All News articles – Page 1533
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News
Law for All blames bureaucracy burden for closure
The UK’s largest not-for-profit social welfare law firm has blamed legal aid cuts and the ‘burden’ of the Legal Services Commission’s bureaucracy for its demise. Law For All, which advised 15,000 clients a year in three London boroughs, East Anglia and the Midlands, went into administration ...
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Five new judges appointed to High Court bench
The Ministry of Justice has announced the appointment of five new high court judges, including the first Sikh to be appointed to the High Court bench. Matrix Chambers’ Rabinder Singh QC (pictured) will become the first Sikh judge to sit in the High Court. ...
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Clyde & Co and BLG confirm merger
Partners at top-40 firms Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert have voted to proceed with a merger. The management of both firms have agreed the move, which will bring together the insurance specialists. Clyde & Co posted a £212m turnover ...
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The press should take more care not to prejudice trials
If you were searching for a flat in Bristol and found out the landlord was Christopher Jefferies, would you still sign the contract? If you were walking your kids to school and he was approaching, would you cross the road to avoid him? ...
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Bar Council to examine Bribery Act action on referral fees
Bar Council leaders have condemned the Legal Services Board for refusing to ban referral fees, and will look into whether the fees break the terms of the Bribery Act. Writing in an update to members, chair Peter Lodder and vice-chair Michael Todd said they were ‘surprised ...
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LSB to review ‘reserved activities’
The Legal Services Board has outlined plans to modernise regulation and create a consistent approach to ‘reserved’ activities. In a discussion paper launched today, the LSB says the list of legal services that only a qualified lawyer can undertake, including conveyancing, litigation and advocacy, has grown ...
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Legal aid firm Law For All in administration
London and regional not-for-profit advice service Law For All went in administration today, the Gazette can confirm. The organisation provides legal services in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond, as well as in East Anglia and the Midlands. Law ...
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Education is supporting lawyers to advise professionals
Demand from lawyers for specialist non-legal courses has prompted one of the key providers of legal training to move their short professional development courses from the law school to the business school. BPP is refocusing its classroom courses for lawyers to offer financially based or other ...
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Out of Africa
Queuing in the driving rain at the bus stop outside the Royal Courts of Justice last week, Obiter chanced across a lawyer chum just returned from Johannesburg, where, he said, it had been 20C and sunny every day. The conversation inevitably led to the potential ...
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Looming legal aid cuts to spark closures
Government plans to cut legal aid rates by at least 10% across the board from October will cause a ‘leap into unprofitability’ for firms, solicitors warned this week. The warning comes as mayor of London Boris Johnson voiced concerns that ‘the majority’ of women who have ...
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Firm loses ‘partner’ employment appeal
A solicitor who was paid through a profit share rather than receiving a salary should not be classified as a partner for employment law purposes, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled. Solicitor Jeremy Briars began working for Solihull firm Williamson & Soden in November 2001. ...
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Not very Appy
No doubt when the accountants at the LSC read about the I Jail App, they will quickly calculate that it is more cost-effective to give the accused an iPhone, than to supply a defence lawyer. Alan England, self-employed locum, ...
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News
Asbestos victims forum urges reforms veto
Campaigners for sufferers of asbestos-related disease have urged MPs to vote down civil litigation reforms. The Asbestos Victims Support Groups’ Forum said its members’ compensation will be ‘wiped out’ if claimants have to pay legal costs from their damages. Currently, claimants must ...
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Gold Bailey
Radio 4 began a new series, Voices from the Old Bailey, highlighting interesting 18th century cases from the historic London court this week. The first of the four-part series focused on ordinary Londoners caught up in riots, including a 1780 backlash against legislation giving greater ...
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Better odds
Martin Comport explains that ‘sometimes, cynical me thinks that [legal aid] certificates are given on the basis of "let’s say the chances are 50/50 or less but then they will be much greater when the opposition know that we have a certificate"’.
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Personal injury caused by a hazardous floor
Hufton v Somerset County Council [2011] EWCA Civ 789. The claimant was a pupil at the defendant’s school. She suffered an injury to her knee when slipping on water on the wooden floor of the assembly hall when re-entering the building during the morning break. ...
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Character study
One of the first offices I worked in as a young lawyer were rented on a floor of a Dickensian building which, for the purposes, may be deemed to be within a two-mile radius of the law courts.
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News
Santander charges ‘compliance fee’
Santander is to introduce an annual compliance fee for its panel members, in a move that the Law Society has called ‘deeply disappointing’. The lender will also open its panel to new firms in August. In a letter to panel members, the bank outlines its plans to move to a ...
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News
Leveson a strong choice to lead phone-hacking inquiry
What’s so striking about the judicial inquiry into phone hacking is how high-powered it all is. I had initially thought that the lord chief justice would recommend a retired judge for appointment as its chairman. But Lord Judge recognised that the task was simply too important for someone nearing the ...
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Civil procedure
Costs - Probate Shovelar and others v Lane and others: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justice Ward, Moore-Bick and Lady Justice Arden): 12 July 2011 The Court of Appeal, ...