All articles by Michael Cross – Page 117
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News
Power of attorney applications lead MoJ’s digital dash
Applications for lasting power of attorney will be available on the web from next April as one of a batch of digital services, the Ministry of Justice revealed today. The service is one of four picked by the department to meet central government’s call for ‘digital by default’ public services ...
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Show us more red tape, SRA asks firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has identified nine unnecessary regulations affecting law firms – and has appealed to solicitors to identify more for simplification or abolition. Announcing the next phase of the authority’s Red Tape Initiative, Charles Plant, the SRA’s chair, last week appealed to the profession ...
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Behind closed doors
I know that admitting this is a bit like inviting Jehovah’s Witnesses into the house, but I am genuinely interested in the work of the Legal Services Consumer Panel. The panel’s latest background paper, Empowering Consumers, raises important questions about whether people who buy legal services are consumers in the ...
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Council defers defamation move
A local authority has decided to defer acting on lawyers’ advice that recent changes in policy allow it to sue critics for defamation. Rutland county council said today that following a council meeting last night ‘the option of taking legal action for defamation is not being pursued at this time’. ...
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QASA start delayed
The introduction of the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) has been delayed. The Joint Advocacy Group (JAG), made up of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Ilex Professional Standards (IPS) issued a statement today following consideration of the responses ...
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Law firm websites ‘trail other sectors’
City firm Berwin Leighton Paisner and international firm DLA Piper have scored the highest in a survey of legal websites – which the authors say reveals that law firms have much to learn from other sectors. Of 30 law firms surveyed by Last Exit, a digital ...
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Egypt judges boycott constitution vote
Judges in Egypt have refused to oversee a vote on the country’s new draft constitution announced by president Mohamed Morsi. The Judges’ Club’s decision follows a confrontation between Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court and Islamist supporters of Morsi. The court said it was suspending its work after ...
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Implement Jackson reforms for media litigation, says Leveson
A call for Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals on costs to be introduced for defamation, privacy, breach of confidence ‘and similar media-related litigation’ appears in the Leveson report on the press published today. In his report, Lord Justice Leveson proposes a new law to create an independent ...
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Former attorney general says Grayling ‘failed’ test
The lord chancellor has failed in his duty to uphold the law - by proclaiming parliamentary sovereignty over the issue of prisoner voting, according to a Labour former attorney general. In a strong attack on Chris Grayling, Lord Goldsmith calls attention to the lord chancellor’s ...
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Society welcomes College of Law metamorphosis
Leading legal figures have welcomed the metamorphosis of private equity-owned College of Law into Britain’s first for-profit university. The college announced yesterday that ministers had granted it permission to be known as The University of Law.
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Grayling ponders legal aid ban over prisoner votes
Prisoners may be refused legal aid to sue the government if parliament decides to defy the European Court of Human Rights over voting rights, the justice secretary said today. In a debate following a statement announcing a draft bill on the issue, Chris Grayling said ...
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Lord chief justice to step down
Lord Judge, lord chief justice, announced today that he will retire at the end of September 2013. A Judicial Office statement said that the process to appoint his successor as senior judge of England and Wales will begin in early 2013. Igor ...
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Fury and bewilderment at plans to curb judicial reviews
Lawyers responded critically to the prime minister’s call today for measures to cut the number of applications for judicial review. Adam Chapman, partner and head of public law at national firm Kingsley Napley, described the focus on judicial reviews as ‘a peculiar target’ in the ...
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Video in courts ‘not being used’
Time is running out for the practice of leaving video suites in courts, the official in charge of computerising the justice system said last week. Paul Shipley, IT director at HM Courts & Tribunals Service, said the Ministry of Justice is demanding that ‘cashable savings’ ...
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UK dismisses European common sales law plan
The government has poured cold water on European Commission proposals for an optional common European sales law. In a response to a call for evidence published today, it describes the commission’s plan as ‘an unbalanced proposal which is overly complex, introduces confusion and legal uncertainty ...
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Pilot officer Isaac’s short second world war
Memorial plaques at Golders Green Crematorium, north London, bear lots of memorable names; Anna Pavlova, Marc Bolan, Sid James. But, hanging around after a funeral a few years back, a memorable date caught my eye. It was 3 September 1939, on a Commonwealth War Graves tablet commemorating the falling of ...
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Goldring warns expert witnesses on fee ‘padding’
Expert witnesses will face fixed fees if they are found to be ‘padding out’ their charges to compensate for new hourly rates, the senior presiding judge of England and Wales warned the largest regular conference of experts today. Lord Justice Goldring told attendees at the ...
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Chancery Lane hits out at LETR over claim
The Law Society has hit back at claims that the current system of legal education and training is unfit for purpose. In a critical response to a discussion paper published by the cross-professional Legal Education and Training Review (LETR), the Society says it is ‘not aware of clear evidence that ...
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Digital by default
For some reason it failed to top the world’s news agenda, but yesterday the government announced a revolution in the way it interacts with citizens and businesses. The Cabinet Office published a strategy for Whitehall to go ‘digital by default’, meaning that Amazon-style online transactions will finally replace paper forms, ...
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Disappointment at costs council decision
Costs lawyers have expressed disappointment at the government’s decision not to create a costs council as recommended in Lord Justice Jackson’s civil justice reforms. On Monday this week, the Ministry of Justice announced in a written statement that the work of the disbanded Advisory Committee on ...