All News articles – Page 1429
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Intellectual property
Patent - Infringement - Order for destruction Merck Canada Inc and another v Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc: Patents County Court (Judge Birss QC): 3 May 2012 The Patents County Court granted ...
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Managing stress
We at LawCare were sorry to read the letter of 10 May from Jean Booth. Sadly her experience of stress leading to debilitating and ultimately career-ending depression is one we hear only too often on the LawCare helpline. We would reiterate Ms Booth’s advice - if you are juggling the ...
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Persistence pays off
Edward Foster suggests it is unfair that so few LPC students secure a training contract and that a three-year postgraduate professional apprenticeship may be the way forward. The abolition of the minimum trainee ‘wage’ agreed last week should also help.
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Sole ‘success’
Viv Williams’s recent comments really rubbed salt into a wound which was just beginning to heal. I set up my practice 25 years ago and operated as a sole practitioner for all of those years, highly successfully. I had a superb, loyal following which resulted ...
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Six months to end 'indiscriminate' prisoner voting ban
Britain has six months to draft new laws to end its blanket ban on prisoners voting in elections or face penalties totalling millions of pounds, it has emerged following a ruling from Europe’s human rights court. The court ruled that Britain’s ‘automatic and indiscriminate’ disqualification of ...
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Judicial diversity must start with lawyers, says Goldring
Senior judges will reach out to the legal profession by mentoring those who feel excluded from high office. Speaking at a conference yesterday, Senior Presiding Judge Lord Justice Goldring revealed members of the profession previously put off because of their gender, race or sexuality will be ...
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The Jackson review - where are we now?
Now that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act has entered the statute book, I'm looking at where the government is up to in terms of the overall Jackson package of reforms for personal injury compensation.
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Tomlinson judge appointed first chief coroner
The judge who presided at the 2011 inquest that returned a verdict of unlawful killing on newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson was today named as the first Chief Coroner of England & Wales. The Ministry of Justice said that Peter Thornton QC will improve the coronial system ...
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Making the law work for deaf people
Until I started working with the team at the Royal Association for Deaf People’s Deaf Law Centre (RAD DLC) I wasn’t aware of the difficulties that so many D/deaf** and hard of hearing people face when accessing legal services. When I met Rob Wilks, head of RAD’s legal team, in ...
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Social exclusivity ‘rife’ in profession
Social exclusivity is increasing in the legal profession, according to a new analysis of lawyers’ schooling published today. Legal recruiter Laurence Simons studied almost 50,000 professionals working in London using the networking site LinkedIn. It found that more than 15% of lawyers - more than 7,000 ...
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Trainee minimum abolition ‘will hit women’
Women will be disproportionately affected by the scrapping of the minimum salary for trainees, the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) said today. The AWS has added its voice to mounting opposition to the decision taken last week by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. From August 2014, firms ...
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General training ‘failing’, consumer watchdog tells review
Regular re-accreditation and an end to the ‘general practitioner model’ of training are among the reforms called for by the Legal Services Consumer Panel in its submission to the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) today. The consumer watchdog tells the review that the current system ...
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Lawyers’ right to strike
As social ties are stretched to breaking point by the economic crisis, an interesting question arises: do lawyers have the right to strike, and if so in what circumstances? The focus here is not on the legal right granted to citizens, including lawyers, by the law of a particular country, ...
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Pro bono no substitute for legal aid - Wotton
Lawyers need to do more to bridge the gaps in access to justice caused by legal aid reforms, the Law Society president told an international conference in Russia. However he stressed that pro bono work is no substitute for a properly funded legal aid system. John ...
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One out, all out
The warning by Criminal Bar Association chair Max Hill QC today that barristers are prepared to strike - backed by a survey showing near unanimous outrage - is a watershed moment. Hill notes barristers’ reluctance to use their ‘ultimate weapon’, namely ‘stopping the courts’, to make ...
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Criminal bar unfurls strike banner
Nine out of 10 criminal barristers are prepared to take direct action in protest against low and late payments, a survey by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has revealed as their leader for the first time sanctions ‘strike’ action. CBA chair Max Hill QC will ...
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Trainee minimum dumped in 'partial deregulation'
Regulators have voted to partially deregulate the trainee solicitor minimum wage 30 years after it was introduced. The board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority made the decision to change the terms of the salary at its meeting today - with the change coming into effect in ...
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ABS applicants billed thousands for consultancy
Alternative business structure hopefuls are being invoiced thousands of pounds for consultants to handle the financial minutiae of their applications to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Gazette has learned. The SRA says it has hired specialists to supplement its 25-strong team dedicated to vetting ABS applications. ...