All News articles – Page 1513
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News
SRA has been engaging with legal profession in preparation for OFR
Since the beginning of May, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been visiting towns and cities across England and Wales to meet solicitors to talk about the SRA Handbook and outcomes-focused regulation (OFR), our new approach to regulation which starts on 6 October. By 16 June, ...
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Televised courts arguments can be disingenuous
One factor will surely trump all others in the nuanced debate over whether broadcasters should be allowed to televise civil and criminal court proceedings. What Rupert Murdoch wants, government ministers of all stripes (Vince Cable excepted, it would seem) fall over themselves to give him. ...
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Tackling dishonesty among legal partners
Dishonesty among partners has recently hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. While such dishonesty is by no means rife, it is important to acknowledge that it can happen, especially as practices are increasingly coming under financial pressure. That ...
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Alex Salmond is gunning for the Supreme Court
The last reported prosecution for ‘murmuring’ – or slandering – judges under Scottish law seems to have been in 1870 and the offence must now be obsolete. So there seems little chance of seeing the first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, in the dock for ...
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Online costs help for legal aid lawyers
An innovative IT project aimed at legal aid lawyers could help solicitors reduce costs, barristers set Matrix Chambers claimed last week. The chambers has set up LegalAidLink (LAL), a website enabling legal aid providers to establish private online communities in which they can interact securely and ...
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Clarke rules out further raid on legal aid pot
Kenneth Clarke today ruled out further legal aid cuts in addition to those already signalled, following the apparent u-turn earlier this week over his proposed sentencing reforms. Speaking to the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division today, the justice secretary confirmed that ‘the flurry of nonsense’ in ...
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Notarial profession of England and Wales ahead of European counterparts
I write in connection with the European Court of Justice decision of 24 May relating to notaries. The decision states that Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Greece breached the law by attempting to reserve access to their countries’ notarial professions to their own nationals. ...
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Full cream ahead
For licensing lawyers in the food sector there has been plenty to digest recently. After the humble Cornish pasty joined the ranks of champagne and stilton in achieving protected status earlier this year, the Devon cream tea may now be heading for a similar designation, ...
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Administrative law
Employment - Local government - Social welfare - Children’s services R (on the application of Sharon Shoesmith) v Ofsted and Ors: CA (Civ Div): (Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury MR, Lord Justices Kay, Burnton): 27 May 2011 ...
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Government seeks views on stripping back Equalities Act
The government has today begun the process of stripping back unwanted elements of the Equalities Act. The Home Office claims that last year’s legislation scrapped 100 sets of regulations in an effort to lighten the burden of red tape on businesses. But ...
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Defence solicitor accused of fraud
A criminal defence solicitor and two legal associates plotted to cheat the legal aid fund by ruthlessly inflating and forging every possible expense, a jury was told last week. Solicitor Reuben Ewujowoh, 44, principal at Rae & Co in Southwark, London, and co-defendants legal assistant Lloyd ...
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EU access to representation proposal nears
The European Commission (EC) is this week expected to move a significant step closer to ensuring that all those facing criminal charges across the EU have access to legal representation. As the Gazette went to press, the EC was expected to publish a legislative proposal ...
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Gutted law firm reopens after 10 days
An Essex firm that was devastated by fire last month managed to open for ‘business as usual’ just 10 days later. Jefferies in Westcliff on Sea had its office destroyed on 8 May when a blaze ignited at the retail outlet beneath it. ...
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Extremism, universities and the law
This week home secretary Theresa May made headlines when she accused UK universities of ‘complacency’ on extremism. ‘I don't think they have been sufficiently willing to recognise what can be happening on their campuses and the radicalisation that can take place,’ May argued, as she ...
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Developments in e-disclosure shaping the ways lawyers review evidence
Interviewed for a job once, one of us was asked to describe the essence of a piece of litigation. After offering a glib answer along the lines of the importance of the ability to read the future and people’s minds, the interviewer’s understanding impressed: ...
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Ranks of corporate counsel swell as work retained in-house
More than one in 10 City lawyers are now working in-house as law firms face an increasing squeeze from the commercial sector, according to research by a recruitment consultancy. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of solicitors in commercial organisations and financial institutions rose by 140%, ...
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What’s behind the delay in publishing the Justice Bill?
So when is the government going to publish its Justice Bill, containing the legal aid reforms, Jackson proposals on civil litigation funding and sentencing reforms? This is the question to which everyone wants an answer. Speculation on the date has been ...
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Sentencing discount u-turn sparks fears of deeper legal aid cuts
Fears that the government may be planning to implement even deeper cuts to legal aid than it has already signalled rose significantly today. Prime minister David Cameron is widely reported to have shelved key parts of justice secretary Kenneth Clarke’s plan to give offenders a ...
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Half of accident victims do not claim
The UK may not have the ‘compensation culture’ that so many commentators claim, new research has suggested. A study conducted by the website personalinjurylawyers.co.uk has found that almost half of respondents who had been the victim of an accident never went on to claim compensation. ...
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Firms' duties in a tough economy
There is a fine line between being a harbinger of doom and a realist. Being objective, however, the signs are not good. It is undoubtedly the case that insolvency practitioners are becoming increasingly busy preparing reports on law firms for their creditor banks. ...