All News articles – Page 1458
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News
Fiji hits back at scathing report
Fiji’s attorney general has launched a personal attack on the author of a report which claimed to expose a serious deterioration in the rule of law in the country. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum (pictured), the second most powerful member of Fiji’s government, described the report as a ‘joke’ ...
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Quality test 'should not protect barristers'
Controversy about the use of judicial evaluation in a new scheme to assess the quality of advocates has escalated, with solicitors’ bodies warning that the scheme could become a means to protect barristers.
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Salford claims centre plagued by complaints
Complaints continue to pour in about the new centralised facility for handling civil claims, with under two weeks to go before the centre is set to become fully operational. A solicitor told the Gazette he was still ‘reeling from the nightmare’ of dealing with the County ...
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Clarke defends secret trials
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has defended plans to extend secret trials across a range of proceedings in the civil courts, arguing that a ‘unique and unprecedented’ terrorist threat means that evidence affecting national security can be safely disclosed only behind closed doors. A measure in the ...
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Solicitors need to wise up to contingency fees
One of the big uncertainties of the Jackson reforms is how big damages-based agreements (‘DBAs’, or contingency fees as they are more commonly known) are going to be. For the first time outside of employment cases, from April 2013 lawyers will be able to take ...
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Counting the costs
While not a member of the Law Society, I read the Gazette with great interest, particularly in relation to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and the extension of the RTA scheme to include employers’ and public liability claims.
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Court upholds wasted costs order
The Court of Appeal has upheld a wasted costs order against a Buckinghamshire firm, ruling that it was ‘complicit’ in its client’s ‘manipulation’ of the court process by failing to give reasons for opposing a hearsay notice in a criminal trial.
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Flexible working 'crucial for women lawyers'
Almost all women lawyers believe that flexible working practices are key to women winning senior roles in law firms, an international survey suggests. Some 85% of respondents to the survey, commissioned by LexisNexis and the Law Society, said that the level of commitment required to reach ...
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Reform could curtail Strasbourg
The government has high hopes of reaching an agreement in Brighton next month that will lead to major reforms to the European Convention on Human Rights and the court in Strasbourg that enforces it. Britain’s proposals are set out in a draft declaration which the government hopes will be approved ...
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Thousands miss PC renewal deadline
Thousands of solicitors appear to have failed to apply in time for practising certificates this year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has confirmed. The deadline for applications, extended because of difficulties with the mySRA online application system, passed last Friday.
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LASPO suffers three more defeats in Lords
The government lost three more votes on its planned legal aid reforms in the House of Lords yesterday, but narrowly staved off an amendment that would have kept public funding for all clinical negligence cases. In the second day of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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Educate, don’t mandate: Jackson on mediation
Lord Justice Jackson has called for a ‘serious campaign’ to teach lawyers and judges the benefits of mediation to settle disputes. The architect of the civil litigation reforms told a conference today that he is still a keen advocate of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as a ...
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Opening doors
In 2010 I attended the Commonwealth Lawyers Association’s regional conference at Abuja, Nigeria and was introduced to the concept of a multi-door court. It seems to me that now the Ministry of Justice has a number of empty courts, the time is right to explore the multi-door concept and possibly ...
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Driving lessons
Case law about liability for road traffic accidents is sparse. Now, oddly, within the space of a month, no fewer than four cases have been reported concerning driving habits. They are instructive both for those of us who are drivers and also for those who have to deal with the ...
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Lawyers must engage with Occupy issues
by Melanie Strickland, a solicitor and Occupy London supporter Remember To Kill a Mockingbird’s Atticus Finch? The white lawyer who defends an innocent black man facing a rape charge, which he will inevitably be convicted of because it’s the deep south and the jury is racist? ...
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The justice equation
Stepping on to a single-engine aeroplane from Kathmandu to Pokhara in Nepal, my legal partner Martin Howe and I decided to divert our attention away from the frightening prospect of the flight over the Himalayan mountains by continuing our discussion about the meaning of justice and seeking to create an ...
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The ex factor
Think of a football sugar daddy and a Russian oligarch or wealthy Arab springs to mind. But in Devon, it is a law firm that is funding one club’s battle against relegation. South-west firm Follett Stock has already sponsored Exeter City for two years, but wanted an even greater input ...
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Society slams tribunal fee plans
The Law Society has condemned as creating a barrier to justice government plans to introduce fees for taking claims to employment tribunals and employment appeals tribunals. The government is consulting on charging fees in order to transfer costs of running the employment tribunal system to ...
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Labour peers seek to halve portal fees
Labour peers have tabled proposals in the Lords to halve the fixed fees solicitors can claim from the low-value RTA Portal. Lord Beecham and Lord Bach (pictured) put down amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill for debate on Monday. The changes ...