Latest news – Page 805
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News
Gazette survey on firms’ recovery from recession
The Gazette is asking solicitors to participate in a survey about how law firms are recovering from the economic crisis. In association with the Gazette, Wesleyan for Lawyers, part of a financial services mutual, is conducting a profession-wide survey examining how the financial crisis has ...
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Advocates to face tougher regulation under new proposals
Solicitor-advocates and barristers could be forced to work for longer in the lower courts before being granted higher court rights, under proposals put forward by the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG). At present, solicitors can appear in the higher courts after completing the Higher Rights of Audience ...
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Irish solicitors take court action over transfer rights
Irish solicitors have taken the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Legal Services Board to court over the regulators’ decision to take away their automatic right to practise in England and Wales. According to reports in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post, the Irish Law Society has issued High Court ...
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OFT seeking costs analysis over will regulation
The Office of Fair Trading is not opposed to will-writing becoming a reserved activity, but is seeking a costs benefit assessment before there is any extension of regulation in the field, it has told the Legal Services Board. Speaking at a recent LSB seminar on the ...
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Firm oversteps ABS rules in outsourcing deal
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has found that Bradford, Glasgow and Newcastle firm Optima Legal overstepped the rules on alternative business structures (ABSs) in an arrangement with outsourcer Capita. Publishing an investigation into the agreement, the SRA said that ‘while Optima Legal’s original outsourcing and funding arrangements ...
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MoJ to slash £2bn from its budget
The Ministry of Justice will slash £2bn from its £9bn budget in order to meet government spending targets, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has claimed. Citing a letter understood to have been circulated to MoJ senior staff today, the PCS estimated that around 15,000 ...
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Scrapping personal search fee will ‘benefit no one’, warn conveyancers
The government’s decision to scrap the fee for personal searches of the local land charges register will benefit no one and will add to the financial pressure on local government, lawyers have warned. Housing minister Grant Shapps announced last week that the government will abolish the ...
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Research shows ‘incompetence’ in will-writing
Two-thirds of trust and estate practitioners have encountered ‘incompetence or dishonesty’ in the will-writing market in the past year, according to research published today. The study has prompted the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), which conducted the survey, to renew its calls for better ...
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Law Society calls for suspension of family tender result
The Law Society has called on the Legal Services Commission to suspend the implementation of the family legal aid tender round in a letter to its chief executive Carolyn Downs. Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said ‘the public interest demands’ that the tender round should ...
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Family judges alarmed over legal aid tender
The head of the family courts has warned the Legal Services Commission that he has been ‘inundated’ by family judges expressing serious concerns over the outcome of the family legal aid tender, in a letter seen by the Gazette. Lord Justice Wall has written to the ...
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Lawyers see 'explosion' in cohabitation cases
The recession has caused an ‘explosion’ in the number of cohabiting couples seeking advice on relationship breakdown, according to family lawyers who have called for the ‘complex’ laws applied to them to be updated. Vanessa Lloyd Platt, founder of London firm Lloyd Platt & Co, said: ...
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LSB approves £428 practising certificate fee
The Legal Services Board has approved the level of the individual practising fee at £428 per solicitor for 2010/11. Solicitors, recognised European lawyers and recognised foreign lawyers (RFL) will pay the individual fee, while their firms will also pay a firm-based fee, which will be calculated ...
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No choice for mental health clients
The letter from Hugh Barrett of the Legal Services Commission refers to the allocation of new matter starts according to ‘client demand’. He implies that the LSC are responding to client needs rather than the interests of solicitors. A clever approach but misleading.
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Legal aid debacle
I have to add my voice to what can only be termed as the legal aid tendering debacle where established existing providers have been cast aside in place of big boys/providers. My practice is in the London borough of Havering. It has been established for over ...
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SRA fee: double the pain
I have a firm turning over £2.2m with eight solicitors. In 2009/2010, we paid £10,610 for practising certificates and the compensation fund etcetera.
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Building the case for a bill of rights
Is the pendulum of justice swinging too far in favour of the prosecution? As a result of allegations of jury tampering, a recent high-profile case was heard by a judge alone. The Crown Prosecution Service has been heavily criticised for refusing to charge a police ...
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Move to protect anonymity of children
The Law Commission has recommended that children and young people who appear in Crown court trials should have a statutory right of appeal against a judge’s decision to allow reporting of their identity. Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 allows a judge ...
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Call for ‘urgent action’ on children’s services
A group of 18 legal, medical and child care organisations has called for urgent action to reform the delivery of court services to children in family proceedings. The Interdisciplinary Alliance for Children issued a joint position statement last week, voicing ‘grave concerns’ about the services currently ...
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Lawyers call for safeguards in EU investigation scheme
A planned EU-wide scheme that will make it easier for the police forces of member states to share evidence in their fight against international crime could have ‘grave implications’ for civil liberties, lawyers have warned. Home secretary Theresa May announced last week that the government would ...
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Duty solicitors face pay scrutiny
A proposal to change the way duty solicitor slots are allocated would ensure that duty lawyers are no longer ‘overpaid’, a leading criminal solicitor has suggested. The Ministry of Justice is understood to be considering altering the current arrangements, so that duty solicitor slots are ...