All News articles – Page 1570

  • News

    Law Society should open to non-solicitors, council member proposes

    2010-12-06T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society Council will vote on a motion next week that would see barristers and legal executives given the right to seek full membership of the Society. The motion has been submitted by Derek French, Law Society Council member for Birmingham District, rather than by ...

  • News

    Conveyancing under spotlight as SRA unveils sweeping PII reforms

    2010-12-06T00:00:00Z

    The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped from 1 October next year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has recommended in a consultation on client financial protection, published today. The regulator simultaneously announced that it will begin investigating failures in the conveyancing process early next year, and ...

  • News

    Time to review the discount rate in personal injury claims

    2010-12-06T00:00:00Z

    When assessing future pecuniary loss in personal injury claims, the multiplicand/multiplier approach is often adopted. An important factor in determining multipliers is the net rate of return (discount rate) the claimant might expect to receive from a reasonably prudent investment of the lump sum compensation.

  • News

    Recent cases of ‘voluntary erasure’ raise important issues

    2010-12-06T00:00:00Z

    Should a doctor who is the subject of a current fitness to practise complaint before the General Medical Council (GMC) be permitted to retire from the medical register on the grounds of ill health, and thereby avoid a public fitness to practise hearing?

  • News

    Lawyers switched on to technology

    2010-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Two-thirds of lawyers now use a BlackBerry device for work, and three-quarters check their messages either constantly, or at least every hour, research has suggested. A survey of 100 solicitors from firms of all sizes by research company Jures, on behalf of legal publisher LexisNexis, also ...

  • News

    Lawyers will have mixed reaction to US’s leaked diplomatic cables

    2010-12-03T00:00:00Z

    The latest documents released by the WikiLeaks website are cables from diplomats, not lawyers, but many lawyers will empathise with the argument that policymakers should be able to rely on candid advice remaining private – just as advice to their own clients should attract privilege. ...

  • News

    Bar Council visits Gulf to promote barristers

    2010-12-03T00:00:00Z

    A delegation of senior barristers has begun a visit to the Gulf this week in a bid to promote the English Bar. The Bar Council group. led by chairman Nicholas Green QC (pictured) and chairman-elect Peter Lodder QC, will visit Oman, the United Arab Emirates and ...

  • News

    Paralegals seek right to advise in redundancy cases

    2010-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Paralegals have called upon the government to allow them equal status with solicitors when working on compromise agreements in redundancy cases.

  • News

    Slang warfare

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    This week, James Morton files his musings from Down Under

  • News

    Intellectual property

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Conflict of laws - Information technology - Authorisation (1) Football Dataco Ltd (2) Scottish Premier League Ltd (3) Scottish Football League (4) PA Sport UK LTD v (1) Sportradar GMBH (a ­company registered in Germany) (2) Sportradar AG ...

  • News

    Injunctions and protecting private information

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Adakini Ntuli v Howard Donald [2010] EWCA Civ 1276 – ‘Why shud I continue 2 suffer financially 4 the sake of loyalty when selling my story will sort my life out?’

  • News

    Immigration

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Asylum - Asylum seekers - Persecution (1) RT (Zimbabwe) (2) SM (Zimbabwe) (3) DM (Zimbabwe) (4) AM (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Carnwath, Lloyd, Sullivan): 18 November 2010 ...

  • News

    Demo-crazy

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Last week’s meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Legal Aid, at which justice minister Jonathan Djanogly was available to answer questions, was packed out by lawyers (even though a few legal bigwigs, including Bar Council chair Nick Green QC, had to miss out because they were stuck behind ...

  • News

    Financial crutch

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The chaps at Cheltenham personal injury firm Ross Aldridge must really have the gift of the gab. Despite reports that banks have cooled off on lending to law firms, the firm has just secured a whopping £1m funding package from Barclays Corporate, under the Government Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme. What’s ...

  • News

    Clients keep legal spending in-house

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Commercial firms are competing in a static market as large clients grow their in-house legal teams rather than turn to external firms to deal with an increasing workload, research seen exclusively by the Gazette has indicated. An annual benchmarking survey of 124 heads of legal ...

  • News

    Insurers seek to pursue solicitors over whiplash fraud claims

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The insurance industry is seeking to pursue solicitors whom it believes are involved in fraudulent whiplash claims, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said. James Dalton, ABI assistant director of motor and liability, told delegates at the Motor Accident Solicitors Society annual conference last ...

  • News

    Civil procedure

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Discrimination – Equality and Human Rights Commission – Lay assessors S Deman v Commission for Equality and Human Rights and others: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Sedley, Moses): 6 November 2010 ...

  • News

    How the property market is changing as law firms weigh up office space

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    There is a strong sense that the property market is changing in important ways for law firms of all sizes as occupiers.

  • News

    Chancery Lane to intervene in CFA case

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has been given permission to intervene in a Court of Appeal case on civil litigation funding which it claims could ensure access to justice for many clients in the wake of the government’s proposed legal aid cuts. The case concerns a challenge by ...

  • News

    Green pioneers slash carbon footprints

    2010-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Almost 40% of law firms in the Legal Sector Alliance (LSA) have cut their carbon footprints in the last year, according to the alliance’s annual report, released today. In 2010, the average amount of carbon generated per LSA member employee varied between 0.48 and 8.94 tonnes, ...