All News articles – Page 1441
-
News
Wotton urges US to accept ABSs
Law Society president John Wotton will today urge the US to embrace the era of alternative business structures.In a speech to the American Bar Association (ABA) in New York, Wotton is expected to speak of the opportunities for solicitors through non-lawyer ownership of firms.
-
News
Solicitor advocates dragging standards down, says BSB research
Low rates for criminal legal aid and the growing share of work taken by solicitor advocates are contributing to a decline in advocacy standards that is harming the administration of justice, according to a survey by the Bar Standards Board. The report, Perceptions of Criminal Advocacy, ...
-
News
Court of Appeal rules in favour of age discrimination claim
The Court of Appeal (CoA) has ruled that a solicitor may bring an age discrimination claim against the firm that dismissed him just 10 days before it appointed a younger and less well-paid solicitor to do a similar job.
-
News
Ruling highlights ministerial passivity in the face of US aggression
Sometimes you just can’t win - particularly with the Daily Mail. ‘A glimpse of common sense from Strasbourg’ was its headline hailing the government’s victory at the European Court of Human Rights in the case involving both Babar Ahmad and Abu Hamza. The subsequent piece was the usual attack on ...
-
News
Rucking all over the world
Lawyers are uncompromising in negotiation and unafraid of getting down and dirty when it comes to winning a point. They tackle issues head-on, run with the ball and… Obiter could continue with the rugby puns, but there is a more serious point. The New Zealand lawyers northern rugby tour is ...
-
News
Balancing exercise: privacy and press freedom
Lord Grabiner QC is the lawyer you saw sitting in a row of seats behind Rupert Murdoch when the newspaper owner gave evidence to a Commons committee last July and ended up with a custard pie in his face. Grabiner was there because he chairs the management and standards committee ...
-
News
How long before we end up with a serious miscarriage of justice?
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. As professional interpreters continue their de facto strike over the ongoing outsourcing shambles, Marx’s dictum sprang readily to mind. Last week’s collapsed trial at Snaresbrook over the difference in meaning between ‘beaten’ and ‘bitten’ follows an earlier charade at Ipswich where ...
-
News
Interpreter 'bite' mistake causes trial collapse
A four-day burglary trial at a London Crown court collapsed last week after an interpreter made a mistake translating the defendant’s evidence. The trial at Snaresbrook (pictured) was halted on Friday afternoon after the Romanian language interpreter admitted mistakenly telling the court that the defendant had allegedly been ‘bitten’ rather ...
-
News
Why self-help makes business sense
District Judge Richard Chapman asks us for help with problems for the judge and the parties when litigants have to represent themselves. For many years, my firm’s Law Shop service has been giving advice to clients who have to self-represent in the Small Claims Court, in exactly the way that ...
-
News
Care crisis looms without more funds, Society says
The Law Society has warned that greater resources are needed to prevent a crisis in the care system as the number of applications soars to record levels. Annual figures released by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) show that for the ...
-
News
Society proposes five-yearly check on criminal practitioners
The Law Society is seeking views on a plan to bolster its criminal litigation quality standard by reaccrediting solicitors every five years. It has proposed that members of the Criminal Litigation Accreditation Scheme (CLAS) should undergo a regulatory check every five years involving six hours ...
-
News
Insurance industry ‘deluded’ says PI chief
The incoming president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has launched a stinging attack on the prime minister and insurance industry. Speaking at the APIL conference in Newport today, Karl Tonks accused insurers of creating a ‘dysfunctional’ system through third-party capture of people who would never otherwise make a ...
-
News
Reservations as Clarke wins Strasbourg court reform deal
Forty-seven European states have adopted the final draft of the UK government’s proposed reforms of the Strasbourg human rights court, despite reservations expressed by some of the court’s top officials. These reservations include fears that national parliaments might attempt to compromise the independence of the court ...
-
News
Colombia overtures obscure deep-rooted human rights issues
by Bryan Nott, partner at Simpson Millar ‘Colombia: isn’t it a bit dicey?’ It is possible that the lawyers Michael Cross spoke with when he visited Colombia showed irritation at that question.
-
News
SRA sets timetable for compliance roles
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has laid out its plans for nominating and appointing compliance officers for legal practice (COLPs) and compliance officers for finance and administration (COFAs). In a speech today, SRA executive director Samantha Barrass announced that firms will be able to nominate COLPs and ...
-
News
Society offers compliance officer help
The Law Society has announced a pilot scheme to provide firms with advice on problems with new compliance requirements. A new compliance reference group (CRG) will deal with enquiries from compliance officers for legal practices (COLPs) and provide advice on major problems.
-
News
Concern over police use of interview loophole
The Law Society has raised concerns with the Home Office about police officers denying suspects their right to consult a solicitor. Richard Atkinson, chair of the Society’s criminal law committee, told the Gazette that police are circumventing the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) by ...
-
News
Government plans 'could undermine human rights court'
Inflexible government proposals to tackle the backlog of 150,000 cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) could undermine the court’s credibility and deny access to justice, the Law Society has warned as an international conference on the court’s future begins today. The proposals, in ...
-
News
Firms going direct for PII coverage, Law Society poll shows
Increasing numbers of law firms are seeking out their own quotes for professional indemnity insurance, according to a Law Society survey. The poll of 600 firms found almost one-fifth of firms approached insurers directly to get 2011/12 cover - nearly double the proportion who did so ...