All News articles – Page 1344
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News
Lords back Leveson-style press arbitration service
Peers voted last night in favour of an amendment to the Defamation Bill to introduce a low-cost arbitration service to help ordinary citizens who feel they have been wronged by the press. The House of Lords voted in favour of the change, a key recommendation of ...
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Major CMCs win argument on MoJ fees
Large claims management companies (CMCs) have convinced the government to reinstate a cap on the fees they have to pay for regulation. The Ministry of Justice, which regulates CMCs, had planned to remove the annual cap of £30,000 for companies with contractual relationships with clients. ...
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Firms sign up to beat fee ban
A claims management firm says it has signed up almost 100 legal practices to a business model designed to sidestep the impending referral fee ban. Chris Georgiou, managing director of Accidents Direct, said he has spent 18 months refining a panel scheme which he says will ...
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Disclosure ruling rocks banks
Banks are struggling to control their liabilities following a Financial Services Authority finding that 90% of interest rate swaps (IRS) products banks sold to SMEs were in breach of regulatory requirements, and a judge’s ruling rejecting 24 Barclays employees’ demands for anonymity. Stephen Rosen, head ...
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Excluded from the bar...
Good grief. When Obiter dangled a prize for tales of sexism in the legal sector (21 January), we thought we would be taking a walk to the dusty far end of memory lane.
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Barclays hunts for new GC as legal in-tray mounts
Barclays’ general counsel Mark Harding is to retire after a decade in the post, the bank announced. Group finance director Chris Lucas is also stepping down, though both senior executives will remain until successors are found. Commenting on the departures, ...
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Part-time judges win pensions battle at Supreme Court
The Supreme Court today ruled that part-time judges are entitled to the same pension, pro rata, as their full-time colleagues. The ruling will have important implications for solicitors currently working as part-time judges in courts and tribunals, as well as other part-time workers. ...
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Mongolian market blossoming
Mongolia is the latest land of opportunity for law firms, according to the Law Society’s international section. The Asian country has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, driven by mineral developments such as Rio Tinto’s investment in the Oyu Tulgoi gold and copper mine. ...
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Judges need support over costs budgeting
By Rachel Rothwell, editor of Litigation Funding Now that we are only two months from Jackson D-Day, solicitors are waking up to the prospect of costs budgeting.
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Exceptional case proves Jackson rule
Litigation lawyers should ‘ignore Jackson at their peril’ regardless of a landmark costs ruling that appeared to undermine imminent reforms, a solicitor in the case said this week. James Heath, from London firm Taylor Hampton Solicitors, warned firms not to be complacent about costs despite ...
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‘Necessary’ test to cut expert witnesses in family cases
A new rule aimed at cutting the number of expert witnesses called in family cases has come into force this month. Previously, evidence from experts such as psychologists and doctors would be heard if it was ‘reasonably required’. Since 1 February judges have begun applying a ...
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Encourage firms to work with claims centre
In the last 12 months, there has been considerable scepticism expressed about the introduction of the County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC). As such, I think it is important to balance those views against the fact that the centralisation has been a massive undertaking that will clearly take time to ...
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McGowan takes up the two-bar challenge
Maura McGowan QC has become the second woman to lead the 15,000-strong bar profession, after Heather, now Lady Justice, Hallett. She takes over at a time when many at the bar, the publicly funded bar in particular, face huge challenges. Though the bar prides itself ...
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Warnings follow Cobbetts collapse
The demise of top-100 firm Cobbetts should serve as a wake-up call for legal practices with outdated structures and mounting bank debts, legal sector finance experts said this week.
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News Focus: Cobbetts
As the Gazette went to press, it was unclear whether a drinks party at national firm Cobbetts was going ahead as planned. In the uncertainty following the firm’s acquisition amid financial troubles, the atmosphere at the Birmingham event would hardly have been conducive to ‘a wind-down and a few celebratory ...
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Shambolic interpreter deal is a vision of things to come
The Ministry of Justice’s deal for the central procurement of court interpreters has now been the subject of three damning reports. The National Audit Office (NAO), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and most recently the Justice Committee have criticised almost every aspect of the flawed procurement process and contract management. ...
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What Mid Staffs and RBS have in common
Banks and the health service were both in the news this morning – a £400m fine for state-owned RBS for Libor-fixing; and a damning report on failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust where, in addition to multiple failings, patient deaths were hundreds above what one would expect for the hospital’s ...
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News
Complaints, horrible jumpers and ill-fitting socks
If you look at the recent legal press you might be forgiven for thinking that there is at least one growing area of law that is doing well in the recession – complaints. We get bombarded daily with calls to deal with them better, quicker and more expensively.
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MPs condemn ‘shambolic’ court interpreter deal
The Ministry of Justice’s outsourcing of court interpreter services was ‘nothing short of shambolic’ according to a highly critical report from the House of Commons Justice Committee, which questions whether the deal is ‘financially sustainable’. The report, published today, also condemns the MoJ’s actions in seeking ...