All News articles – Page 1273
-
News
Flouting the ban
If I remember rightly, referral fees are banned. I am troubled. I hear more than mere anecdotes of telephone calls to referrers from solicitors offering so much up to the end of April, then so much after that, per case. These are solicitors with no existing arrangements with potential referrers. ...
-
News
Majority will avoid sanctions on compliance
Only a small minority of the 928 people or firms being investigated over compliance officer nominations will face sanctions, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed last week. Enforcement action is under way against those who either failed to nominate COLPs and COFAs before the deadline or where ...
-
News
Small-claims threshold decision in autumn, Grant says
A government decision on the limit of the size of claims handled by the small-claims court will not be made until the autumn, justice minister Helen Grant revealed today. Grant (pictured) said the Ministry of Justice’s response to a public consultation, which closed in March, is ...
-
News
Scrap ‘flawed’ asylum system, says Society
The UK’s asylum process should be scrapped in favour of a ‘new blueprint’ that will reduce delays and ensure greater fairness and accountability in the treatment of asylum-seekers, the Law Society’s immigration law committee told MPs last week. The revised process would address the ‘deep systemic ...
-
News
Grayling’s prison clampdown is a smokescreen, says association chair
Reforms to prison privileges announced by the justice secretary today have been condemned as ‘cheap shots’ to ‘whip up prejudice’ and create a ‘smokescreen’ to detract from legal aid cuts. The chair of the Association of Prison Lawyers, Andrew Sperling, questioned why Chris Grayling had decided ...
-
News
SRA chief Antony Townsend to step down
Antony Townsend, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority since its inception, is to step down later this year. In a statement this afternoon, Townsend (pictured) described the pace of change at the regulator as ‘relentless’ and the challenges he has faced as ‘formidable’. ...
-
News
Stobart to bid for new legal aid contracts
Stobart Group is likely to bid for a contract if the government goes ahead with plans for price-competitive tendering for criminal legal aid, the business confirmed today. Trevor Howarth, group legal director for Stobart Barristers, said the fixed-fee service had been created with changes to ...
-
News
Criminal legal aid reforms ‘potentially unlawful’ - Society
The Law Society has called for a complete rethink of the government’s ‘economically unworkable’ and ‘potentially unlawful’ criminal legal aid proposals. In a policy document published online yesterday, the Society said: ‘No amount of tinkering with the system of procurement will solve that fundamental difficulty’ with ...
-
News
‘Mayhem’ threat as Wales votes against QASA
Lawyers could cause ‘mayhem’ to the criminal justice system in protest over the government’s legal aid reforms, the leader of the Wales and Chester circuit has warned after barristers in Wales voted unanimously to boycott the controversial quality assessment scheme. Speaking to the Gazette today, Gregory ...
-
News
Society urges super-regulator to delay advocacy scheme
The Law Society’s chief executive has urged super-regulator the Legal Services Board to delay implementation of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA), in recognition of the ‘profound shifts and uncertainties’ afflicting criminal practitioners. Within a year the scheme may be ‘meaningless’ to many firms ...
-
News
Rights-forfeit advice
Employees are to be allowed to accept shares in their employer’s business in exchange for surrendering employment rights, following a House of Lords agreement last week. The Lords, which had rejected the plan on two separate occasions, accepted government concessions, including the need for employees to ...
-
News
Society endorses ‘a la carte’ advice – but warns of risks
Family lawyers offering ‘pay as you go’ legal services are warned of the risks they carry and how to avoid them in a practice note published today by the Law Society. The note has been published to assist solicitors seeking to offer a more affordable service ...
-
News
Private equity spurns law firm advances
Law firms will continue to be unattractive to private equity investors until they improve how they present their financial situation and partners invest their own cash, leading investors said yesterday. John Llewellyn-Lloyd, head of professional services at investment bank Espirito Santo, said external investment was the ...
-
News
Malaysian lawyers denied access to clients
Malaysian lawyers have sustained serious injuries at the hands of police, suffered assaults and intimidation, and are routinely denied access to detained clients, an investigation has found. Their representative body is also under threat, with a government minister planning an alternative to the Bar Council of ...
-
News
PII prescription from Society?
The 8 April Gazette contains the president’s invitation to submit suggestions as to how the Law Society could help solicitors. Here is mine.
-
News
PCT: reverse psychology
Two questions. Question one: Have you signed the petition protesting about price-competitive tendering? Question two: Do you think it will make the slightest difference? I wonder if we have got it completely wrong in our protesting. The more we protest the less likely the protests ...
-
News
WHSmith tie-up had mixed results, QS pioneer says
A leading figure at high street brand QualitySolicitors has admitted the tie-up with WHSmith has not worked for all signatory firms. John Baden-Daintree, head of legal services at QS, told the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) conference last Friday that some practices had seen few ...
-
News
Olympic medallist set for London Legal Walk
Swapping water for dry land, Olympic rowing gold medallist Katherine Grainger will set the pace at this year’s London Legal Walk. The postgraduate law student, who won a gold medal in the double sculls event at the London Olympics, will be part of the King’s ...
-
News
Title lapse
About a week ago we received yet another email from the Solictors Regulation Authority, on this occasion regarding a number of important rule changes in connection with personal injury cases. The letter commenced ‘Dear sirs’. As far as we are aware there are a large number ...
-
News
Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 28 April 1982The international law background to the Falkland Islands dispute The most obvious current breach of international law relates to Argentina’s actions on Friday 2 April and following. Argentina has little right at international law to object to a British military ...