All News articles – Page 1406
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News
Sole Practitioners Group remains strongly opposed to ABSs
As chair of the Sole Practitioners Group, who provided material for the news item ‘Sole practitioner numbers rise’, I would like to make a number of points.
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Legacy10 campaign highlights benefits of drafting will through solicitor
From 6 April, an estate of which at least 10% is left to charity benefits from a reduced rate of inheritance tax on the balance of the estate. This change is an opportunity for everyone within the UK to help increase their support for good causes, at little cost to ...
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Green forms and fixed fees
I am impressed by the number of people who fondly (I think fondly is the correct word) remember Green forms. I wonder how many of you recall five-pound fixed fees. It had a certain ring to it. If your client was not eligible to sign the Green form then you'd ...
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Intended retirement ruling opens door to employment tribunal claims
The Court of Appeal handed down judgment this week in the case of R&R Plant Hire (Peterborough) Ltd v Bailey, ruling in favour of the employee. The decision is not only a win for Mr Bailey; it is also a boon for an inestimable number of employees who will suddenly ...
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Workhouse legislation goes on bonfire of statutory dead wood
More than 800 pieces of ‘statutory dead wood’ from the 1600s and earlier would be scrapped under measures proposed today by the two bodies charged with tidying and modernising UK legislation. Laws identified for repeal include a 1696 act to fund the rebuilding of St Paul’s ...
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Secret trials: ‘explore alternatives'
Government proposals to extend the use of secret hearings in cases where evidence might compromise national security are a radical departure from the UK’s ‘traditions of open justice and fairness’, MPs and peers said today. In a critical report on the Justice and Security Green Paper, ...
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The FOI Act cannot be compared to legal privilege
Is it possible to deliver frank, robust, clear advice if you know it might become public? This is one of the key points members of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee must consider in their post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act.
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DBAs move a step closer
With damages-based agreements (or contingency fees as they used to be known) coming into being next April, the Civil Justice Council has now set the wheels in motion to begin drawing up the all-important rules that will govern how the new fees are actually going to operate.
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SRA to shut 15 ARP firms
A total of 15 firms will be closed down after failing to find an escape route from the assigned risks pool. The firms will be shut after failing to secure professional indemnity insurance on the open market by the 1 April deadline, the Solicitors Regulation Authority ...
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Three golden rules of regulation
I met representatives of the Legal Services Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority this week. Among many things discussed, I told them the obvious: that the ease of explanation to outsiders of the UK’s regulatory system for the legal profession has not been improved by the Clementi reforms, but made ...
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LeO unveils complaints publication policy
The Legal Ombudsman is to publish the total number of complaints processed against law firms – but not the details of what they have done wrong. The consumer watchdog starts collating complaints from today, ready to publish them for the first time in July. ...
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Complaints publishing feels like a fudge
At what point does a compromise become a fudge? Without doubt, the Legal Ombudsman had a difficult task on its hands deciding how to publish details of complaints. The status quo of printing anonymised case studies was generally accepted to be counter-productive ...
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HSBC will not face competition probe over panel
The Office of Fair Trading has declined to investigate HSBC over the small size of its conveyancing panel, saying the arrangement does not have a ‘sufficiently negative impact on competition’. East Grinstead sole practitioner Elaine McGloin contacted the watchdog after HSBC announced its new panel in ...
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Big Brother in the Big Society
Civil liberties have few friends in government – only in opposition. Witness the coalition’s decision to hand police and intelligence agencies far-reaching new powers to monitor emails, phone calls and websites. ‘Big Brother WILL be watching you,’ booms today’s Independent.
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Integrity in practice
Discussion continues on the meaning of outcomes-focused regulation, the implementation of the now not-so-new Handbook and the attitude of the SRA to its enforcement. Much of this concerns the retrospective justification of procedures and, in the context of entity-based regulation, whether a breach that is not ...
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News
US extradition treaty ‘one-sided’, MPs report
The extradition treaty between the UK and the US is failing to protect the rights of British citizens, MPs claim today. A report by the House of Commons’ home affairs select committee says that the 2003 treaty makes it easier to extradite a British citizen ...
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Committal fee challenge fails
The High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to scrap lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings was lawful. Dismissing the judicial review sought by the Law Society, Lord Justice Burnton cited the impact of legal aid fee cuts on lawyers. 'No one ...
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SRA ponders £250m fine limit for firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is looking to close a loophole that restricts its fining powers for firms other than alternative business structures. The Legal Services Act 2007 allows the SRA to fine ABSs up to £250m, compared with a limit of £2,000 for traditional law firms. ...
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News
Pension lifetime allowance election deadline – 5 April 2012
The ‘lifetime allowance’ is the maximum amount of value that you can accrue within your pension schemes without suffering an additional tax charge on extraction. The lifetime allowance for a partner’s pension pot from all pension sources (excluding state pensions) is currently £1.8m, but this is being reduced to £1.5m ...
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News
£1bn swaps claims going ahead despite settlements
The first wave of funded claims against banks by business owners who bought interest-rate hedging contracts are close to being ready, the Gazette can reveal. Norton Accord, the company that has secured the backing of funds to bring up to £1bn of claims, confirmed today that ...