All News articles – Page 1446
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News
Drifting eastwards: becoming multi-jurisdictional
If Woodward and Bernstein were advised to ‘follow the money’, law firms follow the client. Firms that operate in offshore financial centres have done exactly that. As offshore clients have pulled back from structured finance transactions towards risk-transfer arrangements, so have their lawyers. And where ...
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Biggest dissatisfaction is with lawyers' costs
The older I get, the more I feel uncomfortable about the binary nature of our discourse. OK - a pretentious sentence, even by my standards. What do I mean?
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LSB defies calls to 'change direction'
The Legal Services Board super-regulator looks set to defy calls from the profession to scale back its role. In a review published yesterday of the five years since the Legal Services Act, the board says there is ‘no need at this stage for a change ...
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Cautious reception to SRA ‘racism’ report
Claims by the Society of Black Lawyers (SBL) that the Solicitors Regulation Authority is ‘institutionally racist’ have been given a cool reception by other individuals representing minority ethnic lawyers. The SBL’s report Breaking the Silence: who is regulating the regulator? accused the SRA of intervening on ...
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Committal fee change lawful, High Court rules
The High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to scrap lawyers’ fees for committal proceedings was lawful. Dismissing a judicial review sought by the Law Society, Lord Justice Burnton cited the impact of legal aid fee cuts on lawyers. No one, he said, ‘could not ...
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Charity chop
Leslie Tuck, solicitor at Harrogate firm Bywaters Topham Phillips has marked herself out as a cut above the rest. The civil litigator went under the scissors last week, chopping 30cm off her hair to donate to children’s charity the Little Princess Trust, which creates wigs for children rendered bald by ...
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LSC to terminate CLAC contracts
The Legal Services Commission has signalled its intention to end all community legal advice centre and network (CLAC/N) contracts next year. It has written to all contract holders and partner local authorities to inform them of the proposal to end the contracts on 31 March 2013. ...
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Client emails to be evidence in mis-selling claims
Emails between bank staff and owners of small businesses who bought interest-rate hedging contracts will be evidence in mis-selling claims totalling up to £1bn, the Gazette can reveal. Norton Accord, the company that has secured funds to launch up to 4,000 cases, said that client emails ...
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We need to reach a compromise on publishing complaints
The Legal Ombudsman had a difficult job deciding how to publish complaints details. The status quo of printing anonymised case studies is generally considered counter-productive. For consumer groups, the case studies have little authority; for law firms, they bring everyone into disrepute. But it is possible both sides of the ...
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Who’s in the running for top jobs at the ECtHR and Supreme Court?
By the time the courts adjourn for their next holiday break, we shall know who will be taking two highly influential judicial posts. The UK judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will sit on every case brought against the British government in Strasbourg. The president of the ...
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Solicitors can help litigants in person prepare for their day in court
I am on a mission and I need your help. I am worried about the increasing numbers of litigants appearing in the county courts of England and Wales without any legal representation.
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News
Fury like a courtroom scorned
Sitting on a jury seems an increasingly precarious business. Janet Chapman this week joined the growing list of jury members who have taken the short jump across to the dock. Her crime was so ridiculous it reads like a rejected Shameless episode. Chapman had faced three ...
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New magistrates' courts open
Two new magistrates’ courts opened this week in Chelmsford (pictured) and Colchester. Both will deal with the full range of criminal and family work, and Chelmsford will also have the capacity to deal with Crown court cases.
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Criminal law
Appeal - Engaging in misleading commercial practice R v Scottish and Southern Energy plc: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Davis, Mr Justice Nicol and Judge Kramer QC): 16 March 2012 ...
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Custodial sentence for holiday juror
A juror who pretended to be ill to go on holiday has been jailed for 56 days. Janet Chapman had telephoned the court during a four-week trial to say she would miss two weeks because she was suffering from sciatica. But Chapman had phoned in the ...
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‘Daft’ FoI requests can be ignored
Public bodies can safely ignore requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) for their plans to deal with zombie invasions. Graham Smith, deputy information commissioner, told the Solicitors in Local Government annual weekend school last week that ‘silly and daft’ requests would be covered by existing guidance on vexatious ...
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Raw deal for LDPs?
Having spoken to the SRA on behalf of a current non-lawyer manager (NLM) LDP, I was left bewildered as to why any legal disciplinary practice would wish to convert to ABS before the automatic passporting process (which will be delayed). When the plans for the introduction ...