All News articles – Page 1316
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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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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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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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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 The Co-op revealed today that it had withdrawn from the process, blaming the economic environment and ...
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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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Thatcher pageantry sets inn against inn
Last week’s funeral of Lady Thatcher left half the Gazette’s newsdesk – and significant numbers of lawyers – stranded on the wrong side of a line of steel opposite the Royal Courts of Justice. Such a disruption got Obiter wondering: was this a posthumous dig at members of the bar ...
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CJC recommends measures against defamation costs
Measures to protect individuals against major adverse costs when defending defamation claims brought by wealthy corporations were included in a Civil Justice Council (CJC) report published last week. The report was prompted by concerns over changes in how ‘no win, no fee’ conditional fee arrangements will ...
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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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Hague’s concern sits ill with Tory agenda
You might have thought that an organisation called the Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice would not have much hope of a grant from a Tory cabinet minister. Too much resonance of Harriet Harman. Too much potential irony in how cuts, like those to legal aid, have been directed not against ...
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Rape figures show all-time high in conviction rate
Conviction rates for rape have risen to an all-time high, according to figures published by the Crown Prosecution Service today. The statistics reveal that from April 2012 to the end of March 2013 the CPS prosecuted 3,692 rape cases. Of those, 63.2% resulted in convictions, up ...
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Stress rising among lawyers – LawCare
Three-quarters of lawyers say they are more stressed now than they were five years ago, according to a survey by legal charity LawCare. Responses from more than 1,000 solicitors, barristers and legal executives blamed overwork, poor management, lack of appreciation, and feeling isolated or unsupported. ...
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MoJ announces new deal for courtroom interpreters
The Ministry of Justice today announced measures which it said would increase the take-home pay of interpreters in a bid to improve the quality of the service to courts and the justice sector.
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SRA getting better at complaints – independent assessor
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has ‘significantly improved’ how it deals with complaints about its service, an independent assessor has concluded. The Independent Complaints Review Service (ICRS) upheld or partially upheld 75 cases out of 245 separate complaints issued from October 2011 to the end of 2012. ...
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Aux murs, citoyens
Relations between the UK government and judiciary may not be perfect, but they’re probably better than over the channel where the French political class has been transfixed by the discovery of a ‘mur des cons’ in the headquarters of the Magistrates Union. The wall is ...
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‘Final and binding’ awards in family law
Dennis Sheridan’s article on family law arbitration sets out the key benefits of the new Institute of Family Law Arbitrators (IFLA) scheme, but risks being dangerously misleading in one respect, namely that ‘awards’ made under the scheme are ‘final and binding’. More worryingly, he makes this claim in relating what ...
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Queen’s awards for legal sector businesses
Three providers of legal services are among the 152 winners of this year’s Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, the UK’s highest accolades for business success, announced yesterday. Intellectual property specialist EIP Partnership LLP, established in 2000, wins an award for international trade. The firm has 37 ...
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News
Winslow backers loosen the purse strings
Obiter’s call for imaginative ways to fund the case at the centre of Terence Rattigan’s play The Winslow Boy show a welcome spirit of innovation in these difficult times. Mark Rummins of Kent has a simple solution: ‘A pay-day loan from a high street broker. That should sort them out ...
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Revealed: Grayling's plan to drive a wedge between bar and solicitors
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has sought to drive a wedge between solicitors and barristers over the drastic plans to cut criminal legal aid and restructure the market, the Gazette has learned. At a meeting attended by circuit leaders and civil servants yesterday, Grayling said that ...
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QASA gets go-ahead from bar regulator
The Bar Standards Board has approved the handbook for the controversial Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. At the regulator’s meeting last night, lay member Malcolm Cohen was the sole dissenting voice. He told the board: ‘The scheme is not proportionate to the perceived risk and I ...