All News articles – Page 1276
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News
Society warns against muddling funding for interventions
The Law Society has called for ‘proper transparency’ if regulators are to pay intervention costs out of compensation fund reserves. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed on Wednesday it wants to cover an estimated £7m overspend on interventions this year by using money held in the compensation fund. The SRA says ...
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CPS: Keir Starmer to step down after five-year term
Keir Starmer QC will step down as director of public prosecutions later this year, the Crown Prosecution Service announced today. Former human rights barrister Starmer, 51, who took up the post in 2008, has indicated that he will not seek to extend his five-year term of ...
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Collapse of banking deal won’t affect legal services, says Co-op
Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) has insisted that the collapse of the Co-operative Group’s planned purchase of 632 Lloyds Banking Group branches will have no bearing on its legal services expansion. The Co-op revealed today that it had withdrawn from the process, blaming the economic environment and ...
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PCT will demolish access to justice and add to the mountain of unemployed
by Nehal Vasani is a solicitor at west London firm Stringfellow & Co Chris Grayling’s plans for price-competitive tendering will devalue the rule of law.
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Promoting European legal values abroad
A part of your tax that funds the EU’s budget goes towards the improvement of human rights and the rule of law in countries around the world. This makes sense to me, because a stable world enables us to enjoy those things which governments are supposed to provide: an environment ...
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News
Ability to defend clients in complex cases is being seriously eroded
by Anthony Barnfather, head of the regulatory team at Pannone After years of cuts and ‘stealth’ erosion, moves to slash almost a third from rates in very high-cost cases (VHCC) herald the death knell for effective defence representation in such cases – denying to individuals in ...
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New bar nursery open 7 till 7
A decades-old campaign to improve women’s representation at the higher levels of the bar bore fruit last week with the opening of a childcare facility in central London. The Bar Nursery, at West Smithfield, will offer childcare facilities at special rates for all members of the ...
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‘Overwhelming’ support for action as 400 barristers stay away from court
Crown court hearings across the north were disrupted today as over 400 barristers stayed away from court in the first incident of militant action against the government’s planned reforms to criminal legal aid. The all-day protest meeting followed a ballot of barristers on the northern circuit, ...
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String theory
Could you tell the difference between a world-famous nightclub mogul and a West Kensington criminal defence solicitor? It seems that, for some, this is a challenge. Obiter had the pleasure of meeting Peter Stringfellow, principal at Stringfellow & Co, to discuss the likely impact of the government’s plans for price-competitive ...
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Qualified success
This profession has been squeezed to bursting point through government and consumer pressure. The new legal brands promise the world for half the price of ‘conventional’ firms, but how realistic is that? Efficiency through IT and management processes may allow legal services to be provided more cheaply, but the biggest ...
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Nervous shock and secondary victims
A secondary victim is someone who, when witnessing an accident, suffers injury consequential upon the injury, or fear of injury, to a primary victim. Because of the potential for multiple claims for damages arising out of a single accident, the courts have been anxious to restrict the numbers of claimants ...
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Mrs Thatcher and me
There hasn’t been much written in the Gazette about the death of Mrs Thatcher. Maybe the other contributors are too young to have lived through her premiership? I was not a fan, and so if you are one of the millions who voted for her and continued to adore her ...
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Judiciary ‘not ready’ for Jackson reforms
A High Court judge has told parties involved in some clinical negligence claims to ignore the Jackson reforms for at least six months. A practice note written last month and distributed to law firms by Master Roberts, one of two High Court clinical negligence masters, revealed ...
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Working with sign language interpreters
In our first article of the series we explored the complex nature of expert assessment of deaf clients. The use of an appropriate expert witness and the need for necessary adjustments to meet the individual needs of each deaf client were discussed. These adjustments are necessary to promote equity of ...
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News
The yes and no of Scottish independence
On 18 September 2014 two sets of nationalists – Scots and UK respectively – will be hoping their supporters vote in large numbers. Personally I think they’ll both struggle with turnout – given what’s at stake, these campaigns are oddly technocratic. The ‘yes’ campaign, perhaps ...
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To hear is to obey
Don’t clients sometimes drive you mad? Happily this won’t happen any more because they are no longer ‘clients’ but ‘consumers’. I am grateful to the people who responded to my last blog by pointing out the Legal Ombudsman’s site refers to them as consumers. I also note chief ombudsman Adam ...
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MPs throw out health and safety liability move
MPs have rejected a House of Lords amendment that sought to cancel out significant changes to 39-year-old health and safety legislation. The government wants to change Section 47 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to remove the principle of strict liability and force ...
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Growth in solicitor numbers goes into reverse
The authoritative annual snapshot of the legal profession in England and Wales shows a dip in both the number of firms and private practitioners. The Law Society's Annual Statistical Report, published today, also shows the number of admissions and training contracts down to the lowest ...
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Be proud and fight on, PI lawyers told
The incoming president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has told colleagues they have no choice but to fight on in the face of government-imposed reforms. Matthew Stockwell told the annual APIL conference at Celtic Manor near Newport yesterday that the claimant industry had failed ...