All News articles – Page 1247
-
News
Political storm over Strasbourg whole life ruling
Ministers have condemned the decision by Strasbourg that whole life sentences breach human rights, suggesting that the role of the European Court of Human Rights should be ‘curtailed’. The attack follows the final ruling of the court yesterday that whole life imprisonment of murderer Jeremy Bamber and two others breached ...
-
News
Lobby law loophole for lawyers
Law firms that lobby on behalf of their clients will escape the provisions of the government’s lobbying bill, transparency pressure group Unlock Democracy said today. The group said plans to force firms to declare whom they represent would exempt 80% of the lobbying industry, including law ...
-
News
Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, July 1963 World peace through law As this issue of the Gazette is published, the First World Conference on World Peace through the Rule of Law will have reached its concluding sessions in Athens. The first task of the world conference was to try to formulate ...
-
News
New government strategy for professional services
Boosting exports and improving skills levels in professional firms are the key priorities of the government’s industrial strategy for professional and business services, published today. The 48-page document, from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, highlights the importance of broadening higher apprenticeship routes in the professions, in particular the ...
-
News
EC unveils European public prosecutor plan
A European Public Prosecutor’s Office will tackle the annual loss to fraud of £431m of EU funds according to proposals published by the European Commission yesterday. The proposed office will follow up every case of suspected fraud against the EU budget. This will have a strong deterrent effect, the EC ...
-
News
DPP to meet judge following prosecution ‘farce’ in murder trial
Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), is to meet Richard Griffith-Jones, the judge who made a scathing attack on the Crown Prosecution Service after a murder trial descended into farce last month.
-
News
Water Divining
Yes, it’s the time of year when legal aid solicitors shed a tear for colleagues at the City firms as they announce their annual results. In general the form with these announcements is that the worse the results, the less assistance the press is given to report them. So hats ...
-
News
Profession denounces posthumous Magnitsky trial
Lawyers worldwide have denounced the posthumous trial of Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky (pictured) who was yesterday found guilty of tax evasion in a Moscow trial that began following his death in prison four years ago. Magnitsky died in a pre-trial detention after accusing Russian police of complicity in a $230m ...
-
News
Lack of demand shuts first one-stop shop for offenders
England’s first ‘all in one’ court and offender treatment centre is set for closure due to under-use, the justice minister announced today. Helen Grant announced a six-week consultation on plans to shut North Liverpool Community Justice Centre and move its work and the principles of its problem-solving approach to Sefton ...
-
News
New rules that may dilute TUPE rights delayed until September
New regulations that may reduce transfer of undertakings protection of employment (TUPE) rights have been delayed to September, it emerged this week. The new regulations, which had been due for publication in July, arise from a Department for Business, Innovation & Skills consultation that began at the beginning of this ...
-
NewsJudicial satire is deadly serious
Price-competitive tendering for judges. That is the subject of a spoof essay of application for the job of lord chief justice, penned by Court of Appeal judge Sir Alan Moses (‘aged 67½’), demonstrating the absurdity of the government’s planned legal aid reforms. The sitting judge read his work ‘What I ...
-
NewsA song and dance over Europe
I preferred to be a wall-flower last week rather than join in the wild and shameless hokey cokey led by the government over the decision both to opt out and then opt back in to various EU criminal law measures. We will opt out of 135 and opt back in ...
-
News
'Little hope' for sole practitioners in criminal defence
There is ‘little hope for the future’ for sole practitioners and many small law firms under either the government’s or Law Society’s proposals for reshaping the criminal defence market, the Sole Practitioners Group has claimed. The group’s legal aid spokesperson, former chair Hilary Underwood, told the Gazette that under either ...
-
News
CPS has 'more in-house lawyers than it needs'
The Crown Prosecution Service has too many in-house lawyers as it continues to face the challenges of budget cuts, according to the annual report of the agency’s inspectorate. Her Majesty’s CPS Inspectorate said a lack of resources due to budget cuts is hampering the service’s ability to prepare cases, but ...
-
News
Pre-pack deals under scrutiny in company law shake-up
A central register of beneficial owners and a review of ‘pre-pack’ takeovers of failed businesses are among measures proposed in a shake-up of company law today. A discussion paper published by the department for Business, Innovation & Skills sets out how the UK proposes to carry out its commitment at ...
-
News
Clutching at Straw
If there is one thing you can say about Jack Straw, it is that he is regimentally strict about declaring his expenses. In the past 15 months, therefore, we know he was paid £48,000 for speaking engagements at home and abroad (this included £20,000 for a speech at the University ...
-
News
McNally under fire over Lips claim
Justice minister Lord McNally is facing criticism from lawyers over a claim that cases involving litigants in person (LiPs) are ‘normally’ completed more quickly than those where parties have legal representation. The Liberal Democrat peer was responding to a report by a judicial working group calling for new measures to ...
-
News
Further grilling for Chris Grayling over PCT
Justice secretary Chris Grayling will be summoned to be appear before the House of Commons justice committee for a second time to examine the government’s proposed cuts to legal aid, it was revealed today. Publishing a report on the evidence it had heard on the Transforming ...
-
News
Sir John Thomas will be next lord chief justice
Sir John Thomas is to succeed Lord Judge as lord chief justice, Number 10 Downing Street confirmed today. Thomas was chosen over the two other applicants – Lady Justice Hallett, who is currently Thomas’s deputy at the Queen’s Bench Division and who chaired the 7/7 London bombing inquest; and Lord ...
-
NewsClifford Chance scheme falls foul of tax tribunal
A tax tribunal has ruled against a stamp duty land tax (SDLT) avoidance scheme on which magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised. In the first case to test a targeted anti-avoidance rule in the SDLT legislation, developer of the Chelsea Barracks site Project Blue Ltd now faces a £50m tax ...