All News articles – Page 1542
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News
Government ‘sympathetic’ to introducing referral fee ban
The government is ‘sympathetic’ to the idea of banning referral fees, Ministry of Justice minister Lord McNally told the House of Lords yesterday. McNally said that if public opinion demands a ban, the government will respond to that demand. In ...
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Disgruntled clients: the Ombudsman gives us a glimpse
This week the Legal Ombudsman took a small baby step on a very long and distant path that may - or may not - ultimately end in the publication of complaints upheld by LeO against named law firms. That may or may not happen, and ...
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LSC publishes plan for interim family contracts
The Legal Services Commission has published a plan for the tender process for new interim family contracts to start in February 2012. It proposes a non-competitive tender, meaning that all applicants meeting the minimum requirements will be awarded a contract. The ...
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Solicitor-advocates make final effort to halt scheme
Solicitor-advocates have made a final effort to stop a scheme that will see judges evaluating their competence, which they claim would discriminate against solicitors. The Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has written to Solicitors Regulation Authority board members and called on them to veto ...
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‘No political will’ to reform marriage laws
There is ‘no political will’ to address the record levels of family breakdown that currently cost the country an estimated £40-100bn a year, a leading family lawyer claimed during a Law Society public debate yesterday. Ayesha Vardag, principal of London firm Vardags, one of a panel ...
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Lawyers march for London Pride 2011
More than 100 lawyers marched in support of London Pride 2011 last week. Members of the Law Society, Bar Council, Institute of Legal Executives, Junior Lawyers Division, Bar Lesbian and Gay Group, Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association and InterLaw Diversity Forum marched together under the ...
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NHS 'above the law' in legal aid reforms
The government is putting the NHS ‘above the law’ with its proposed legal aid reforms and changes to the ‘no win, no fee’ arrangements, the Gazette has been told. Paul Rumley, clinical negligence partner at Withy King’s Swindon office, said the legal aid cuts and reform ...
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The rights of EU citizens cannot be divorced from the duties that accompany them
I read Jonathan Goldsmith’s article about the growing number of ‘rights’ with interest. Can I ask what has happened to a person’s responsibilities, which is the other side of the coin? If EU citizens expect their rights to be honoured, ...
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Solicitor wins right to bring age bias claim against law firm
A solicitor dismissed for failing to meet billing targets has won the right to bring an age discrimination claim against his former employer. However, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) struck out his race and sex discrimination claims. Samarasingher Methuen began working for ...
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Society protests against treatment of Chinese lawyers
The Law Society is to take part in a ‘mass intervention’ to protest at the maltreatment of human rights lawyers in China, after an Amnesty International report published last week revealed that the Beijing government has intensified its clampdown on their work. The report said the ...
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FSA finds no evidence of insurer bias against BME firms
An investigation by the Financial Services Authority has found no evidence that insurers discriminated against black and ethnic minority law firms during last year’s professional indemnity insurance renewal. Following interventions from the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Equality and Human Rights Commission, the FSA was asked to ...
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City firm slams Border Agency
City firm Penningtons has accused officials at the UK Border Agency (UKBA) of threatening its clients and breaking the Civil Service Code, as the government seeks to meet its commitment to reduce UK net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’. The complaints relate to action ...
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News
Has the time come for a contingency legal aid fund?
The idea of CLAF (or contingency legal aid fund) is either a brilliant notion that has never had its day or an unworkable one that should have been put out of its misery years back. It has been knocking around the legal policy world since ...
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Solicitor denies legal aid fraud charges
A criminal defence solicitor accused of defrauding the legal aid fund along with two business associates this week told the court that he did not know ‘how all this has happened’. Solicitor Reuben Ewujowoh (pictured), 44, principal at Rae & Co in Southwark, London, and ...
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Society appoints new SRA board members
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has announced the appointment of three new members to its board. They are solicitor member Moni Mannings, partner and head of City firm Olswang's finance group; lay member Shamit Sagger, professor of politics at the University of Sussex and former chair of ...
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The News of The World’s attack on lawyers in the Bellfield case is breathtaking
The alleged hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone by the News of the World is a story that has shocked many journalists; and we tend to be pretty hard-boiled. Appallingly, it seems that journalists from that paper deleted messages in the days after Milly’s disappearance, raising ...
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High Court backs children's guardian independence
A High Court ruling has reasserted the independence of children’s guardians from state control. In a landmark judgment, Sir Nicholas Wall said the court-appointed guardians were a vital element in protecting children. He told the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support ...
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Will signed on behalf of testator
The case of Barrett v Bem [2011] EWHC 1247 Ch is interesting because of the comments on the nature of probate jurisdiction, and for the guidance it gives on signatures on behalf of a testator. The testator, Martin, made a will in hospital three hours before ...