All News articles – Page 1550
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News
A heavier emphasis on complaints
Recent findings by a YouGov poll, commissioned by the Legal Services Board and published on 9 June 2011, reveal how many law firms may not be complying with their regulatory obligations, to inform their clients of their internal complaints- handling processes and their right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman. ...
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Strikes likely after MoJ staff ballot
Strikes, a ban on overtime and a work-to-rule are likely to follow a ballot of Ministry of Justice staff who are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). Industrial action by PCS members, who work across most areas of MoJ activity, could result ...
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New name, same faces after axe falls on agency
Bostalls, one of the providers of the Legal Services Commission’s police station telephone advice service, has been wound up after failing to pay its taxes. The LSC has responded by transferring the contract for the Criminal Defence Service (Direct) scheme to a company set up by ...
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Legal aid rethink urged
The Law Society this week urged the government to seek alternatives to its proposed £350m legal aid cuts, while new research concluded slashing legal aid is ‘a false economy’. In a letter to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, Society chief executive Des Hudson also sought reassurance that ...
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Explaining the ethos behind the all-parliamentary group for victims and witnesses
by Javed Khan, chief executive of Victim Support If you are a victim of crime, what rights should you have?
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Sorrows almost drowned
Obiter lives in hope, and likes to think that all legal aid advisers do too, but it can be important to make a few cursory preparations for disappointment. So in the unlikely event that parliament fails to completely eviscerate the more noxious clauses of the ...
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DLA sees profits climb amid expansion drive
Global law firm DLA Piper saw its profitability improve sharply in 2010, though income was flat. The firm, which has over 4,200 lawyers in 30 countries, recorded a 5.9% rise in profits to £503m on income up just 1% to £1.27bn. It declined to disclose average ...
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Firm to appeal High Court immigration bid ruling
A South Yorkshire firm will appeal a High Court ruling dismissing its challenge to the outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s immigration tender. Parker Rhodes Hickmotts launched a judicial review of the process after it received less than a quarter of the number of cases ...
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Become a vet, solicitors
For those of us being driven to seek an alternative career might I suggest becoming a veterinary surgeon, a profession probably almost as old as ours. Our poor old terminally ill cat suffered a serious seizure on Bank Holiday Monday. ...
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News
Better in deed
Oh how I agree with Anthony Shuttleworth that ‘land and charge certificates should be brought back before matters get out of hand’. I suspect that matters are already out of hand, from what I have learned. I am sure details of ...
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It is better to re-engineer the justice system than ‘salami-slice’ the savings that are needed
As we report today, industrial action by members of the PCS union employed by the Ministry of Justice would have a far-reaching effect on the justice system. Participants would have the satisfaction of knowing that the withdrawal of their labour would be expensive for an ...
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News
DLA Piper boss’s warning for legal sector
The head of global legal giant DLA Piper warned this week that a ‘paradigm shift’ is about to hit the sector. Sir Nigel Knowles (pictured), joint chief executive of the firm, predicted many firms will flounder in the next 10 years after alternative business structures (ABSs) ...
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The notarial profession has a very bright future
On 24 May the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave judgment on the seven cases before it concerning notaries. Fifteen nations were told that it was not possible to restrict work as a notary to their own nationals. Any qualified ...
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Funny business
Death is not normally what you would call a laughing matter, so it is quite brave of a collection of top-notch stand-up comics to agree to perform at an event in aid of Reprieve, the charity that represents defendants on death row in the US. ...
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The Civil Justice Review designed to take the poor out of public courts
Richard White was a civil servant in the Lord Chancellor’s Department who spanned the reigns of Hailsham, Havers and Mackay. He was a bit eccentric, liked beagling and could be severely irascible. But he was committed to access to justice, ...
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False claim
I read with interest Myles Hickey’s complaint about a court returning a claim form on the day of limitation as it was not verified by a statement of truth. Mr Hickey’s argument that a claim form is not in itself a statement of case and that ...
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Colombian government makes human rights a priority
Further to the article ‘Colombian lawyers under threat’ by Jonathan Rayner, I would like to clarify that the government of Colombia is fully committed to the protection of human rights for all and a better judicial system. Contrary to the concept of ‘judicial war’ described in ...
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Legal Services Commission pays out millions in redundancy
The Legal Services Commission will pay out more than £7m in redundancy payments as part of its restructuring programme to cut costs. Replying to a freedom of information act request, the LSC said it had spent £7,196,813 on voluntary and compulsory redundancies between May 2010 and ...
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Who costs most?
We have, within the last week, been consulted by a client who was persuaded as a result of a cold call to make a will incorporating trusts to protect the value of half the matrimonial home from the risk of care home charges. The cost ...