All News articles – Page 1539
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News
Solicitors are not as good at writing wills as they assume
Solicitors offering wills are quite rightly worried about how they will compete with new providers, both on- and off-line, as they increasingly enter the market. If matching these interlopers on price isn’t an option because of the higher regulatory costs faced by law firms, then ...
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Cameron supportive of referral fees ban
A ban on referral fees has edged one step closer with David Cameron admitting he is ‘sympathetic’ to the idea this week. The prime minister was drawn into the debate on the fees by a question from Liberal Democrat MP David Ward during PMQs on Wednesday. ...
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Filesharing cases settled
The long-running filesharing cases brought by London firm ACS:Law have come to an end, as the Solicitors Regulation Authority has published the allegations faced by the solicitor at the heart of the controversial claims. Manchester firm Ralli, which acted for a number of defendants alleged to ...
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Society given only 15 minutes for legal aid evidence
The Law Society, Bar Council and other representative groups were granted only 15 minutes each to give evidence to the cross-party committee scrutinising the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill this week, fuelling concerns that the government is seeking to rush through the changes. ...
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Practising fee to fall 23%
The Law Society Council today approved a reduction in the individual practising certificate fee for next year of 23%, reflecting the ‘reduced funding requirement’ of the Law Society Group. The individual PC fee will drop from £428 to £328 to reflect the £94.8m net funding ...
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Class of '61
James Morton’s column, in which he recalled his time as a student at the College of Law in Lancaster Gate, brought back a few memories for David Miller, consultant at Kidd Rapinet in London, who was one of Morton’s contemporaries at the college. Miller writes: ...
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Act on referral fees
In recent times three core institutions of society have been rocked by crises. In 2007, the banking system came to the brink of collapse. In 2009, parliament was shaken to its foundations when countless members were shown to have falsified expenses. ...
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How could activities at News International be treated as something separate from its BSkyB bid?
by Sarah Davis, group commercial legal director at Guardian Media Group Never mind a week; a day is a long time in the politics of media regulation.
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Most solicitors will support panel’s call for will-writing to be made a reserved activity
Fledgling watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel has hitherto manifested a laissez-faire attitude to the post-Legal Services Act market - most notably perhaps by declining the opportunity to call for a ban on referral fees. So its pronouncements today on will-writing go against the grain. ...
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The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocacy is robust
Good-quality advocacy is essential to protect the public and deliver fair results in the criminal justice system. Last month the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and ILEX Professional Standards (IPS), came a step closer to radically overhauling the quality assurance of criminal ...
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Legal aid delay
Not only are we threatened with massive legal aid cuts, but the Legal Services Commission seems to be becoming slower at processing work. On 8 June, I exercised devolved powers to grant emergency legal aid to a client in connection with an appeal against a ...
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LSC warned ministers on legal aid cuts
The Legal Services Commission warned ministers before publication of the legal aid reform bill that proposed fee cuts could result in ‘market failure’. In a letter sent to the lord chancellor in February, LSC chair Sir Bill Callaghan (pictured) advised the government that the ‘scale and ...
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All together now
The proposed decimation of legal aid is scandalous for a number of obvious reasons. I suggest that the legal profession indicates its outrage by refusing to act for the government or any MP voting in favour of the changes. Instead, ...
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Further restrictions to reduce annual net migration
Following changes to the Immigration Rules implemented on 6 April, including the execution of an annual cap of 20,700 migrants to work in skilled professions under Tier 2 (General) of the points-based system (PBS), the government continues to identify further restrictions to achieve its stated aim of reducing annual net ...
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Arbitration
Award - Enforcement - Action to enforce award Sovarex SA v Romero Alvarez SA [2011] All ER (D) 225 (Jun), [2011] EWHC 1661 (Comm) The claimant company allegedly contracted with ...
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Arbitration
Interim injunction - Power of court - Whether anti-suit injunction should be granted Excalibur Ventures LLC v Texas Keystone Inc and other companies: Queen’s Bench Division, Commercial Court (Mrs Justice Gloster): 28 June 2011 ...
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European arrest warrant needs reform
I read with interest Joshua Rozenberg’s recent column on the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ call for reform of the European arrest warrant.
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How legal authors can make it into print
Hundreds of law books (and an increasing number of ebooks) are published every year on every legal topic; whether student books, handbooks, or ‘black letter’ law books. All of these books/ebooks started out as nothing more than ideas, either in the head of the author ...
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Beating the beancounters
Possibly more used to battling with creditors, Chris Keane, an associate in the insolvency and restructuring department of Squire Sanders Hammonds in Leeds, is organising a ‘white collar boxing’ event on 22 September in aid of Martin House Children’s Hospice. The event will see the ...
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Clean bill of health
It seems to me that the judgment in Key v Key [2010] EWHC 408 Ch is open to criticism, because the judge did not apparently consider it in any way significant, or even relevant, that the testator’s experienced solicitor (whatever else his shortcomings) believed that the testator had capacity. ...