All News articles – Page 1256
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News
PI claims barrier
I refer to Rob Barley’s letter and my comment is that you ‘don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater’. The incident Mr Barley refers to is utterly inexcusable. As a claimant PI lawyer of getting on for 35 years’ standing, I probably feel even ...
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Bar complaints-handling ‘prompt, thorough and fair’ says report
The Bar Standards Board’s handling of complaints against barristers has received a clean bill of health in an independent report published today, which praised the process as ‘prompt, thorough and fair’. The report, by independent observer Isobel Leaviss, commended the board for its fair, consistent and ...
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Law firms and bank finance
Solicitors who want to retain – let alone extend – their borrowing will have to shape up, think ahead and be prepared to ‘put some skin in the game’ if they expect any bank to fund them in future. That is the stark message from bankers and sector consultants, six ...
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Hundreds face ‘unrated cycle’ as Balva fails
Hundreds of law firms who insured with failed Latvian insurer Balva face being caught in an ‘unrated cycle’ after offers from other unrated insurance providers. The Law Society today warned that members are being offered to transfer policies across to unrated insurer Berliner Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft, by the same broker that ...
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Old Bailey offers peek at ‘Dead Man’s Walk’
‘Dead Man’s Walk’ is a series of narrowing arches leading from the condemned cells of the Old Bailey to the gallows which operated outside the main gate until 1868. Photographers were invited behind the scenes of the Central Criminal Court last week on the eve ...
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Solicitors badger government over cull
The campaign against the government’s proposed legal aid cuts has brought out the creative as well as the militant side of the profession. Badges, T-shirts and placards bearing slogans from the straightforward ‘No to PCT’ and ‘Save legal aid’ to the more enigmatic ‘Truck off Grayling’ have become familiar sights. ...
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Time limits mooted for pre-Jackson ATE
The glut of after-the-event insurance deals signed before 1 April to take advantage of the old rules on recoverability could have time limits imposed on them, it emerged at the Law Society’s civil justice section conference yesterday. Solicitor David Greene said he understood that Lord Justice ...
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Grieve’s two-tier arrogance
Lawyers advising or representing the government are paid significantly higher fee rates than legal aid lawyers representing ordinary citizens. What is the rationale for this? Both are essentially publicly funded lawyers, with their fees paid by the taxpayer.
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HRA applies to soldiers on duty, Supreme Court confirms
The solicitor leading the case for the families of soldiers killed on duty in Iraq has welcome today’s Supreme Court judgment that gives them the right to claim against the UK government. Susan Smith (pictured, centre), Colin Redpath (pictured, left) and Karla and Courtney Ellis, known ...
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Legal aid cuts ‘end high-profile BME cases’
High-profile cases such as those of murder victims Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbié would not have been taken up by lawyers if the government’s legal aid cuts had been in place, a prominent solicitor-advocate has warned. Imran Khan, partner at London firm Imran Khan & ...
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Legal aid champion Storer honoured
Carol Storer, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, was among the lawyers recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list at the weekend. Storer (pictured) received an OBE for services to legal aid. She has been LAPG director for the past five years, since leaving Shelter ...
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News
Don’t access all areas
It is clear that fraud on the Land Registry is increasing and takes various forms. Recently, there were pictures in the newspapers of an incident in a London street. The number plates on cars in the pictures were pixellated. Fair enough, I thought, given that the number plate might be ...
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Carbon footprint down 7% in legal sector
The Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority and 57 law firms have reduced their per-head carbon emissions by nearly 7% since 2010, according to the sector’s annual environmental statement. The fall from 3.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2010 to 3.63 tonnes of CO2e ...
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Profits squeeze as top-50 firms open results season
Preliminary results posted today by three top-50 firms show profits falling in 2012-13 on modest rises in turnover. At Osborne Clarke, European mergers boosted turnover by 14% to £112m, according to its provisional results posted today. However like-for-like revenue was down ...
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Wiltshire solicitor’s murderer jailed for 28 years
A disgruntled litigant has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for the murder of Wiltshire solicitor Jim Ward. Michael Chudley, 63, shot Ward with a sawn-off shotgun on 2 July last year at the MGW Law building in Devizes. Chudley had ...
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Legal Charities Garden Party 2013
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Stress and productivity
A recent article about stress at work highlights the results of LawCare’s survey
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Legal services orders
Since 1 April the family courts have had the power to make a legal services order, which is a new form of interim order compelling one spouse to make provision for the other’s legal costs. Although on the face of it, it is a significant change to the courts’ powers ...
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Lawyers sign up to pay workers a living wage
Lawyers are setting the standard for private employers in having more firms committed to paying workers an independently assessed ‘living wage’ than any other business sector. However, it has also emerged that solicitor practices were among hundreds of rogue employers recently penalised for not paying ...