All News articles – Page 1345
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News
EC proposes new money-laundering controls
A long-awaited directive against money laundering published by the European Commission today includes new mechanisms to ensure that beneficial owners of companies are identifiable. The commission’s fourth anti-money laundering (AML) directive includes a regulation governing information that accompanies fund transfers. The commission said the proposals ...
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Costs: more haste, less speed
by Francesca Kaye, president of London Solicitors Litigation Association and a partner in Russell-Cooke LLP The recent Court of Appeal decision in favour of Sylvia Henry eloquently emphasised how unwise the headlong charge into the as-yet-unpublished new costs rules will be.
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PC countdown
The SRA has said that its intention is to process 95% of all renewal applications for practising certificates within 30 days of receipt of the application and full payment. We submitted our application and made full payment on 6 December. On 29 January, the SRA advised that the application was ...
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Courtroom savings hard to interpret
Doubts have been cast on the level of savings claimed by the government for its courtroom interpreting contract, as more interpreters refuse to work under the new terms. A year after the widely criticised contract came into effect, the Ministry of Justice has told the ...
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EU crime and justice measures of ‘real importance’ says Starmer
Failure to opt back in to EU criminal justice measures will hamper the UK’s ability to prosecute cross-border crime, making procedures ‘uncertain, cumbersome and fragmented’, the director of public prosecutions told peers today. Keir Starmer QC also revealed that there was no formal consultation with the ...
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A quarter of judges escape Grayling’s pension cuts
Judges within 10 years of retirement will be shielded from reform of their pension scheme, justice secretary Chris Grayling today confirmed. Those who were 10 years, or less, away from retirement at 1 April, 2012 – around 25% of the total profession – will continue in their current schemes and ...
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Managerialising death
by Jacqueline Laing, a solicitor and lecturer at London Metropolitan University One needs no Sibylline insights but only an understanding of human nature to have observed the financial, political and medical interests that there are in institutionalising sedation-and-dehydration regimes,
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Drone dialogue
When can states use lethal drone strikes on terrorists operating abroad? There is little consensus between government lawyers and academics on when international law will permit unmanned aerial vehicles to target individuals. And the need for a common position was given added impetus late last month when a QC announced ...
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Excise duty
Customs and Excise – Duties – Imported goods – Personal use Stern v United Kingdom Border Agency: Queen's Bench Division, Divisional Court: 23 January 2013 The appellant bought a substantial ...
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Extending our jurisdiction
Despite hysterical ‘end of the world’ concerns about fiscal cliffs and apocalyptic Mayan calendars, it seems we all managed to see out Christmas without too much controversy. But much as I was relieved not to meet my doom on 21 December, the joy was short-lived ...
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Third-party funders face tougher rules
The Association of Litigation Funders (ALF) is to bolster measures to protect clients whose litigation is funded by third-party investors. Writing in the February edition of the Gazette’s sister publication Litigation Funding, the ALF’s chair, Leslie Perrin, reveals that the body will introduce tougher rules to ...
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Mid-sized firms feel the pinch in Scotland
Scottish firms are emptying their bank balances as partners face up to reduced profits, a survey revealed today. Research commissioned by the Law Society of Scotland found that median profit was £64,000 per partner in 2012, £7,000 down on the previous year. ...
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Solicitors urged to vet insurer finances
The Law Society is warning solicitors to check the financial strength of an insurer before purchasing their next professional indemnity insurance policy. The Society said the warning is to quell the misconception that insurers on the Solicitors Regulation Authority list of ‘qualifying insurers’ are ...
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SRA redraws plan to increase fines for firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has re-opened discussions with the Ministry of Justice on raising the amount it can fine firms from the current maximum of £2,000. Last year the MoJ rejected a request to bring the maximum penalty for traditional firms into line with the ...
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The old firm
Obiter’s foolish suggestion last week that Wimbledon firm Gregsons, celebrating its 225th anniversary, might be the oldest in the country has been promptly corrected by learned colleagues. As ever, the Law Society’s librarians came up with a definitive answer, pointing out that Thomson Snell & Passmore, founded in 1570, is ...
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Would you mourn if your firm was no more?
Just how much attachment do you have to your firm beyond an email address and headed note paper? Do you feel a surge of loyalty every time you walk past the water feature in reception? Do you relish rivals’ struggles and recoil in horror when your ...
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A flawed international tribunal
Considering its economic, kinship and historic ties with the UK, Bangladesh is absurdly under-reported in the British media. So you probably won’t have picked up the latest news from the country’s attempt to draw a judicial line under events that took place during its bloody birth, four decades ago.
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Innocent until proven guilty
With regard to Mr Grayling’s remarks on legally aided ‘criminals’ not having access to QCs, I assume he means that, if a defendant is so poor they need legal aid, they are only entitled to a lower standard (no insult to other barristers intended) than the prosecution. ...
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Small-claims revamp may hit portal
The future of the RTA Portal will become clearer on Friday when a protocol, forms and rules for a new small-claims system are finalised at a meeting of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee. The protocol will enable the system to deal with claims up to £25,000, ...
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Immigration
Leave to remain – Defendant secretary of state rejecting applications – Claimants challenging secretary of state's policy as unlawful on ground of ambiguity R (on the application of Sharmilla and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; ...