All News articles – Page 1549
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News
Bar Professional Training Course students 'not up to it'
Too many people on the Bar Professional Training Course are ‘wasting their money’ because they are ‘not up to it’, the chair of the bar’s regulator declared last week. Lady Deech, chair of the Bar Standards Board, said the BSB would press ahead with its plans to introduce aptitude and ...
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Lloyds Banking Group heeds Law Society confidentiality concerns
Lloyds Banking Group will no longer ask its conveyancing panel members to provide client account information, after the Law Society raised concerns with the lender over the risk of breaches of client confidentiality. The Society has advised firms that if any lender asks them for client ...
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Consumers back 'name and shame' complaints policy
Consumers are generally in favour of ‘naming and shaming’ law firms that are subject to complaints, but would only expect information to be published when a firm has had three complaints upheld against it in 12 months, according to research released today. The findings of a ...
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How a lawyer can change their specialist practice area
It is a common observation among middle-aged lawyers that the increasing need to specialise very early in a legal career has changed the face of the profession. Time spent in a more general or rounded practice has been much reduced, leading to a situation where lawyers are making key decisions ...
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APIL chief urges government to give RTA portal a chance
The road traffic accident claims portal should be ‘given a chance’ before the government rushes to implement the Jackson civil justice reforms, the president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers warned last week. Muiris Lyons said that the RTA claims process, which was implemented on ...
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News
Cuts to put half of legal aid firms at risk of closure
The ‘catastrophic impact’ of the government’s proposed legal aid cuts could leave 50% of firms doing publicly funded work at risk of closure, according to research commissioned by the Law Society, seen exclusively by the Gazette. Consultants Andrew Otterburn and Vicky Ling surveyed 163 civil and ...
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Senior judge Lord Phillips learns the hard way after criticising government
Any judge who takes on the government in the court of public opinion is bound to end up second best. That was the lesson that the president of the Supreme Court learned the hard way last week. Sadly, Lord Phillips does not have a public ...
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Kenneth Clarke: Bribery Act guidance is clear
The justice secretary has moved to reassure ‘honest’ businesses that they will not need to spend ‘millions’ on new systems to comply with the Bribery Act, whatever they may have been told by advisers. Ken Clarke told parliament that lawyers and consultants ‘will, of course, ...
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London solicitor criticises 'absurd' situation over conditional fee agreement
A London solicitor could be left tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket after a judge ruled that the funding agreement under which he accepted a case was unenforceable. Joe Golstein, at the time sole principal at Arbeid & Golstein, took on a clinical negligence ...
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Law firm mergers – the right partner
Who led the battle for your affections this Valentine’s Day? Your spouse? Your partner? An other? With relationships front of mind this month, it’s perhaps no bad time for law firms to consider their own ‘perfect partner’. As ...
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Oversupply of lawyers to drive down costs, says Green
The oversupply of qualified lawyers denied entry to the profession has led to a ‘burgeoning body of paralegals’ that will have a profound effect on solicitors and barristers, former bar chairman Nick Green QC said last week. At a conference on legal education in London last ...
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Separating couples to be forced to consider mediation option
From April separating couples will be required to consider whether their disputes can be settled by mediation rather than through the courts, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly announced today. Under a new protocol, agreed with the judiciary, all parties will be required to attend a mediation awareness ...
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Family justice system is failing vulnerable children in care
A report published this week revealed that half of the children in care do not trust the court to make the right decision about their lives. The report, written for Ofsted by Children’s Rights director Roger Morgan, showed that of 58 children interviewed, 50% though the ...
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First law firms accredited under Conveyancing Quality Scheme
The first law firms to be awarded the Law Society’s new quality mark for conveyancing practices were announced last week, with 385 firms having applied for the scheme so far. Colchester firm Martin Elliott & Co, Kent firm Boys & Maughan, Hull firm Hamers and London ...
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Djanogly defends impact of legal aid cuts on voluntary sector
The government is ignoring its own research on peoples’ need for free legal advice as it plans to cut legal aid, the House of Commons heard last week. Anas Sarwar, Labour MP for Glasgow Central, said that the government’s planned funding cuts, which will impact law ...
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Explaining money laundering to a Martian
Here are some questions which puzzle me. Why has money laundering, of all crimes, become the single crime where it is enacted everywhere in Europe that lawyers must breach their code of conduct and report on suspicions of criminal activity? Is money laundering worse than ...
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Rise in legal disputes between commercial landlords and tenants
The economic downturn has led to a surge in landlord and tenants disputes, court figures have shown. Figures obtained by legal publishers Sweet & Maxwell indicated that the number of legal disputes between commercial property landlords and tenants reaching the High Court in London jumped 43% ...
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Jackson reforms fail to account for RTA progress
The road traffic accident claims portal should be ‘given a chance’ before the government becomes distracted from the ‘bigger picture' by rushing to implement the Jackson reforms, the president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers warned last week. Muiris Lyons told an audience at APIL’s ...
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News
Gang injunctions and civil liberty
In July 2010 Theresa May heralded the end of the ASBO; claiming that they are responsible for putting ‘too many young people on the conveyor belt to prison’. Civil liberty groups and criminal lawyers alike breathed a collective sigh of relief, glad to see the ...
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Clifford Chance merges with Australian firms
Clifford Chance has merged with two boutique Australian firms, marking the second foray by a major English firm into the country this year. The magic circle firm will merge with Sydney firm Chang, Pistilli & Simmons, and with Perth firm Cochrane Lishman Carson Luscombe. The combined ...