All News articles – Page 1515

  • News

    Local government

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Housing - Intentional homelessness - Priority needs - Temporary accommodation Oxford City Council v Darren Bull: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Justices Pill, Jackson, Tomlinson): 18 May 2011 The appellant local ...

  • News

    Sparkes will fly

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    A Portsmouth solicitor is set to do a parachute jump next month to raise funds for Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, where his friend, legal executive Kristy Richardson (pictured, jumping herself some years ago), is on the waiting list for a heart and lung transplant. Tim ...

  • News

    Law firms running out of time, warns Mayson

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Time is running out for law firms that have not yet considered the changes they should make to compete with new entrants to the legal market, a leading commentator has suggested. Speaking at the Law Society’s Law Management Section conference, Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal ...

  • News

    Russian lawyers denied visas for Society human rights event

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Twelve lawyers from Russia were denied visas to attend a three-day Law Society human rights training course in London last month. The Russian lawyer who co-ordinated the visas, which would have enabled the lawyers to receive training on the rule of law, described the decision not ...

  • News

    Criminal procedure

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Sentencing - Jurisdiction - Life prisoners - Mandatory life imprisonment R v Norman Hull: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Pitchford, Mr Justice Wilkie, Judge Nicholas Cooke QC): 19 May 2011 ...

  • News

    Criminal procedure

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Acquittals - Double jeopardy - Fresh evidence - Murder R v Dobson: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Mrs Justice Rafferty, Mr Justice Holroyde): 18 May 2011 The ...

  • News

    Duplication cost

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    I was admitted to the roll in January 2010. I declined to attend an admission ceremony (not my cup of tea). I assumed that my admission certificate would be put in the post but alas it did not arrive. ...

  • News

    Work-based learning without training contract dubbed ‘success’ by SRA

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    The Solicitors Regulation Authority has given a thumbs up to ‘work-based learning’ as a route to qualification without the need to secure a training contract after analysing the results of a two-year pilot scheme. A report on the pilot results, produced by Middlesex University, concluded ...

  • News

    Focus set squarely on tackling legal concerns

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    This is my penultimate podium – and while I have a busy diary for the month ahead, I am naturally starting to think about all that has taken place at Chancery Lane since I became president last July. There has been no quiet time during my ...

  • News

    Slaughtering the competition

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Magic circle firm Slaughter & May is taking the defence of its Standard Chartered Great City Race title very seriously. The firm, which won the 5km corporate challenge in London last year, has entered a staggering 124 staff for the 2011 event, taking place on ...

  • News

    Commercial interest

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    If I arrived in the UK without any knowledge of Clementi, Jackson, the Legal Services Act, the MoJ portal for low-value RTA claims, the CMC boom and the ‘compensation culture’, I might be forgiven for believing that ‘there are few areas where Britain is stronger than in the law’. ...

  • News

    Colombian lawyers under threat, report claims

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Six judges, 12 prosecutors and 334 defence lawyers were murdered in Colombia’s ‘judicial war’ between 2003 and 2009, a report by a delegation of British and international lawyers has claimed. The report, published last week, found that Colombian lawyers still live in constant fear of assassination, ...

  • News

    Responding in the fight to keep the best lawyers

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    In such a tough economic climate, you would have thought assistants and associates would be keeping their heads down – and counting their blessings that they have a job at all. Not so. They’ve never been so demanding, claim some firms, and firms in turn ...

  • News

    Magistrates set garden bench-mark

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Life may not be a bed of roses for magistrates just now, as the government’s programme of court closures gets under way, but the Magistrates’ Association demonstrated its appetite for growth with the Magistrates’ Garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. The bloomin’ good garden, ...

  • News

    Bad claim form?

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Under paragraph 5.1 of practice direction 7A of the Civil Procedure Rules: ‘Proceedings have started when the court issues a claim form at the request of the claimant, but where the claim form as issued was received in the court office on a date earlier than the date on which ...

  • News

    Excellence awards open for entries

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    The Gazette opened nominations for its Legal Personality of the Year award this week, following the success of last year’s inaugural award. The Gazette award forms part of a suite of Law Society Excellence Awards designed to recognise outstanding individuals and teams within the profession. ...

  • News

    Avoiding a constitutional standoff

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    I agree entirely with Joshua Rozenberg. Newspapers would help their own cause by just reporting the news and not stretching extra-marital tittle-tattle to several pages in each daily edition. Not door-stepping errant spouses and their young families would also be a ...

  • News

    Fingerprint standards questioned by Court of Appeal

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    The Court of Appeal has called for an examination of the quality standards of fingerprint experts. The court last week quashed the conviction of Peter Kenneth Smith from Nottinghamshire for the murder of his neighbour Hilda Owen in 2007, after doubt was cast on the reliability ...

  • News

    Profession must fight to the end to block unprecedented and shocking cuts to legal aid

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    by Patrick Allen, senior partner of Hodge Jones & Allen LLP, a firm which has dealt with legal aid cases for 33 years As we go to press, we await the delayed publication of the government’s plan for legal aid cuts.

  • News

    National protests against legal aid cuts

    2011-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Legal aid campaigners are to step up the pressure on government by holding marches across the country tomorrow in protest at the legal aid reforms to be outlined in the Justice Bill, expected next week. The ‘day of action’, organised by Justice for All and ...