All articles by Neil Rose – Page 5
-
News
New charity funding boost for pro bono lawyers
A national charity is to be launched next month to distribute a new stream of income for pro bono legal advice services, the Gazette can reveal. The Access to Justice Foundation is a major cross-profession initiative backed by the Law Society, Bar Council, Institute of Legal ...
-
News
SRA backtracks over higher rights accreditation scheme
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has backtracked on ambitious plans to introduce a voluntary accreditation scheme for solicitors appearing in the higher courts following opposition from top judges and others. In what was described at its meeting in Birmingham last week as a ‘pragmatic’ decision, the ...
-
News
Libel success fees decision
The government has decided not to push ahead with imposing fixed recoverable success fees and capped recoverability on after-the-event insurance (ATE) premiums in defamation and privacy cases. After eight months of waiting for an announcement following its defamation consultation last year, the government has opted to ...
-
News
Costs warning to solicitors over terminating retainers
A solicitor should not terminate his retainer because he disagrees with the client’s legitimate instructions, the High Court ruled last week.
-
News
Victory for firm over client account funds
Irwin Mitchell has won approval to claim funds paid on account even though the client’s finances were later subject to a restraint order. The national firm was acting for a client facing a Revenue & Customs investigation, who paid £5,000 on account of costs into its ...
-
News
New conduct code for third-party funders
Plans to introduce a code of conduct for third-party litigation funders have moved a major step closer after a high-level summit, the Gazette can reveal. The code, which will be endorsed by the Civil Justice Council (CJC), will set minimum standards of behaviour and outline the ...
-
News
Moj backtracks on claims
The government announced a major climb-down this week in its long-awaited response to the claims process consultation. The new process will only apply to road traffic cases worth up to £10,000 where liability is admitted. The consultation had proposed a £25,000 limit that also encompassed disease, ...
-
News
France unveils Clementi-style review
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has set in motion a Clementi-style review of the country’s legal profession so that French practices can compete with their Anglo-Saxon rivals. In a letter to Jean-Michel Darrois, who is heading the review, Sarkozy said it was necessary to give French firms ...
-
News
Compensation blow for justice victims
Many victims of miscarriages of justice are now in the ‘appalling situation’ of having no recourse to compensation following a Court of Appeal ruling last week, lawyers have claimed. The court refused to reinstate the discretionary compensation scheme that the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke abolished ...
-
News
Long road from the LSA
Leading figures from the profession recently debated the likely shape of a post-Legal Services Act world. The Gazette was granted exclusive access. It is some consolation for the legal profession that Professor Richard Susskind, the leading commentator, has put a question mark at the end ...
-
News
Society wary over Charter Mark idea
The Law Society has reacted cautiously to the Legal Services Ombudsman’s idea of introducing a Charter Mark scheme for solicitors. Ombudsman Zahida Manzoor also warned that the Legal Complaints Service’s (LCS) current proposals to publish complaints records ‘could potentially lead to some solicitors paying compensation irrespective ...
-
News
SRA eyes visits to big firms
Clifford Chance has undergone a trial Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) inspection as the regulator works out how best to inspect larger law firms. The City giant volunteered to be the SRA’s ‘guinea pig’ and five inspectors spent a week at the firm, learning how a practice ...
-
News
Protection 'racket'
Solicitors are poised to take on a wave of new legal work following a Competition Commission (CC) report on payment protection insurance (PPI), which showed that policyholders appear to be overcharged by more than £1.4 billion a year. The provisional findings of the CC investigation, published ...
-
News
CFAs under scrutiny
The government has commissioned a review of ‘no win, no fee’ arrangements, despite failing to publish the findings of its much-delayed consultation on the personal injury claims process – originally launched in April last year. The academic study, announced last week, will examine whether such arrangements ...
-
News
CJC makes class actions call
An opt-out class action procedure is needed to provide access to justice for consumers wanting to bring collective or multi-party claims, the government is to be told. The Gazette can reveal that, following an 18-month process of consultation and research which found ‘overwhelming evidence’ that meritorious ...
-
News
Aussie class action drive
One of Australia’s leading class action law firms has joined forces with a top Australian litigation funder to mount on assault on the class action market in the UK and Europe, the Gazette can reveal. One of the most significant entries to the nascent third-party funding ...
-
News
Society escapes complaints fine
The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) improved in ‘most areas’ of complaints-handling in 2007/08, the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner has ruled.
-
News
Currency of change
The costs system is under unprecedented scrutiny. Neil Rose examines the key pressure points and why the appointment of a senior judge to review the process is welcome.
-
News
Reforms predicted to trigger merger boom
The introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs) will greatly speed up merger activity among law firms, a snapshot survey of leading figures in the legal profession has predicted.
-
News
Senior judge set to review costs system
The Master of the Rolls is to appoint a senior judge to conduct a root-and-branch review of the costs system, the Gazette has learned.