters arrested so far this week. Magistrates’ courts in London and other cities across England have been sitting 24 hours a ...
-
News
Marsh launches PII service targeted at small firms
Insurance broker Marsh has launched a new service targeted at providing professional indemnity insurance (PII) for smaller firms. Marsh said its service would offer two to three-partner firms exclusive access to Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe, while four to 10-partner firms would have exclusive access to XL ...
-
News
Society welcomes amendment to Localism Bill
The government has amended the Localism Bill, following Law Society warnings that a certain provision could have caused uncertainty in the property market. The provision proposed strengthening local authorities’ powers to tackle abuses of the planning system where there had been a breach of planning control ...
-
News
Chartis will not offer new PII business
Insurer Chartis has said that it will not take on any new business in the solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market due to the high costs of the Assigned Risks Pool. The insurer said it will concentrate on renewals within its existing book instead. ...
-
News
OPG calls for more use of non-lawyers to avoid ‘costly legal solutions’
The Office of the Public Guardian is seeking to encourage the use of non-lawyers to act as deputies for those with impaired capacity, so they can avoid ‘costly legal solutions’. In a call for evidence published last week, the OPG is seeking the views of care ...
-
News
Lancashire firm targets deaf clients as staff learn sign language
A Lancashire law firm is set to become the first practice in the country dedicated to providing legal services to the deaf and hard of hearing. Joseph Frasier in Blackburn will next week launch a campaign – Representing Your Right to Be Heard – to help ...
-
News
Cardiff Law School launches GDL conversion course
Cardiff Law School is to add the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) conversion course to its portfolio of legal training courses from September 2012. The law school said that that the GDL scheme, which enables non-law graduates to train for a career in law, has become ...
-
News
Tottenham law firm damaged by fire
The Tottenham offices of London firm EBR Attridge have been damaged by fire during last weekend’s riots. In a statement issued through the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the firm said that despite suffering smoke damage, most files remain intact and are being ‘reassembled’. ...
-
News
Code of conduct for litigation funders moves closer
The Civil Justice Council is expected to agree a new code of conduct for third-party funders of litigation by the end of the year, to be combined with the launch of a new association of litigation funders. Compliance with the new voluntary code will be monitored ...
-
News
Guildford lawyer launches conveyancing tool
A Guildford solicitor has helped develop a new online tool to streamline conveyancing, enabling the mortgage lenders’ compliance process to be completed in ‘five minutes’. Julian Sampson, a partner at Wright & Wright, created the ‘Jet’ programme with Alan Dring, the former director of online conveyancing ...
-
News
SPs eligible to become Judicial Appointments Commissioners
Sole practitioners are eligible to apply for a position as a Judicial Appointments Commissioner, the recruitment agency acting for the Ministry of Justice has confirmed, despite confusion over the wording of the job specification. The specification for the role states that candidates seeking to become a ...
-
News
Wotton stresses ‘opportunity’ presented by ABSs
Law Society president John Wotton will today spell out his belief that alternative business structures can present a significant opportunity for the legal sector.
-
News
ITV clarifies Holden’s comments on QS
ITV’s This Morning has today clarified comments which were made by Amanda Holden in relation to QualitySolicitors. Following representations from the Law Society, QualitySolicitors agreed to ask the show to correct some comments made by the television presenter when she appeared as a guest of the ...
-
News
One in three law centres set to shut down
At least a third of law centres will close if government plans to cut legal aid funding go ahead this autumn, solicitors have predicted. The warning came after the UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm, Law for All, went into administration, weeks after the Immigration ...
-
News
Claimant solicitors to pay half of RTA portal costs
Claimant solicitors are to fund half of the cost of the Road Traffic Accident Portal, the Gazette has learned, in a move that claimant lawyers believe will give them more say in how the system operates. The portal, which launched last year as an information exchange ...