All News articles – Page 1317
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News
The benefits of IT forums
The South West Legal IT Forum meeting last Thursday hosted by Michelmores in Exeter was attended by representatives from 30 firms from across the south-west peninsula as well as local sponsors Itec and Nexus Open Systems.
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News
May unveils bilateral treaty to deal with Qatada
The proposed treaty with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that home secretary Theresa May announced today as part of her continuing efforts to deport suspected terrorist Abu Qatada excludes the use of evidence obtained through torture and also allows for the press and public to be excluded from a trial ...
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SRA wants compensation fund to cover intervention bill
The SRA has decided not to impose a one-off levy on solicitors to pay for the rising cost of intervening in failed firms, but wants the multimillion-pound bill to fall on the rapidly diminishing compensation fund instead.
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Doing the BIS on employment law reform?
Obiter was coralled with a job lot of employment lawyers in the posh Caledonian Club near Hyde Park Corner last week. They were there to debate progress that the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has made with its reforms of employment law. It’s ...
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News
‘Right to die’ man breaks his silence
The paralysed man who took over the late Tony Nicklinson’s claims on the right to die with the help of a doctor has abandoned anonymity. Paul Lamb, 58, previously known only as ‘L’, was left paraplegic after a road accident in 1990. In a statement released ...
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The increasing intolerance of British policymakers
On March 22, Nick Clegg delivered his first major speech on immigration since assuming the role of deputy prime minister. In addition to admonishing past Labour policies and highlighting more recent coalition reforms, Clegg outlined the ambitions of his own party, the Liberal Democrats, in building what he referred to ...
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News
Means test canvass
The Ministry of Justice is seeking views on a new means test to determine whether people are entitled to a waiver of their civil court or tribunal fees. Proposed changes include a test to identify low earners with substantial savings that would enable them to ...
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News
‘Clients’ are owed a fiduciary duty of care
It may be a matter of semantics, but to a solicitor there is a distinction of substance between the concepts of ‘customer’ and ‘client’. All clients are by definition also ‘customers’ and deserve a level of service that recognises commercial realities, including increasing competition from the nationals who are better ...
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Legal director at centre of High Court dispute
The dismissed former director of West Yorkshire Police legal services is at the centre of a dispute that led to the suspension of another force’s temporary chief constable on grounds that the High Court subsequently ruled were ‘perverse and irrational’. Afzal Hussain, dismissed from his legal ...
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Society demands insurer title change
The Law Society is pressing regulators to drop the title of ‘qualifying insurers’ after the failure of a third professional indemnity insurer. The Society wants the Solicitors Regulation Authority to change the designation to ‘participating insurers’ to avoid perpetuating the misconception that insurers are vetted by ...
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City limits
Richard Edwards asks whether it is just him who thinks the government is protecting the interests of the City while destroying concepts such as fairness, access to justice and equality of arms. No Mr Edwards, it is not just you.
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News
Whiplash claims at five-year low, official figures reveal
The number of whiplash claims has fallen by almost 60,000 in the past year, according to the government’s own figures. A freedom of information request to the Department for Work and Pensions’ compensation recovery unit has revealed there were 488,281 whiplash claims in Great Britain in ...
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Deaf clients: in the courtroom
We have previously explored and made suggestions for reasonable adjustments required in order to make legal proceedings accessible to deaf people. The courtroom is no exception to this rule and once again an assessment of need for each deaf client will be required to ensure that adjustments are made and ...
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SRA right to raid compensation fund - for now at least
It all goes very quiet at the SRA board meetings when the subject of interventions comes up. Director Richard Collins updated the situation yesterday with the solemnity of a radio announcer reading out the names of kittens who have died that day.
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Grayling faces new storm over JR curbs
New measures designed to cut the number of judicial reviews received a critical reception from immigration and environmental lawyers today. The measures, confirmed today after a consultation that ended in January, include: - a £215 court fee for anyone seeking a ...
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NewsRoundtable: Wales and devolution
'Jagged-edged' devolution boundaries have placed lawyers in Wales on shaky ground
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News
England and Russia: resolving jurisdictional disputes
In recent years London has seen litigants from Russia and other former Soviet republics (the Commonwealth of Independent States or CIS) flock to its commercial courts and play out in the public courtrooms of the Royal Courts of Justice details of the murky ‘wild capitalism’ years which followed the collapse ...
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SRA management ‘lacks diversity’
A critical report on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s workforce diversity policy has finally seen the light – 18 months after its completion. The regulator circulated the review, carried out in October 2011, along with a response last week, following threats by the Law Society’s equality ...
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News
Law firm marketing essentials
With increased competition and tough economic conditions set to continue for the foreseeable future, how can you plan for growth in your law firm? There are essentially four sources of potential new business which need to be explored. First, look at marketing more of your current ...
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News
Government has failed to justify EU opt-out, say peers
The government has failed to make a convincing case for opting out of the European arrest warrant (EAW) and around 130 other EU police and criminal justice measures in the Lisbon Treaty, the House of Lords EU committee says today.