All News articles – Page 1505
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News
Gravy train derailed
I note with interest that the Solicitors Regulation Authority is to canvass personal injury firms to ask how they will cope when the government bans referral fees. I would suggest that they cope by ceasing to chase the gravy train and actually exercise business and professional judgement.
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Government’s mediation drive reflects ‘jaundiced’ view of law
The government’s drive to encourage mediation instead of court litigation is diverting attention from cuts to civil legal aid and the consequent reduction in access to justice, according to a leading academic. Professor Dame Hazel Genn told the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators' mediation symposium on Wednesday ...
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Are solicitors really living through the ‘end times’ for law as they have known it?
In his memoir Editor, journalist and author Max Hastings mused on the difference, as he saw it, between readers of the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. Mail readers, he observed, woke every morning and opened their paper of choice to find that the world had altered irretrievably for the ...
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European Union
Services - Freedom of movement - Television broadcasting Football Association Premier League Ltd and others v QC Leisure and others: ECJ (Grand Chamber): Judges Skouris (president), Tizzano, Cunha Rodrigues, Lenaerts, Bonichot, Arabadjiev and Kasel (presidents of chambers), Borg Barthet, ...
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Financial Services
Financial Services Authority (FSA) - Regulation of financial services - Collapse of hedge fund Visser and another v Financial Services Authority: Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) (Mr Justice Bishopp, Keith Palmer, Terence Carter): 9 August 2011 ...
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FSA told to rethink on legal privilege
The Financial Services Authority has been urged to review its operating procedures after it was found to have acted unlawfully in its use of legally privileged material during an enforcement investigation. The regulator had successfully applied to the High Court for its own nominated administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers ...
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The start of the legal year gives us an opportunity to ponder what the future holds
The formal opening of the legal year (OLY) gives the profession an opportunity to reflect on the fundamental principles of access to justice and the rule of law. For the Law Society, it is not only a time to rededicate ourselves to those principles, but a time to pause, reflect ...
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Mental health
Court of Protection - Practice LG v DK: Court of Protection (Sir Nicholas Wall): 5 October 2011 The Court of Protection held that section 21(4) of the Family Law Reform ...
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Human rights
Insolvency - Voluntary arrangement - Approval by creditors Kapoor v National Westminster Bank and another: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Pill, Etherton, Sir Mark Potter): 5 October 2011 ...
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Human rights
Right to a fair trial - Right of access to a lawyer - Statement or admissions made to police without access to legal advice Ambrose v Harris (Procurator Fiscal Oban) (Scotland) and other appeals: SC (Justices of the Supreme ...
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Last resort Lords
With regard to the news item of 29 September that the House of Lords will ‘fight the good fight’ - per Lord Carlile - am I the only legal aid family lawyer feeling distinctly underwhelmed?
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Magic touch
A Harry Potter book autographed by Emma Watson (who played Hermione Granger) tops a glittering list of prizes in the London Legal Support Trust’s Halloween Auction. Watson has also thrown in an autographed DVD set and a signed photo.
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Pension pot
Obiter recently happened upon the Law Society’s 1877 annual report, where he was intrigued to read that the Society’s librarian was to retire after 30 years’ service, aged 79, with a ‘pension, equal to the amount of his salary, which was £300 a year’.
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In the saddle
With the retirement of Newmarket jockey Phillip Robinson at 50, my mind went back to the bearded solicitor Victor Morley Lawson. He had tried to ride a winner for 30 years until, at the age of 67, he won on Ocean King in the last race - an amateur hurdle ...
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Bach seeks to scupper 10% legal aid fee cut
Former legal aid minister Lord Bach has tabled a House of Lords motion calling for the statutory instrument that introduced 10% cuts to legal aid lawyers’ fees this month to be annulled.
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Law Society Excellence Awards 2011: winners announced
The outstanding achievements of the legal profession in England and Wales were celebrated by the Law Society at a ceremony in London yesterday evening. Over 600 legal professionals and their guests joined the president of the Law Society John Wotton and BBC Broadcaster Mishal Husain ...
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Neuberger argues for greater use of IT in courts
Master of the rolls Lord Neuberger has backed the introduction of more electronic disclosure in court but stopped short of advocating ‘virtual trials’. Speaking at the high sheriff’s lecture in Leeds last week, Neuberger said the legal profession was facing change on a scale not seen ...
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Liberty attacks ‘baffling’ review of extradition law
The Extradition Act under which British subject and Asperger’s syndrome sufferer Gary McKinnon faces being sent for trial in the US for computer hacking is not biased against British citizens, a landmark review has concluded. The review, published today by parliament’s human rights joint committee and ...