Latest news – Page 742
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News
Legal aid lawyers band together to lobby government
Lawyers’ groups have come together in an informal coalition to lobby the government over its legal aid and civil costs reforms, which they claim will ‘threaten the entire legal advice network’. Groups including the Law Society, Bar Council, Legal Action Group, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, ...
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Solicitors fined £20,000 for sending intimidating letters
Two London solicitors have been fined and suspended for three months by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for sending intimidating letters accusing people of illegal filesharing. David Gore, a current partner at Davenport Lyons, and Brian Miller, a former partner at the same firm, were found guilty ...
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MoJ clamps down on ‘rogue’ CMCs
The Ministry of Justice shut down nearly 350 rogue claims management companies over the last year, according to statistics released last week. In 2010/11, 349 unauthorised or unscrupulous firms were closed as the ministry clamped down on the exploitation of vulnerable consumers, compared to just 35 ...
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Newspapers warned against prejudicing trials
Newspapers have been warned they risk impeding the course of justice if they vilify a suspect who is under arrest. The Sun and Daily Mirror were today both found to have breached the Contempt of Court Act 1981 through their reporting of the investigation into the ...
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Law for All blames bureaucracy burden for closure
The UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm has blamed legal aid cuts and the ‘burden’ of the Legal Services Commission’s bureaucracy for its demise. Law For All, which advised 15,000 clients a year in three London boroughs, East Anglia and the Midlands, went into administration ...
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Five new judges appointed to High Court bench
The Ministry of Justice has announced the appointment of five new high court judges, including the first Sikh to be appointed to the High Court bench. Matrix Chambers’ Rabinder Singh QC (pictured) will become the first Sikh judge to sit in the High Court. ...
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News
Clyde & Co and BLG confirm merger
Partners at top-40 firms Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert have voted to proceed with a merger. The management of both firms have agreed the move, which will bring together the insurance specialists. Clyde & Co posted a £212m turnover ...
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Looming legal aid cuts to spark closures
Government plans to cut legal aid rates by at least 10% across the board from October will cause a ‘leap into unprofitability’ for firms, solicitors warned this week. The warning comes as mayor of London Boris Johnson voiced concerns that ‘the majority’ of women who have ...
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News
Santander charges ‘compliance fee’
Santander is to introduce an annual compliance fee for its panel members, in a move that the Law Society has called ‘deeply disappointing’. The lender will also open its panel to new firms in August. In a letter to panel members, the bank outlines its plans to move to a ...
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Law firms to survey staff on diversity
Law firms and chambers will have to carry out regular staff surveys to monitor the diversity of their workforce from next year, after the Legal Services Board published statutory guidance on the issue this week. From 2012, the LSB will require regulators including the Solicitors Regulation ...
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Firm loses ‘partner’ employment appeal
A solicitor who was paid through a profit share rather than receiving a salary should not be classified as a partner for employment law purposes, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled. Solicitor Jeremy Briars began working for Solihull firm Williamson & Soden in November 2001. ...
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Ministry of Justice could privatise enforcement work
The Ministry of Justice may seek a private contractor to provide criminal court enforcement services, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly has said. Last week, the Gazette revealed that outstanding fines had risen to £609m in the past 12 months, while enforcement staff numbers had dropped by 57, ...
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News
Solicitor-advocates fear QASA disadvantage
Solicitor-advocates fear they will be marginalised by the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates, and have suggested that some judges may not take part in the scheme. Advocates looking to gain accreditation at the top-two levels of the four-tiered QASA process will need judicial evaluation as well ...
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News
IBA updates conduct code
The International Bar Association (IBA) published a new global code of conduct this week, identifying the 10 core ethical principles that should guide legal professionals worldwide. The new code was compiled with the help of practitioners from every continent, including former Law Society president Edward Nally ...
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Consumer panel’s Hayter: solicitors 'in denial' over client views
Solicitors are ‘in denial’ about the way they are viewed by clients, the outgoing chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel told the Gazette in a parting shot at the profession this week. Dianne Hayter (pictured) said she regretted that too many lawyers were unwilling to ...
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News
Asbestos victims forum urges reforms veto
Campaigners for sufferers of asbestos-related disease have urged MPs to vote down civil litigation reforms. The Asbestos Victims Support Groups’ Forum said its members’ compensation will be ‘wiped out’ if claimants have to pay legal costs from their damages. Currently, claimants must ...
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News focus: Lord Justice Leveson's large remit
There has been a close focus in the press on the main actors in the judicial inquiry that David Cameron announced into the phone-hacking scandal on 20 July. The abilities of Lord Justice Leveson (pictured) and the panel of experts who will advise him do of course matter. As Joshua ...
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Is News International ‘fit and proper’ to own law firms?
There seems an extraordinary official silence as to the potential relationship of the scandal of News International with the forthcoming implementation of alternative business structures. News International, if it passed the fitness-to-own test, and indeed until the scandal it surely would have, could own a considerable number of legal firms. ...
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Hurting tenants
The recent Benchmarks article by Richard Pates exposes the fact that the Court of Appeal has driven a coach and horses through the tenant deposit scheme inserted into the Housing Act 2004, which protects tenants against the widespread abuse by landlords of the rental deposit system. ...
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Lay conspiracy
While solicitors spend millions of hours getting to grips with the new Solicitors Regulation Authority code (only four years after the last major revision) in the runup to October, they might care to look up the composition of the members of the SRA and the Legal Services Board. ...