All News articles – Page 1408
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News
Memory lane
That a tendency towards self-advertisement is a most serious defect in the character of a solicitor has recently been rather forcibly brought home to me. An article of mine on a religious subject appeared in the May issue of our parish magazine. The editor, approving its ...
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News
Watch your language
Obiter commends HM Judiciary for the commendable dispatch with which it now distributes judgments to media organisations - a real boon, this. And we have enormous sympathy on those not infrequent occasions when its good intentions fall foul of ever more zealous internet firewalls. So it was that news of ...
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Negligence
Causation - Breach of duty causing or contributing to damage Wilkin-Shaw v Fuller and Kingsley School: Queen's Bench Division (Mr Justice Owen): 28 June 2012 The Queen's Bench Division, ...
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Over surcharged
The Gazettedrew attention to the increase in the extent of the ‘victim surcharge’ which is soon to be imposed on those who receive custodial sentences. It is unclear how the government proposes to extract payment from the impecunious defendant who receives a prison sentence. If it ...
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PII special: pooling resources
One of the major challenges we have faced in recent times as a public interest regulator has been to ensure that we have professional indemnity insurance (PII) arrangements in place which provide the required level of consumer protection and are sustainable for the long term.
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PII special: top tips
Over 10,000 firms of solicitors in England and Wales will again be pulling together their applications for professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal. Preparation is paramount because, as we all know, the 1 October deadline always comes too soon. As has been the case for several years now, insurers remain cautious ...
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Utter shambles
Who is in charge of the asylum? The Legal Services Commission’s Jarrow office now routinely mislays correspondence or fails to deal with it for weeks on end. Telephone calls take over 20 minutes to be answered. Even a complaint sent by recorded delivery is not acted ...
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Let Rome burn - we’re off on holiday!
That noise you can hear is MPs stampeding for the exits. Yes, today is the first day of their summer recess/holiday, just 36 days after their last (three-week) break.
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Why can’t lawyers get costs information right?
It’s over 20 years since the first guidance about costs - the Written Professional Standards - appeared, followed closely by Rule 15 and the Solicitors’ Costs Information and Client Care Code, yet complaints about costs, and the related information provided to clients, remain one of the highest causes for complaint.
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Legal framework for immigration ‘collapses’
The legal framework for UK immigration policy is in disarray following today’s Supreme Court ruling that UK Border Agency (UKBA) policies on corporate immigration are unlawful. The court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that much of the UKBA’s practice and policies for corporate immigration are unlawful ...
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MPs to probe interpreter deal
A high-profile parliamentary committee has launched an inquiry into the controversial deal between the Ministry of Justice and the private company contracted to provide court interpreters. The Justice Select Committee today launched a call for written evidence to examine the service provided by Applied Language Solutions ...
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Friends and family 'favourite source of legal advice'
Most consumers do not turn to a solicitor when first confronting a legal need, according to new research published by the Legal Services Board. The report says satisfaction with solicitors is high, with those using solicitors likely to get a better result than those who sought advice from other providers. ...
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Society agrees PII deal with Aon as AmTrust enters market
The Law Society has signed up PII broker Aon to provide professional indemnity insurance to members of its Conveyancing Quality Scheme and Lexcel quality marks. The broker has an exclusive arrangement with two of the largest A-rated qualifying insurers, QBE and XL, for one-to-10 partner ...
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News
‘Cut partner bonuses for diversity failures’
Law firm partners who fail to take ‘robust measures’ to meet diversity targets should be financially penalised, according to a leading pro-diversity group. A report from the InterLaw Diversity Forum for LGBT Networks argues that the profession remains ‘stuck culturally in the mid-20th century’. ...
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City firm overturns TUPE ruling in Jarvis case
Employment contracts of solicitors made redundant when their employers go into administration should not automatically transfer to law firms acting for the administrators, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled yesterday. The ruling on transfer of undertakings, protection of employment (TUPE) regulations, will free administrators to instruct their own legal advisers. ...
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Clarke presses on with judges’ pension cut
The lord chancellor has confirmed government plans to cut judges’ pensions to bring them in line with other public sector workers. In a written ministerial statement yesterday Kenneth Clarke said that the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had confirmed to the House that the government ...
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Expert report warns government to hold off RTA portal extension
Government plans to extend the RTA portal from next year were today dealt a blow by one of its own advisers.
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Gloria occasion
If the epicentre of London’s legal world, where Obiter spends long days, was better served by branches of Matalan, we would have been straight down there for some Union Flag-themed cagoules to mark our patriotism in this Jubilee ‘n’ Olympics year.