All articles by Michael Cross – Page 121
-
News
Show us the proof government can handle our data legally
A study commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform trust has lobbed a legal hand grenade into the government’s stated ambition to look after us better with the help of bigger and more joined up computer databases. According to the report, the Database State, nearly a quarter of the government’s biggest ...
-
News
Free legal web project seeks funding
A scheme to create a comprehensive online guide to English law is looking for £50,000 to fund its first phase. The Free Legal Web, the brainchild of legal publishing consultant Nick Holmes, has already won a government-sponsored prize for innovative uses of official information.
-
News
Lawyers targeted as ID card users
Lawyers may be among the first customers of equipment to read UK identity cards, the minister in charge of the scheme said last week. Meg Hillier, undersecretary of state at the Home Office, told a conference on the business uses of ID cards that one ...
-
News
ADR encouraged in planning process
Replacing planning appeals with alternative dispute resolution (ADR) could help save businesses and councils £300m a year, the government claimed this week. The proposals, published by the Communities and Local Government department, call for a ‘more proportionate’ planning system, removing nearly 40% of minor non-residential developments ...
-
News
Will writers attack comparison site
Will writers have reacted with alarm to plans by a price-comparison website to enter the legal services market. The Society of Will Writers this week warned that an online match-making service offered by the Paaleads.com venture could be ‘devastating to the professionalism’ of the industry. In ...
-
News
Met safety deposit box raid slammed
A solicitor representing owners of safety deposit boxes raided by police has spoken out against what he says is excessive use of powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). Lawrence Kelly, of London solicitors Lawrence Stephens, claimed the authorities are using warrants to trawl ...
-
News
Lawyers to advise professions group
An official body set up to advise the chancellor of the exchequer on future challenges facing the professional services sector is looking for input from lawyers. Michael Snyder, chairman of the professional services global competitiveness group, said last week that he would ‘welcome ideas from any of the legal professions’ ...
-
News
'Offer of amends' could lead to fewer libel cases at trial
The settlement of a high-profile libel case between supermarket giant Tesco and The Guardian newspaper will encourage the use of ‘offers of amends’ as an alternative to trials, libel lawyers said this week. Tesco Stores Ltd had sued Guardian News & Media Ltd ...
-
News
Poland: rule of law concerns
Continuing concerns about the Polish government’s interference in the rule of law have emerged in a new study by the International Bar Association. In a follow-up to its 2007 report Justice under Siege, the association commended efforts by the new government since last year’s election, ...
-
News
Crisis set to spur consolidation
The collapse of Lehman Brothers amid turmoil on Wall Street will provide rich pickings for top firms but spell tough times for the rest, analysts have warned.
-
News
Fujitsu starts £700m claim against NHS
Formal moves have begun in the largest single claim for compensation ever made against the NHS, a computer contractor revealed last week. Fujitsu Services said it had issued a procedure initiation notice to the IT agency NHS Connecting for Health following the termination of a ...
-
News
Firm ditches mental health law over rates
A London firm specialising in mental health law is to slash its caseload in protest at the ‘punitive’ rates paid under the government’s fixed-fees scheme. Kaim Todner said this week it had given notice to the Legal Services Commission on 1 September that it would ...
-
News
Legal aid recovery threat
A six-figure claim lodged against a solicitor seven years after he gave up practice has raised the spectre of the Legal Services Commission (LSC) aggressively recouping historic legal aid funding, despite a partial amnesty agreed earlier this year. The commission has launched a High Court ...
-
News
Cartel case approaches
An innovative model for funding ‘risk-free’ group actions against business cartels could have its first court blooding this autumn, the scheme’s originators said this week. ‘Cartel Key’, launched by collective claimant specialist Cohen Milstein Hausfeld Toll and insurers FirstAssist Legal Protection, will remove a deterrent ...
-
News
Barking eyes new legal markets
Local government will take a further step towards entering the open legal services market this week when the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham announces the reorganisation of its legal team along private sector lines. The council has lured three senior ‘partners’ from neighbouring authorities: ...
-
News
Planning Bill under fire
Two key parts of the government’s planning reforms have come under attack from environmental law experts this week. Members of the UK Environmental Law Association’s (UKELA) planning and sustainable development working party described some provisions of the Planning Bill – which has been delayed in ...
-
News
Solicitor slaps writ on county court
Frustration at the service lawyers receive from some court administrators was further manifested this month when a Surrey solicitor filed a High Court order to force a county court to list a hearing on a landlord-tenant case. Clive Wismayer, of Wismayers Solicitors, Great Bookham, said ...
-
News
GMC witness prescription
The medical profession’s regulator will publish new rules this week to ensure doctors acting as expert witnesses understand their overriding duty is to the administration of justice. The General Medical Council’s new guidelines appear at a time of crisis in the witness system, following complaints about ...
-
News
Super regulator names members
Solicitors will make up one-third of the members of the new overarching regulator of legal services, the Ministry of Justice has disclosed. The new Legal Services Board was set up under the 2007 Legal Services Act to simplify regulation and ‘put the consumer first’. ...
-
News
SFO in drugs appeal
The Serious Fraud Office’s reputation for legal competence is under scrutiny following the latest setback to a high-profile prosecution. A Crown Court judge last week refused to let the office amend an indictment on criminal offences relating to contested allegations of anti-competitive behaviour over the ...