All News articles – Page 1395
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News
SRA urges advocates to register as deadline looms
Three weeks before the deadline under the quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA), a quarter of criminal advocates have not yet notified the Solicitors Regulation Authority of their intention to practise after 2013, the regulator has revealed. By 21 September all solicitors and regulated European lawyers ...
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Death of a Colombian family
First they killed Omairi's daughter. The paramilitaries meant to kill her husband, a journalist who was exposing corruption in Colombia, South America. They bungled the assassination and he survived, but their daughter died. That was 22 April 2004, their daughter's twentieth birthday. More than eight years later, just one person ...
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Crunch time for EU criminal lawyers
Last week, as the summer holidays drew to a close, I tried in vain to be funny. This week, I am back in my school uniform, hair brushed and in serious mode, because the EU is about to discuss an important piece of legislation - the right of access to ...
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Insurers fight uplift ruling
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has appealed against the Court of Appeal’s decision to increase general damages. Three senior judges ruled in July that a 10% uplift to be applied to all personal injury awards from April 2013 applies also to cases launched before that ...
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The reshuffle and the business of law
Under the coalition government, the Ministry of Justice has been marked by a phenomenally loose grasp of detail at the top. When it comes to the business of running a legal practice, this, more than the left-right positioning of ministers, has been a problem. In areas such as the implementation ...
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Oligarch case judge laments ‘heavily lawyered’ approach
The judge presiding over the acrimonious High Court battle between Russian oligarchs has criticised the ‘heavily lawyered’ nature of the case that undermined witness statements.
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Lawyers berate new law criminalising squatters
Lawyers have branded as ‘headline-grabbing’ and unnecessary the introduction of a new criminal offence of squatting, warning that it could harm vulnerable people. But the government is unrepentant, declaring that the move signals the end of ‘squatters’ rights’. Justice minister Crispin Blunt (pictured) confirmed ...
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Honours even?
‘There’s nothing new under the sun,’ as my grandmother (92 and still going strong) is gnomically wont to opine. News that a committee of MPs has concluded that too many people - particularly civil servants - receive government honours ‘just for doing their jobs’ shows that the dictum retains ...
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Swanning about
We thought some readers might be interested in bidding for Up Before the Beak, a 5ft limited edition (unique, actually, come to think of it) swan sculpture. Sponsored by Wells solicitors Harris & Harris, he has been much admired over the summer but goes under ...
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August sees spurt of ABS activity
More than a dozen alternative business structures were approved in August in the busiest period of licensing activity yet. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has approved 13 new ABSs since 1 August, taking its total up to 27. Irwin Mitchell was the highest-profile new entrant. The ...
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New public service ABS seeks investors
A niche London legal practice styled as the only UK firm focusing on public service delivery is seeking external investment after becoming an alternative business structure (ABS). TPP Law Limited, based in Bankside, central London, was founded over a decade ago by current managing director Mark ...
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Feasibility of scheme to help fund advice needs to be investigated
We welcome the debate initiated by the Law Society about how we can protect access to justice for people on low incomes after the legal aid cuts come into force next April. Some of the comments on the Gazette’s website following the article, ‘Lawyer trust accounts "could fill legal aid ...
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Upon what reserves are all concerned to draw when a real emergency arises?
Criminal justice is an area where policymakers see a problem that is not there – and then set about solving it with gusto. As we report, the latest bogus bete noire is the apparent inflexibility of magistrates courts’ sitting hours.
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Ferrets' battle brief
Spending a little time on the traditional pursuits of the lower orders has a long tradition in City firms. Obiter is just old enough to remember being invited to play darts with Herbert Smith partners and selected members of the press in an East End pub (the scores reflecting the ...
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Religious beliefs should be respected - when rights are not impeded
Next week, the European Court of Human Rights will hear four claims against the UK that raise perhaps the most sensitive rights of all: the freedom of thought, conscience and religion guaranteed by article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the freedom to hold religious views is ...
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Snooping bill ‘not thought through’
Proposals in draft legislation would let the government conduct the ‘mass surveillance of innocent people’ under the cloak of investigating terrorist and criminal organisations, the Law Society has claimed.
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SRA courts BME solicitors and sole practitioners
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has invited black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors to attend a workshop on outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) as part of its programme of ‘constructive engagement’ with stakeholders.
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Solicitors' supporting cast
Many solicitors openly acknowledge their reliance on non-lawyers in building a successful practice. Yet that acknowledgement does not always translate into an enhanced standing for secretarial, administrative, paralegal and other non-legally qualified employees.
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Society warning over conveyancing
Separate legal representation for homebuyers and mortgage lenders could reduce solicitors’ share of the conveyancing market and hand work ‘on a plate’ to other sectors, the Law Society has warned.
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Solicitors' outcry at weekend court sittings
Government plans to extend weekend court sittings could be in jeopardy following a Law Society warning that ‘very few’ defence solicitors will take part in pilot schemes. In a letter to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff said solicitors feel ‘strongly alienated’ by the ...