All News articles – Page 1554
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News
The right to a lawyer – many times over
Like London buses, issues do not come singly but in clusters. The right to a lawyer is one of those that is arriving in many different forms all at once at the moment. Last week, I wrote about a recent ...
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Judges should not sit in judgment over advocates
I had a turbulent seven-year relationship with my old English teacher. He had a pompous air of superiority, talking to pupils like Mr Bumble addressing the orphans and wistfully dreaming of the university professorship he surely craved but never achieved. Worst of ...
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New CLLS chair vows to uphold English law ‘brand’
The new head of City of London Law Society (CLLS) has vowed to uphold the English ‘brand’, already so prominent throughout the world. Alasdair Douglas has been confirmed as the new CLLS chair, representing law firms that employ 14,000 solicitors and have an annual turnover of ...
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Gutted law firm reopens after 10 days
An Essex firm that was devastated by fire last month managed to open for ‘business as usual’ just 10 days later. Jefferies in Westcliff on Sea had its office destroyed on 8 May when a blaze ignited at the retail outlet beneath it. ...
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EU access to representation proposal nears
The European Commission (EC) is this week expected to move a significant step closer to ensuring that all those facing criminal charges across the EU have access to legal representation. As the Gazette went to press, the EC was expected to publish a legislative proposal ...
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Defence solicitor accused of fraud
A criminal defence solicitor and two legal associates plotted to cheat the legal aid fund by ruthlessly inflating and forging every possible expense, a jury was told last week. Solicitor Reuben Ewujowoh, 44, principal at Rae & Co in Southwark, London, and co-defendants legal assistant Lloyd ...
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Government seeks views on stripping back Equalities Act
The government has today begun the process of stripping back unwanted elements of the Equalities Act. The Home Office claims that last year’s legislation scrapped 100 sets of regulations in an effort to lighten the burden of red tape on businesses. But ...
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Administrative law
Employment - Local government - Social welfare - Children’s services R (on the application of Sharon Shoesmith) v Ofsted and Ors: CA (Civ Div): (Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury MR, Lord Justices Kay, Burnton): 27 May 2011 ...
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Notarial profession of England and Wales ahead of European counterparts
I write in connection with the European Court of Justice decision of 24 May relating to notaries. The decision states that Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Greece breached the law by attempting to reserve access to their countries’ notarial professions to their own nationals. ...
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Full cream ahead
For licensing lawyers in the food sector there has been plenty to digest recently. After the humble Cornish pasty joined the ranks of champagne and stilton in achieving protected status earlier this year, the Devon cream tea may now be heading for a similar designation, ...
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Online costs help for legal aid lawyers
An innovative IT project aimed at legal aid lawyers could help solicitors reduce costs, barristers set Matrix Chambers claimed last week. The chambers has set up LegalAidLink (LAL), a website enabling legal aid providers to establish private online communities in which they can interact securely and ...
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Clarke rules out further raid on legal aid pot
Kenneth Clarke today ruled out further legal aid cuts in addition to those already signalled, following the apparent u-turn earlier this week over his proposed sentencing reforms. Speaking to the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division today, the justice secretary confirmed that ‘the flurry of nonsense’ in ...
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Alex Salmond is gunning for the Supreme Court
The last reported prosecution for ‘murmuring’ – or slandering – judges under Scottish law seems to have been in 1870 and the offence must now be obsolete. So there seems little chance of seeing the first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, in the dock for ...
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Tackling dishonesty among legal partners
Dishonesty among partners has recently hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. While such dishonesty is by no means rife, it is important to acknowledge that it can happen, especially as practices are increasingly coming under financial pressure. That ...
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Televised courts arguments can be disingenuous
One factor will surely trump all others in the nuanced debate over whether broadcasters should be allowed to televise civil and criminal court proceedings. What Rupert Murdoch wants, government ministers of all stripes (Vince Cable excepted, it would seem) fall over themselves to give him. ...
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SRA has been engaging with legal profession in preparation for OFR
Since the beginning of May, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has been visiting towns and cities across England and Wales to meet solicitors to talk about the SRA Handbook and outcomes-focused regulation (OFR), our new approach to regulation which starts on 6 October. By 16 June, ...
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Human Rights laws stand before May's calls to stop student radicalisation
by Julian Gizzi, a partner in Beachcroft’s public sector group Home secretary Theresa May has said this week that universities need to be more active in preventing the radicalisation of their students by extremist Islamic groups.
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Game blame
Matrimonial lawyers will probably be familiar with the latest trend reported by internet divorce provider Divorce Online. The service conducted a survey of 200 cases in which women had cited unreasonable behaviour, and found that a sizeable 15% had filed for divorce because their husband ...
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Solicitor-advocates seek to block evaluation scheme
Solicitor-advocates will make a last-ditch attempt in the coming weeks to halt plans for compulsory evaluation of their performance by judges. Up to 1,400 advocates who handle criminal cases are set to be formally assessed from next spring as part of the Quality Assurance Scheme for ...
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Jackson reforms could trigger business debt headache
Insolvency experts have warned that civil litigation funding reforms could deter small businesses from trying to reclaim debts. Provisions in the government’s forthcoming Justice Bill will prevent successful claimants from recouping their solicitors’ success fee from losing defendants, or recovering an after-the-event insurance premium. ...