All News articles – Page 1320
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News
Regulator to probe intervention impact on clients
Former clients of firms closed down as a result of interventions by the Solicitors Regulation Authority are to be asked about their experiences in a research project announced by the regulator today. The SRA said the study of the impact of interventions on clients will ...
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Hoff colour
Obiter’s search for firms with names crying out for a merger continues to attract suggestions. Alice Biggar, trainee at Southampton firm Trethowans, notes that local firms Knight Polson and Watkins Ryder could merge to create Knight Ryder, with managing partner David Hasselhoff. (A noted Hollywood ...
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Competition flaw
There are a number of difficulties and risks associated with the government’s proposals on price-competitive tendering. I am sure that the representative bodies will do an effective job of highlighting many of these flaws. I wish to highlight a major operational risk.
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Conveyancers want more training to tackle fraud
Mortgage fraud and money laundering are the biggest risks facing conveyancers, but three-quarters of firms want more training to tackle them, according to research by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. In a thematic review of conveyancing, the regulator revealed that a quarter of 100 randomly selected firms ...
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Supreme Court justices sworn in
The Supreme Court last week swore in its two new justices. Lord Justice Hughes (pictured, top left) succeeds Lord Dyson and Lord Justice Toulson (pictured, top right) succeeds Lord Walker. Hughes will first hear a case from Northern Ireland concerning the admissibility of electronic fingerprinting ...
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Reforms must work, family division head warns
‘Revolutionary’ reforms to the family justice system to speed up cases and cut costs must be made to work, the head of the Family Division has warned practitioners. In an update to the profession on the ‘revolutionary’ changes, Sir James Munby (pictured) noted the family justice ...
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New entrants must have old principles, Townsend tells PI sector
Solicitors must not abandon their principles even if they are forming ventures with new entrants from outside the profession, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s chief executive said today. Antony Townsend (pictured) told the annual Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) conference that the sector was ‘complicated’ by ...
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Making a new EU
The passing of Baroness Thatcher has triggered a swell of emotion, and some parts of her legacy permeate today’s politics. The UK’s relationship with the EU at least partly defines her premiership. David Cameron says he wants to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with Europe and ...
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Start of an experiment
Back in 1979, the Gazette reported Margaret Thatcher’s arrival in Downing Street with a huge front-page picture of Lord Hailsham, her first lord chancellor, magnificent in wig and robes (those were the days when we had real lord chancellors).
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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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...