All News articles – Page 1297
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News
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Hunt begins for new SRA chief
Recruitment advertisements for a new chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority appeared in yesterday’s Sunday newspapers. The successful candidate will replace Antony Townsend, who last month announced his intention to leave the regulator later this year. According to an ...
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Consumer rights boost welcomed by Society
The Law Society has welcomed a long-awaited move to consolidate consumer rights legislation and bring it into the digital age. A draft Consumer Rights Bill published last week by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will give consumers new rights over faulty goods and ...
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A car crash of a hearing
When insurers, lawyers and claims management companies are quizzed about who is to blame for the apparent epidemic in whiplash accident claims, it is obvious who will emerge as the culprit.
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EC in cartels drive
The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a directive on how citizens and companies can claim damages when they are victims of price-fixing cartels. Under the proposal, decisions of national competition authorities finding an infringement will automatically constitute proof before national courts that the ...
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Law firms and cause-related marketing
To most people CRM stands for ‘client relationship marketing’ and is a vitally important topic I have written about on a number of times. There is another lesser-known CRM, which stands for ‘cause-related marketing’, which is about connecting one organisation with a non-profit organisation or charity for the purposes of ...
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Prison term sought for quoting Society charity report
Fiji’s attorney general has demanded jail for the Methodist minister found in contempt of court for quoting a Law Society Charity report whose contents were first revealed in the Gazette. Counsel for the attorney, Ropate Green, sought a minimum sentence of six months for Reverend Akuila ...
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Mansfield’s goose chase
Tireless campaigner Michael Mansfield QC has put his finely tuned legal mind behind a new cause – ending sales of foie gras by ‘Piccadilly grocer’ Fortnum & Mason. In an article for the Huffington Post, the vegetarian barrister notes that ‘legality is no guarantee of ...
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Chris Grayling: divide and rule
I read in the Gazette of 10 June that Grayling believes there is a straight choice between saving £220m from either criminal legal aid (budget £1bn) or the NHS (budget £109bn). This is classic divide-and-rule stuff that will not fool either lobby. But even on this faulty logic, he should ...
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Salford civil claims process ‘improving’, manager claims
A senior civil servant from HM Courts & Tribunals Service has insisted that the performance of the Salford civil claims centre is improving – while admitting the IT system is still ‘rubbish’. Jonathan Wood, national business centres cluster manager, told the Law Society civil justice section ...
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Close down CMCs tomorrow - Desmond Hudson
The chief executive of the Law Society has publicly called for claims management companies (CMCs) to be outlawed. Giving evidence to the House of Commons transport committee, which is investigating the cost impact on motor insurance from whiplash claims, Desmond Hudson said that the government ...
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European collective redress
In a week in which distressing images of Turkish lawyers being dragged by police out of a court building showed the importance of not taking the benefits of the rule of law for granted, here is some of Europe’s more traditional, everyday legal fare to distract you.