All News articles – Page 1348
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News
Solicitors face sanction threat over COLP/COFA forms
Solicitors who failed to disclose relevant information about their past on compliance officer applications could have their licences removed, regulators have warned. The Solicitors Regulation Authority plans to pursue hundreds of applicants who failed to declare facts such as criminal convictions or a previous ...
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Simplify complaints procedures, OFT tells profession
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has urged the legal profession to simplify its complaints procedures, following the publication of research showing that only one in eight dissatisfied customers goes on to make a formal complaint. Responding, the Legal Services Board (LSB) said it was making ...
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Contempt of court
Orders in family proceedings – Enforcement Young v Young: Family Division (Mr Justice Moor): 16 January 2013 The Family Division imposed a sentence of six months’ imprisonment for contempt of court, in circumstances where the husband had failed, in certain very important aspects, to comply with an order of the ...
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How the right words can slay European Convention myths
by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, president of the Law Society ‘Yes we can’ helped propel a rank outsider to the White House; Gerald Ratner wiped half a billion pounds from his company’s value after an unfortunate choice of words. Equally, we ...
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Jackson reforms ‘undermined’ by landmark costs ruling
A judgment on costs today by the Court of Appeal will have significant ramifications for litigators preparing for the Jackson reforms. The court found there was ‘good reason’ for a claimant’s original costs estimate to go over budget by more than £268,000. The appeal, in Henry ...
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Rational debate needed over EU crime laws
So the big Cameron speech on Europe has come and gone. He devoted precisely 12 words in it to the most pressing EU issue which will arise before his beloved referendum even takes place: that of the opportunity for opt-out by the UK government from the EU crime and policing ...
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Defendants and principles of fairness
I would like to share my recent experience of the Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPR) danced to the tune of Ministry of Justice training. Acting for a defendant who had no recollection of the incident, or what he had said in interview, I was faced with a single statement and a ...
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Defending strict liability for workplace safety
I write with reference to the government’s latest move in its overhaul of health and safety legislation. At the last minute, the proposal to remove strict liability in respect of duties imposed on employers under health and safety legislation has been slipped into the Enterprise Regulatory ...
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Degrees of learning
Of a cohort of 2,174 who sat the Part II Qualifying Examination in February 1967, 48 passed all seven heads, in one sitting, with distinction in two or more subjects. The group comprised 25 ‘five-year men’ (they were all men!) and 23 graduates, mainly from ...
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A dissenting Judge
Lord Judge, as we all know, has a wonderfully apt name. Not as good as the anaesthetist from Essex called Doctor De’ath but certainly enough to raise a smile. However that’s not the main reason why I’ll miss the Lord Chief Justice when he hangs up the gown and retires ...
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Thumbs up for DPAs
Legislation is expected in the first quarter of this year on deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs); and in view of the string of financial scandals in the wake of the economic crisis typified by the Libor scandal, not before time.
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Dubai legal links strengthened
Legal links between the courts of England, Wales and Dubai have been strengthened by the signing of a memorandum of guidance between Dubai’s International Centre (DIFC) Courts, the leading English-language commercial court in the Middle East, and the Commercial Court of England and Wales. The memorandum, designed to assist investors, ...
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Employment
Discrimination – Religious discrimination Eweida and others v United Kingdom (App. Nos. 48420/10, 59842/10, 51671/10 and 36516/10): European Court of Human Rights: 15 January 2013 The European Court of Human ...
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Why government reforms on employment law make little sense
There were some statistics that private equity pioneer Adrian Beecroft did not include in his highly controversial report on employment law published last year. The number of claims brought by employees in employment tribunals fell from 236,000 in 2009-10 to 186,000 in 2011-12. The number of claims for both sex ...
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Not so great escapes
David Miller of Kidd Rapinet Solicitors has reminded me of the safe breaker Alfie Hinds’ escape from the Law Courts in June 1957, which must be one of a kind, writes James Morton.
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Legal professional privilege fight goes on
The fight to defend legal professional privilege looks set to continue, despite last week’s landmark victory for the profession in the Supreme Court. Parliament was urged to consider extending the scope of LPP in the wake of the judgment by the 140,000-member Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. ...
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Hitting gender targets
I write in connection with the report that says we should work more flexibly and get more women in. Here, at solicitor level, we are more than 50% women and they all work flexibly. Unfortunately we did not attend a conference, or write out a plan for any of this. ...
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Survey paints gloomy picture of MoJ morale
Ministry of Justice staff lack confidence in the organisation’s leadership and ability to manage change, the civil service’s annual people survey has revealed. The results show that 28% of staff had confidence in senior management and 32% said the department is managed well. Less than a quarter (23%) of respondents ...
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Privilege victory but lawyers need to be on their guard
A fire drill at Chancery Lane last week left shirt-sleeved Law Society staff hopping from foot to foot on the ice outside. Yet there was a roseate glow emanating from a goodly number, particularly in policy – and it wasn’t the cold. ‘Lawyers 5, accountants 2,’ offered one observer, having ...
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A sense of history
The dapper fellow pictured is Jesse Gregson, who founded a firm of solicitors in 1788: the year when the First Fleet arrived in Australia, the American War of Independence was a recent memory, and George III was on the throne with his son yet to be appointed Regent.