All News articles – Page 1442
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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 ...
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Criminal law
Proceedings - Extradition proceedings - Court of Appeal - Jurisdiction R (on the application of Guardian News and Media Ltd) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court: CA (Civ Div) (Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Lord Justices ...
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Criminal evidence
Admissibility - Defendant being charged, inter alia, with possession of cocaine with intent to supply - No defence being served by time of plea and case management hearing R v Newell: CA (Crim Div) (Sir Anthony May (president), Mrs ...
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The third degree
In the House of Lords recently, a Liberal Democrat peer pointed out that third-party funding used to be ‘both a crime and a civil tort’. But unusually for a practice that was previously considered illegal, third-party funding is now basking in the warm glow of judicial approval; and while the ...
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Don’t tell him, Pike!
Our current government is so transfixed by transparency it’ll probably turn holographic any moment. Think about the benefits: we can airbrush Michael Gove, ministers can avoid actually having to meet the public and we’ll finally get to see the Men in Black-style alien controlling Jeremy Hunt ...
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Insight for sore eyes
It’s getting on for two years since the government launched its crackdown on local authority newspapers. Communities minister Eric Pickles (pictured) declared war on what he described as ‘town hall Pravdas’ wasting taxpayers’ money and time. The campaign has long since died a death, hardly surprising ...
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Fees and LDPs
I write in response to the letter ‘Raw deal for LDPs?’, concerning the process of passporting to an alternative business structure. To clarify, there is no fee for a non-lawyer manager LDP which elects to transition to the ABS regime ahead of the transition period (which the author is correct ...
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Solicitors 'refuse to give journalists their names'
A leading court reporting agency says increasing numbers of solicitors are refusing to give their full name to journalists when appearing in court. Guy Toyn, news editor at Central News, told the Gazette that up to one in every 20 solicitors his reporters comes across asks ...
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‘Impossible’ practice
Richard Chapman writes persuasively about the role of solicitors giving assistance to self-represented litigants. I am sure that if it were just a matter of helping a professional colleague, many would be happy to oblige. The matter is, however, deeper than that. These problems are arising ...
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Inheritance
Inheritance rights - Statutory next of kin - Adopted children - Human rights Re Erskine Trust, Gregg and another v Pigott and others: ChD (Mr Mark Herbert QC (sitting as a deputy judge of the Chancery Division)): 29 March ...
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Taxing issues
I refer to Robert Forman’s piece about the political stance taken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over Stamp Duty Land Tax schemes.
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The scope of legal professional privilege
The question before Mr Justice Akenhead in Walter Lilly & Company Ltd v Mackay and another [2012] EWHC 649 (TCC) was this: does legal professional privilege (LPP) attract to documents produced by a claims consultant, even one which retains legally qualified personnel?
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Musical truth
What a bunch of old rockers Gazette readers turned out to be. Obiter’s plea for songs to accompany Gazette news stories evidently had a few of you thumbing through your vinyl collections.
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Negligence
Highway - Duty of highway authority AC and others v TR and another: Queen's Bench Division (Mrs Justice Slade DBE): 29 March 2012 In considering the circumstances of a road ...
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ABA rebuffs proposal for non-lawyer ownership
The American Bar Association has rejected any proposal to change its ban on non-lawyer ownership of firms. The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 decided last week to uphold the prohibition after a three-year of consultation with the profession.
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Domestic violence concession as MPs back legal aid cuts
MPs overturned nearly all of the changes made by peers to the government’s proposed legal aid reforms, but in a key concession agreed to widen the evidential criteria required to grant legal aid to victims of domestic violence. In last night’s debate on the Legal Aid, ...
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Insurers under fire for ‘wasted costs’
The incoming leader of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers will go on the attack against insurers this week. Karl Tonks, incoming president of APIL, will use his inaugural speech on Thursday at the group’s annual conference to call for fairness in the civil litigation system. ...
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Are judges interested in legal costs?
In a year’s time, everything is set to change in relation to lawyers’ costs. Among Lord Justice Jackson’s many and ambitious plans are a new rule on how to decide whether legal fees are proportionate (met with scepticism by many experts, it must be said), ...