All News articles – Page 1506
-
News
LSC cuts off phone advice agency
The Legal Services Commission has suspended The Shaftesbury Group’s contract to provide telephone advice for people detained in police stations for less serious offences. As reported earlier this month, the LSC transferred a contract to provide the Criminal Defence Service (Direct) service from Bostalls to the ...
-
News
Irwin Mitchell in financial advice tie-up
National firm Irwin Mitchell has linked up with a financial advice group to offer legal services directly to its customers. The law firm will offer a range of services for clients using the Guardian Wealth Management (GWM) group. Irwin Mitchell has already ...
-
News
We must make our voices heard in the campaign to maintain equal access to justice
by Stephen Ward, director of communications, inclusion and corporate responsibility at the Law Society Driven by the work of the solicitors who form its specialist committees, the Law Society is constantly lobbying government and parliamentarians on a range of aspects of law reform.
-
News
ABSs will tempt investors, top banker predicts
A leading banker has predicted that investors will be queuing up to enter the legal services market when alternative business structures (ABSs) come into force from October. Former barrister John Llewellyn-Lloyd, now head of mergers and acquisitions for Espirito Santo, said the market was an attractive ...
-
News
Bostalls was an unregulated commercial body and the move was seen to pre-empt the establishment of ABSs
So, the Legal Services Commission has suspended The Shaftesbury Group’s contract to provide telephone advice at the police station. This comes a fortnight after we revealed that predecessor firm Bostalls - owned and run by the same people as Shaftesbury - had been placed into ...
-
News
Restricting arrests for crimes of universal jurisdiction is more about politics than legal principles
Joshua Rozenberg is ready to support ‘reasons of state’ for restricting the right to ask a magistrate to authorise the first step in the private prosecution of a suspected war criminal.
-
News
Government to provide £20m for not-for-profit centres
The government will provide £20m to help support not-for-profit advice centres hit by planned legal aid cuts, Justice Minister Kenneth Clarke announced yesterday. During the second reading debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, the justice secretary also indicated the he may ...
-
News
Dianne Hayter resigns as chair of legal services consumer watchdog
The first chair of watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel has resigned after two years in the post. Baroness Hayter (pictured) has decided to step down because of her commitments in the House of Lords, the Legal Services Board said in a statement. ...
-
News
Clyde & Co enters Canadian market with merger
City firm Clyde & Co has become the latest UK practice to move into the Canadian marketplace. The firm, which has 24 offices around the world, has confirmed a merger with Canadian insurance firm Nicholl Paskall-Mede (NPM). NPM’s 40-strong team, including 15 ...
-
News
The Bellfield trial and a counsel of caution
The fallout from the trial of Milly Dowler’s murderer has proved discomfiting for defence lawyers. Defence barrister Jeffrey Samuels QC has been vilified in the press for his questioning of Milly’s father and has apparently been sent threatening emails. The ...
-
News
Commons committee fires warning on clinical negligence funding reforms
The House of Commons health committee has warned that government proposals to change the funding of clinical negligence cases could undermine access to justice and reduce compensation for some of the most seriously injured or disabled claimants. In a report published today, the committee, chaired by ...
-
News
Abandonment - a growing concern
Why are we seeing such an increase in the situations where partners in law firms are just giving up their practice and simply closing the doors? These are predominately partners rather than LLP members but the fundamental issues are equally applicable to members of ...
-
News
Insolvency litigation funding
Insolvency practitioners (IPs) represent a sector of the litigation community that has been largely overlooked by Lord Justice Jackson and the Ministry of Justice through its endorsement to the proposed changes to eradicate recoverability of success fees and premiums. Critics argue the blindsided attention ...
-
News
Legal news round-up from Europe
Last week, I wrote about developments in France. But there are changes of interest for lawyers taking place in other European countries, too. Poland seems to be having the hardest time. There is currently an Act ...
-
News
New rules on giving evidence aimed at protecting vulnerable
New laws designed to make it easier for children and vulnerable people to give evidence in court came into force today. The changes, contained in amendments to the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, provide a range of special measures which the court can direct ...
-
News
Firms failing on client needs, study reports
Law firms are failing to understand their clients’ needs, creating a significant expectations gap, a study has found. DLA Piper joint chief executive Sir Nigel Knowles said the findings should serve as a ‘call to arms’ to practices to improve in this regard. ...
-
News
Watchdog highlights ‘imbalance of power’ between consumers and lawyers
Consumers have benefited from the first four years of the Legal Services Act, but there remains an ‘imbalance of power’ which acts to their detriment in dealing with lawyers. So says the first consumer impact report by watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel, published today. ...
-
News
British businesses buried by European legal avalanche
Businesses are struggling to keep abreast of the hundreds of new laws published last year by the European Union. Legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell says 806 new laws impacting the UK were created in 2010. The majority of those were made ...
-
News
We did listen on legal aid, Djanogly insists – but Law Society’s Lee vows to fight on ‘every clause’
Jonathan Djanogly has insisted that the government took full account of thousands of hostile responses to the government’s controversial proposals on legal aid and the Jackson reforms of civil litigation costs. However, the justice minister confirmed that the legislation published earlier this week is to ...
-
News
Fast-track for second reading of legal aid and sentencing bill condemned
Lawyers and MPs have expressed outrage at the government’s attempt to fast track the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill through Parliament. Following the first reading of the bill on Tuesday 21 June, it was confirmed this week that the second reading will be ...