All News articles – Page 1465
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News
Writing on the wall
My postbox is bombarded every day with offers of seminars from a multitude of providers. Now on offer is a ‘Crash Course on Punctuation & Grammar’. Have standards of entry to our profession dropped to such an all-time low that our solicitors require after-admission training on the use of commas ...
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HSBC accused of blocking panel appeal
The Law Society has accused HSBC and its conveyancing panel manager Countrywide of 'unreasonable' behaviour over membership of the bank's conveyancing panel. According to a statement, the Society had been told by the bank and Countrywide that an appeal process was in place for firms who ...
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Ruling takes foreign lawyers further on passage to India
India’s much-vaunted ‘road map’ for the liberalisation of its £2.6bn legal services market has inched closer to reality following a high court ruling in a case concerning magic circle and international firms. In a ruling yesterday, the Chennai high court gave foreign firms the right to ...
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ABS revolution in view
Tesco Law was never supposed to be like this. We expected a flood of new entrants to a high street near you, laden with private equity cash and ideas of grandeur, many backed by existing big-name brands. Alternative business structures were going to sweep up the mass market of personal ...
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Ombudsman confirms move into claims management
Plans for the Legal Ombudsman to handle complaints about claims management companies will benefit consumers and the legal profession, according to the chief ombudsman. Proposals to bring complaints about claims management into the scheme’s remit were confirmed at this week’s meeting of the Office for Legal ...
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ABS aspirant Express announces £3m expansion
Manchester-based personal injury firm Express Solicitors has announced £3m expansion plans and the creation of 40 new jobs in a bid to become an alternative business structure with a £10m turnover within four years. Over the next year, the 12-year-old firm plans to move to a ...
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Do reserved activities harm the UK economy?
This week, from the same people who brought you economic ruin, we have more of the same. As I have said before, deregulation and liberalisation - those twin modern marvels which most agree to have been the motors of our current economic crisis - are still fixed in our rulers’ ...
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Litigation changes ‘border on recklessness’, says APIL chief
Rapid change in civil litigation threatens to ‘besiege’ claimant solicitors and their clients, according to the outgoing president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). David Bott, speaking at the APIL president’s lunch last week, accused the government of ‘recklessness’ in pushing ahead too quickly ...
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DLA’s fixed-price venture chases commercial market
A fixed-price legal services provider today became the first new entrant of the alternative business structure era to enter the commercial market. Riverview Law, backed with funding from global firm DLA Piper, aims to attract every type of client from small and medium-sized businesses to large corporations.
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CFA does not justify departure on interest rate, Neuberger rules
Interest on costs should run from the date of an order rather than the point where costs are agreed, the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger, has ruled. In a landmark judgment in Simcoe v Jacuzzi Group UK, Neuberger yesterday held that interest on the costs runs from the date ...
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Look out for a clampdown on costs
It’s fair to say that most litigators prefer to spend their time on the cut and thrust of litigation rather than compiling detailed calculations of what they expect their final bill to be.
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Telecoms giant seeks to become an ABS
Telecoms giant BT is planning a major incursion into the legal services market after applying to become an alternative business structure, the Gazette can reveal. BT Claims, a wholly owned subsidiary, applied last week to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a licence to become an ABS. ...
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Call to account
I read with interest that the SRA had extended its operating hours to deal with the issues arising from this year’s online renewals process. Over the last three days, I have spent nearly two hours waiting on the phone to speak with someone at the SRA ...
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The corporate market is changing and its firms need to adapt
As we report today, several years of harder economic times have effected a permanent change in the instruction choices of general counsel in our largest corporations. Even with improved budgets in 2011 and 2012, they are opting to grow headcount in-house, and achieve legal advice coverage through increased use of ...
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Display of affection
The high street of Church Stretton, Shropshire, is just a little more romantic this week thanks to the efforts of local solicitors. Shropshire firm PCB Solicitors has a Valentine’s Day display, put together by administration assistant Jade Phillips. Jade does ‘a fantastic job’, solicitor Pauline Davies tells us.
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Keeping up appearances
What is the test when a tenant applies to set aside a possession order made in their absence? Following Estate Acquisition and Development Ltd v Wiltshire [2006] EWCA Civ 533, [2006] All ER (D) 50 (a case of forfeiture of a lease), it seemed that the answer lay in rule ...
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Society in new deal on ARP finance
The Law Society has offered to share equally with insurers up to £60m in liability to cover the cost of the assigned risks pool (ARP).
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Language barrier
Catherine Baksi is quite right to raise the issue of interpreters, of such concern for so long to those of us in the know. Pro bono (and with any number of colleagues from the defence, the prosecution, the police, the Probation Service, the courts service ...
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Commitment to human rights should begin in UK
Governments in the UK have traditionally exhibited a somewhat divided attitude to the use of torture. The trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 raised, in essence, the same issues as those in the more recent case of Abu Qatada, the cleric sought by Jordan. How fair can a trial ...
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BT Claims has taken part of the market by surprise
I thought the news that a BT subsidiary has applied to become an alternative business structure (ABS) was the most interesting so far in what is predicted to be a year of unprecedented change in the legal profession. Sure, it’s interesting that private equity money is ...