All News articles – Page 1448

  • News

    Retreating partners

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    As many of us know from experience, partners in solicitors’ practices often cannot agree on even writing the most basic strategic plan; yet at this time of extreme change it is more important than ever that law firms have a clear vision as to what the future holds for them. ...

  • News

    I didn’t forget defence solicitors, says lord chief justice

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    The lord chief justice has thanked defence solicitors for the ‘huge contribution’ made in the summer riot court cases, stressing that they had been included in his earlier praise of the rest of the legal profession. At his annual press conference at the Royal Courts of ...

  • News

    Barristers plan escrow scheme for holding client money

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    The bar is looking into a scheme to allow barristers to hold client money through proxies, the incoming head of the bar said in his inaugural speech last night.

  • News

    Charities reveal qualms about seeking legal advice

    2011-12-06T00:00:00Z

    Charities understand little about the law but many are put off talking to a solicitor because of worries about cost, according to a major new study. The Legal Services Consumer Panel asked more than 800 small charities about their legal needs and experiences. Responses showed ...

  • News

    Inquiring minds

    2011-12-05T00:00:00Z

    Throughout 2011, the phone hacking scandal has rocked the UK’s public landscape, drawing comparisons with Watergate in terms of its effect on our national psyche and its long-term significance. The saga has kicked off again this Autumn with the Leveson Inquiry, but listening to testimony of News Corporation staff throughout ...

  • News

    CPS drops fraud charges in referral-fee case

    2011-12-05T00:00:00Z

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped charges against 11 solicitors and doctors after an investigation into an alleged insurance fraud. The group had faced charges including conspiracy to defraud and false accounting in relation to the payment of after-the-event legal expenses premiums as well ...

  • News

    ADR and ODR: the EU acts

    2011-12-05T00:00:00Z

    European policy initiatives are like London buses. After a long wait, a whole bunch arrives together. But their timing is not so mysterious as with buses. No, Eurocrats are clearing their desks before Christmas, having laboured through the autumn to perfect their product. Now the lobbyists have to sacrifice their ...

  • News

    Pinch point

    2011-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The stark comparison between new legal service providers and traditional firms’ approach to clients’ contact shows a way forward for all firms. In many solicitors offices there is a pinch point that restricts the ability of a firm to grow, the traditional solicitors’ receptionist and switchboard operator.

  • News

    It’s madness to relax health and safety rules

    2011-12-02T00:00:00Z

    If you haven’t heard of Stewart Lee, then search for him on YouTube and cancel all appointments for the next few hours. If you’re not laughing within 10 minutes, check you still have a pulse. My favourite routine of his surrounds his nan’s tale of her trip to the hairdresser’s. ...

  • News

    Privacy case numbers soar

    2011-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The number of public figures using privacy arguments has more than doubled over the past year as the controversy over the use of injunctions has grown, according to research from legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell. The firm’s data shows a rise from nine to 24 in ...

  • News

    Bar aiming to bypass ‘superfluous’ solicitors

    2011-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors are dismissed as ‘superfluous intermediaries’ in a new bar consultation paper which recommends making it easier for the public to bypass them and instruct barristers directly. The Bar Standards Board is examining whether barristers should be able to accept direct instructions from clients eligible ...

  • News

    Property

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Land - Adverse possession - Exclusive possession Zarb and another v Parry and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Neuberger, Lord Justices Arden and Jackson): 15 November 2011 The ...

  • News

    Privilege

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Legal professional privilege - Solicitor and client - Communications between legal adviser and client JSC BTA Bank v Shalabayev and another: CD (Mr Justice Henderson): 10 November 2011 As part ...

  • News

    Jurisdiction

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Conflict of laws - Challenge to jurisdiction - Parties entering into licence agreement Seven Licensing Company Sarl and another company v FFG-Platinum SA and other companies: Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court (Mr Justice Gloster): 16 November 2011 ...

  • News

    Insolvency

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Compulsory winding-up order - Liquidator - Appointment Re Business Dream Ltd: ChD (Judge Behrens sitting as a judge of the High Court): 8 November 2011 BD Ltd (the company) traded ...

  • News

    Immigration

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Right of appeal - Claim for asylum - Notice of refusal of leave to enter AS (Somalia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; CW (Jamaica) v Secretary of State for the Home Department; SD (Zimbabwe) v Secretary ...

  • News

    Lawyer, heal thyself

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    I see that John Osborne’s 1964 play Inadmissible Evidence has been revived to its usual ecstatic reviews. The Daily Telegraph’s critic said he had little doubt that the character was ‘ripped straight from the dramatist’s own mind and heart and set down on paper’.

  • News

    On guard

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Obiter once saw a robot prison guard demonstrated in the US. The Dalek-like contraption was deployed in earnest only once, to get CCTV footage of a prison riot. Not surprisingly, it was a one-way mission.

  • News

    Jury system is under threat from irresponsible press, says Grieve

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    The press testing the boundaries of reporting in criminal cases could undermine the jury system, the attorney general has warned. In a speech at City University on contempt and balancing the freedom of the press with the fair administration of justice, Dominic Grieve QC said he ...

  • News

    Offshore law firms are reinventing themselves

    2011-12-01T00:00:00Z

    No man is an island - as we all know from the poet, John Donne; which is why global offshore financial centres such as those in Bermuda and the Channel Islands have felt the effects of the recession as much, if not more, than their onshore counterparts. But it is ...