All News articles – Page 1357
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News
Judiciary publishes guide for litigants in person
The judicial office has today published a self-help guide for litigants in person presenting cases to the interim applications court. The 16-page guide, penned by High Court judge Mr Justice Foskett, takes litigants through each stage of the process, from giving notice and presenting documents to ...
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PI sector predicts jobs haemorrhage
Three-quarters of personal injury firms are planning to cut staff numbers in the near future unless the government pulls back from plans to reform civil litigation. A survey carried out by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers found that 118 of the 155 firms questioned ...
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Horse-riding lessons for lawyers
In the last few weeks, two things have happened simultaneously. First, the government has said that it wishes to continue with the statutory underpinning of rather close supervision of the legal profession. Second, the government has said that it does not wish to begin the statutory underpinning of close – ...
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A view from the litigant in person
A few weeks ago, I got chatting to a woman in my local pub – let’s call her Susan – who is embroiled in a legal battle in the family courts. Having spent more than £50,000 in legal fees, she is now acting as a litigant in person, and her ...
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Managing the risks posed by tablets
In the run-up to Christmas 2012, British shoppers reportedly bought a tablet computer every second. This means that many of your staff are likely to have a new, shiny device that they may want to use in work, as well as at home. Bring your own ...
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AWS to join Law Society’s Women Lawyers Division
The Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) has voted to join the Law Society’s new Women Lawyers Division (WLD) in order to give women solicitors a ‘stronger, louder and unified voice’, it emerged this week. The vote, held on Monday evening at Chancery Lane, followed two years ...
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Grayling falls for great insurance con trick
Chris Grayling must be an easy man to play at Call my Bluff. It sometimes appears as if you can tell the justice secretary any tall tale and he’ll suck it in – safe in the knowledge that he’s doing the right thing because someone has ...
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Interpreter contract failings revealed
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has exposed the full failings of the Ministry of Justice’s contract for court interpreters, branding it ‘an object lesson in how not to contract out a public service’. A report published today details the flaws in the procurement process and operation ...
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QASA start delayed
The introduction of the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) has been delayed. The Joint Advocacy Group (JAG), made up of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and Ilex Professional Standards (IPS) issued a statement today following consideration of the responses ...
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MoJ must slash £2.5bn from its budget
The Ministry of Justice will have to cut more than £2.5bn – around 28% – from its budget by the end of the current parliament, the department has revealed following last week’s autumn statement. Spending has already been reined in by £580m this financial year ...
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Hopes and fears for 2013
There are dire predictions for parts of the legal profession in 2013. The provision of social welfare law will be hit by the full force of the legal aid cuts from April. This is also the date from which the economics of civil claims are ...
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60 years and counting
David Duke-Cohan was admitted to the profession in October 1952, the month that Britain tested its first atomic bomb, the newly formed nation of Pakistan played its first cricket Test match and Birds Eye sold its first frozen peas. Duke-Cohan, now 84, is still practising – ...
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Family judges backing court welfare reports
Family judges follow the recommendation of court welfare reports in nine out of 10 cases, research has revealed. A study commissioned by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) shows that the reports of family court advisers were accepted in just over ...
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Breach of confidence
Media – Confidential information Abbey v Gilligan and another: Queen's Bench Division: 20 November 2012 The claimant had brought a claim for breach of confidence or, alternatively, misuse of private ...
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Innovators not worried by negligence threat to cancer care
It has been mooted that ‘current law is a barrier to progress in curing cancer’. I disagree. Lord Saatchi feels that ‘fear of litigation for medical negligence is a deterrent to innovation in cancer treatment’.
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The case for the defence
The government has decided, no doubt in an attempt to cut payments from central funds to defendants who are not eligible for legal aid, to reduce the amount of payments from central funds to no more than the legal aid rates. All well and good if this was truly fair. ...
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Judicial review changes could be harmful
by Jason Towell, a partner at Cripps Harries Hall In a recent speech to the CBI the prime minister stated that the government would be looking at ways to streamline the judicial review process.
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Clash of the titans
The Court of Appeal decision in Petrodel Resources Ltd and others v Prest and Others [2012] EWCA Civ 1395, [2012] All ER (D) 293 (Oct) (as Prest v Prest) marks a collision between chancery and family. Family lost. The decisions of the heroes of the Family Division of the High ...
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Clearing up judgments
With regard to your Gazette item on calls for judges to make their judgments more readable, I would suggest that judges go back to read the judgments of the late Lord Denning MR; they are models of conciseness and are also entertaining in a serious way. He used short sentences ...