Latest news – Page 743
-
News
QualitySolicitors in settlement over copyright infringements with BPO
Law firm network QualitySolicitors has paid money out of court to settle a copyright infringement dispute with professional services consultancy Best Practice Online (BPO). BPO alleged QualitySolicitors infringed its copyright in relation to more than 100 articles published on the QualitySolicitors website in 2009 and early ...
-
News
Solicitors warned on stamp duty land tax avoidance schemes
Conveyancing solicitors are being pressured to become involved in stamp duty land tax (SDLT) avoidance schemes that cost the public purse around £35m, the Gazette has learned. To protect solicitors and help them challenge requests from clients or third parties to become involved in such schemes, ...
-
News
Free national debt advice service set to close
The Financial Inclusion Fund’s (FIF) free national debt advice service is set to close after the government axed its £25m-a-year funding. Last month, the financial secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, confirmed that funding for the free face-to-face advice service, which has operated since 2005, will ...
-
News
ProcureCo fears
Thirteen police station cases create 12 charged to court, 11 representation orders in magistrates’ court and one Crown court case. A ProcureCo would have to capture all duty work, and generate its own clients overnight (as that is where most work is) in several courts, not to mention covering police ...
-
News
High Court ruling paves the way for patent attorneys
A High Court ruling has cleared the way for patent attorney litigators to conduct litigation in High Court cases. In what is believed to be the first judgment on the scope of patent attorney litigators’ rights, Mr Justice Lewison clarified that they are entitled to conduct ...
-
News
Easing the burden on employment tribunals
There seems to be a consensus that our employment tribunals are unable to cope with the rise in claims. Much of the weight could be lifted simply by a tightened approach on compliance with directions. Employment lawyers are familiar with tribunal orders that contain references to ...
-
News
CPS consults over guidance on retracted rape claims
The Crown Prosecution Service has issued a 12-week consultation on its new guidance over when to prosecute people who retract allegations of rape or domestic violence. The interim guidance, which is effective from today, applies in cases where a complainant of rape or domestic violence retracts ...
-
News
Legal services generate £23bn for UK economy
The UK’s top 100 law firms cut their running costs by £500m to help tip themselves into profit last year, research by trade body TheCityUK has found. Profits of the largest 100 UK law firms increased by 1% in 2009/10 to £4.07bn, despite a 4% fall ...
-
News
Embrace electronic working, criminal law solicitors told
The Law Society has called on criminal law firms to embrace electronic working, as the Crown Prosecution Services seeks to become completely digital by April 2012. Both bodies want to see more firms sign up to use secure email, to enable information to be shared between ...
-
News
ACS:Law cannot drop filesharing cases – judge
The Patents County Court yesterday stayed the hearing of actions for alleged illegal file-sharing, brought by London firm ACS:Law on behalf of its clients MediaCAT. His Honour Judge Birss refused to discontinue the cases in the manner requested by the claimants, saying the notices of ...
-
News
Recession-hit firms dispute government contracts
More recession-hit businesses are complaining about how government public sector contracts are awarded, according to research by law firm EMW. There was an 84% rise in complaints made to the Office of Government Commerce in the year to the end of September 2010, to 57 complaints, ...
-
News
Law Society launches legal aid campaign for the public
The Law Society is to launch a high-profile campaign, ‘Sound off for justice’, this week – aimed at harnessing public opposition to legal aid cuts. The initiative will seek to raise awareness of what the cuts could mean for members of the public, in advance of ...
-
News
New planning proposals risk ‘uncertainty and chaos’ in property market
Proposed changes in the government’s Localism Bill could bring uncertainty and chaos to the property market, the Law Society has warned. The bill proposes changes to planning rules, including strengthening the power of local authorities to tackle abuses of the system. It ...
-
News
Surge in disputes over trusts, figures show
Legal disputes over trusts have soared by 238% during the recession, according to City firm Wedlake Bell. Figures from the Ministry of Justice show the number of claims in the High Court in London involving trusts rose to 44 in 2009, up from 13 in ...
-
News
Marketing collective for brain injury specialists to launch in April
A nationwide network of specialist brain injury lawyers, The Brain Injury Group, is set to launch this April, the Gazette can reveal. The Brain Injury Group will work in tandem with other professional services that provide medical, rehabilitation, welfare and financial support to people who have ...
-
News
Libel tourist problem
Steven Heffer asserts that there is no evidence of a real problem of libel tourism. Here it is: in Akhmetov v Obozrevatel [2007], a Ukrainian oligarch sued in the English courts a Ukrainian website published in Ukrainian because it was accessed a few times in the UK.
-
News
ProcureCos add insult to injury
I welcome Avtar Bhatoa’s assessment of the threat posed by the use of ProcureCos to obtain contracts from the Legal Services Commission. The Ministry of Justice proposals threaten the very existence of our firms.
-
News
Embracing new business models
Avtar Bhatoa’s article is an interesting contribution to the debate about ProcureCos and their role in allowing the bar to bid directly for Legal Services Commission contracts (see [2011] Gazette, 27 January, 12). But his characterisation of the two sides of the legal profession as being at loggerheads is ...
-
News
Row erupts over police interpreters
Detainees at police stations in four areas of the north-west are at risk of miscarriages of justice due to the police forces’ use of inadequate interpreters, the Gazette has been told.
-
News
Supreme Court widens definition of violent abuse
Solicitors have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling that domestic violence extends beyond physical contact to include other forms of violent conduct.