All articles by Michael Cross – Page 118
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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.
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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’ ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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, ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
Mediators go for ‘gold’ in Hong Kong
Demand for mediation services in Hong Kong – which adopted Woolf-style obligatory mediation in 2010 – has prompted the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) to create a panel of 22 mediators in the region. Mark Side, partner and head of dispute resolution at Tanner ...
-
News
ABSs still a minority interest in flat market, says PwC survey
Alternative business structure status remains of interest only to a minority of big firms as a way of building business, according to a long-established annual snapshot. In the Law Firms Survey 2012, compiled by consultancy PwC, 11% of top-100 firms see ABS status as one of ...
-
News
Green light for deferred prosecution agreements
The government today announced plans to legislate to create US-style deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) for corporate crime. Publishing a government response to a Ministry of Justice consultation held last summer the justice minister, Damian Green (pictured), said DPAs 'will give prosecutors an effective new tool to tackle what has become ...
-
News
Call for clients to have a say on fitness to practise
Continuing to practise as a lawyer will depend on regular positive reviews from clients and colleagues if the Legal Services Consumer Panel has its way. In its latest submission to the Legal Education and Training Review, set up by the three main regulators, the consumer champion calls on the review ...