All News articles – Page 1494
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News
Troika forces ABSs on Italy
Just as with the Second World War, so the current economic crisis - which Chancellor Merkel says is Europe’s most challenging period since the war - had its phoney period, which has now ended. For a long while, nothing seemed to happen, and no consequences were felt. But, from a ...
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Would judges jump in the hot-tub?
In his most recent lecture on the implementation aspects of his Final Report, Lord Justice Jackson turned the spotlight on the costs associated with expert witnesses. Particularly interesting were his comments in relation to the ‘concurrent evidence procedure’, or ‘hot-tubbing’, as it is wryly termed by lawyers.
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SRA to phase in online PC renewals
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to phase in its new online practising certificate registration and renewal system, following delays caused by implementation problems. Selected firms will begin using the new system this week, after the regulator decided that it does not plan to revert to paper-based renewals for 2011/12. A ...
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Bank reveals £5m litigation funding outlay
International bank Investec has revealed it has lent around £5m this year to legal clients pursuing commercial litigation. The bank started a pilot of the scheme eight months ago and claims it is the first to offer specialist finance to pursue a civil claim in court. ...
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First Bribery Act sentence ‘sends powerful message’
The East London court officer who faced the first prosecution under the 2010 Bribery Act has been sentenced to six years in prison. Munir Yakub Patel was jailed for six years for misconduct in a public office, to be served concurrently with a three-year sentence for ...
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UK is top dog in Strasbourg
It is sweetly ironic that our Europhobic coalition government is in power at a time when the country holds two of the top positions at that bogeyman of the Tory shires - the Council of Europe (CoE) in Strasbourg, whose role it is to oversee the European Court of Human ...
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A worrying precedent
The Court of Appeal will soon be asked to decide how far an employer has to go in order to comply with its duty to inform an employee that they have a legal right. The case of R v R Plant Hire (Peterborough) Ltd v Bailey has worrying implications for ...
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This has never truly been about ‘greedy’ lawyers and saving money
It has been said of the English that they prefer pets to people; but perhaps they prefer petrol to people. A cynical observation perhaps, but as the Lords prepares to sound the death knell for civil legal aid, a peak at No 10’s e-petitions website is instructive. Over 110,000 signed ...
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LASPO may ‘undermine access to justice’, says Lords committee
A House of Lords committee has warned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill threatens the rights of access to justice and availability of legal advice to those in police custody. The Constitution Committee published a report today considering the constitutional implications of ...
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Civil advice phone gateway plan slammed
Government plans to make phone calls the main conduit for publicly funded advice in civil cases could increase the average time needed to give advice, according to new research. The government has proposed making a telephone helpline the ‘gateway’ to all legal aid advice in civil ...
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Labour peers are preparing to mount a last stand against legal aid cuts
By the Rt. Hon Sadiq Khan MP, shadow lord chancellor and shadow secretary of state for justice and constitutional affairs Earlier this month, despite opposition from the Labour Party, charities and campaigning groups from the Law Society to the Women’s Institute, government plans to slash social ...
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‘Last chance’ to stop legal aid cuts - Khan
Only the House of Lords can preserve the notion of equality for everyone before the law, the shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan writes in the Gazette today. On the eve of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill reaching the Lords, Khan says ...
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Shock as firms fail in family legal aid bid
An unexpectedly high number of failed applications for family legal aid contracts has caused surprise in the sector. The Legal Services Commission announced this week that 93% of those who bid for the new family law contracts had been successful. Contracts have been offered to ...
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Alcoholism in profession ‘underestimated’
Widely publicised research findings that 15-24% of lawyers will suffer from alcoholism during their careers may underestimate the problem, the legal health support charity LawCare said this week. Among senior solicitors the figure is nearly one in three, a spokeswoman told the Gazette.
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Under starter’s orders - but they’re off already
There’s a wonderful moment of organised chaos at the start of every Grand National. No-one knows when the starting tape will lift, so the horses jostle and fidget, overcome by nervous tension and desperate to get started.
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We must not swallow the argument that the police and courts initially responded well to the riots
I absolutely agree with Julian Young in respect of the under-acknowledged efforts of defence practitioners at the time of the riot arrests and courts.
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Bankruptcy
Trustee in bankruptcy - Costs - Claimant trustee in bankruptcy commencing proceedings on behalf of estate Hunt (as trustee in bankruptcy of Janan George Harb) v Harb and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Neuberger, Lords Justice ...
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Xmas cheer
Like Obiter, you may be a curmudgeon who dreads Christmas as a time for suffering relatives who have the temerity to earn more than you. If so, we have the perfect antidote to festive gloom - More Morello Letters, the sequel to the much-loved Morello ...
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Ex-Minster Law chief unveils claims.com
A Leeds-based claims management company which paid a seven-figure sum for its web address opens for business this week, with a strategy that includes buying its own law firm and becoming an alternative business structure. Chief executive Matthew Briggs, who formerly led the Yorkshire personal injury ...
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Chief magistrate praises defence solicitors over riots
The chief magistrate has praised the ‘exemplary skill and professionalism’ of defence solicitors in the summer riot courts, calling them ‘unsung heroes’. Senior district judge Howard Riddle said that without defence solicitors’ efforts the criminal justice system would not have been able to respond as it did to the unprecedented ...