All News articles – Page 1487
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News
Justice streamlined – but 175 new offences in government’s first year
The Ministry of Justice insists it is making progress in streamlining the criminal justice system despite adding 175 new offences during its first year in office. In total the fledgling government department passed 33 new pieces of legislation in England and Wales in the 12 ...
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Phillips attacks ‘popular narrative’ on human rights
Much of the ‘nonsense on stilts’ surrounding the Human Rights Act (HRA) in this country is generated by politicians and the media, Britain’s equality chief has said. In an article in The Sunday Times, Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, attacks ...
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LCJ warns of technology threat to justice system
The lord chief justice has today warned of the need to preserve the integrity of the trial and jury system in the face of risks posed by modern technology. In his foreword to the Court of Appeal Criminal Division’s annual review of the Legal Year, Lord ...
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Top 100 growing fast, Deloitte survey shows
The legal sector has been given a welcome boost after new figures showed a sharp rise in income among leading firms. The top 100 have reported an average revenue increase of nearly 10% for the second quarter ended 31 October. A survey by Deloitte showed that ...
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Solicitors to work ‘unpaid’ until committals abolished in April 2012
Committals in either way criminal cases will be abolished from April 2012, the justice secretary announced today. Kenneth Clarke said the change will be effected by bringing into force schedule 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 on a phased basis. The regions where it will ...
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ICAEW set to regulate ABSs
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has confirmed it is applying to become a licensing authority for alternative business structures.
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US backs non-lawyer investment, but rejects ABSs
The US’s leading legal governance body has taken a step towards allowing non-lawyers to hold a financial stake in law firms, but is rejecting English-style alternative business structures.
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The creation of ABSs offers the chance for others to shape the future of the in-house sector
The views of corporate counsel command a high degree of moral authority and respect in the world of commercial legal services. It was not always so, but it is now rare for private practice partners to deride in-house peers as professionals who went in-house because they ‘couldn’t cut it’ in ...
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ADR should not be used as a tool to force a defendant to accept unreasonable settlement terms
The apparent similarity (in my own mind, at least) between the Courts and Tribunals Service and a lunatic asylum never ceases to amaze me. The latest example is in relation to ‘small-claims mediation’. My understanding of the new (and in my view, necessary) rules was that ...
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Society defends in-house lawyers against EU ruling
The Law Society is to defend the status of in-house lawyers against a controversial Luxembourg ruling barring them from appearing as advocates before the European Union’s top court. The Society is to lodge an application to intervene in an appeal against a 2010 ruling by the ...
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Pre-nuptial agreements post-Radmacher
Mr Justice Moor’s decision in Z v Z [2011] EWHC 2878 (Fam) is believed to be the first contested case in the High Court in which the principles of Radmacher have been considered. As Moor J stated in his judgment, Radmacher ‘changed the position fundamentally’ of pre-nuptial agreements and ...
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All legal services should be regulated
The debate about which legal services should be regulated and which should not is not new. Over the years, reserved activities have been added in an ad hoc fashion and the result has been: confusion for consumers; firms being set up to undertake activities that are entirely unregulated with no ...
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Bach hits the mark
Insomnia sometimes has its advantages. Many years ago as a newly qualified, hungry, ambitious lawyer, my sleep pattern was destroyed by nightly visits to police stations to assist clients in custody.
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More solicitors make the bench
Solicitors outperformed barristers in two selection exercises for the judiciary completed earlier this year, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has revealed. Eleven solicitors and eight barristers were selected as district judges (magistrates’ court) and 14 solicitors and 11 barristers as lawyer chairmen of the Residential ...
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Monkey business
Obiter is indebted to Loch Associates, a Tunbridge Wells and London niche employment practice, for these insights into the more eccentric aspects of employing people. Some tales from the firm’s latest newsletter: A hotel cleaner wanted a day off work, but rather than simply asking his ...
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Personal injury interest calculation
The standard rate of interest on general damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenities in personal injury cases was fixed at 2% a year by the House of Lords in Birkett v Hayes [1982] 1 WLR 816; [1982] 2 All ER 70. This was confirmed as appropriate by ...
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Conveyancing solicitors must meet the challenge of competition head on
by Peter Rodd, senior conveyancing partner at Boys & Maughan in Margate The new Conveyancing Protocol is eight months old. The growing number of firms accredited under the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) are obliged to follow it, and many others are beginning to do so.
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How safe is it to store confidential client data in the cloud?
As a freelance journalist, I like the idea of storing all my documents ‘in the cloud’ rather than on whichever of my computers I happen to be using at the time. If I need to check an item urgently, I can download it wherever I happen to be - borrowing ...