All News articles – Page 1581
-
News
‘Nothing is off the cards’ in ABS era, says Co-op
Co-operative Legal Services may offer firms a franchise arrangement for some legal services, its sales and marketing director suggested in an interview with the Gazette today. Jonathan Gulliford said that a franchise or licensing model, whereby firms could operate under the Co-op brand, was one ...
-
News
Sketch show
You can’t beat a good courtroom drama. So Obiter was delighted to receive a review copy of court artist Patricia Coleman’s sketches, brought together in a book with text by Evening Standard courts correspondent Paul Cheston. It includes scenes from some of Obiter’s favourite cases, from the appearance of Catherine ...
-
News
Solicitors sue police and Prison Service
Three solicitors are suing the police and Prison Service after being arrested and detained for storing a dictation device and memory sticks in the wrong lockers during prison visits. The three lawyers were among five solicitors who were held at HMP Brixton in unconnected incidents, following ...
-
News
Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, November 1960 United Law Debating Society – Institutional AdvertisingOn October 3 the Society debated the motion: ‘This House believes that it would be desirable if the restriction on advertising by the ...
-
News
Relevance of happiness to the legal profession
There is something for everyone in Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder’s book The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law. Levit and Linder are law professors at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and what they say about the US is relevant to the English legal profession. ...
-
News
Freeman tops ranking of high-profile solicitors
Defence lawyer Nick Freeman topped the rankings for the solicitor most frequently mentioned in the national press over the last year, according to figures compiled by Sweet & Maxwell. Freeman (pictured), founder of Manchester firm Freeman & Co and known as ‘Mr Loophole’, was the most ...
-
News
Solicitor jailed for fraud
A Canterbury solicitor has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to 14 fraud-related offences. Derek Speed, a former probate solicitor at Kent firm EMD Law, was sentenced last week after admitting the counts of fraud at Maidstone Crown Court.
-
News
Slur on my firm's services
I can only applaud the action taken by Hertfordshire firm Judkins and its partner Paul Judkins. My own firm has recently had its appeal concerning removal from the Santander panel, for Abbey, denied. I regard this as an act in restraint of trade and a slur on my firm’s services. ...
-
News
Solicitors are still having difficulty with service of proceedings
The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) are generally seen as being a success. True, they have not brought down the cost of litigation, but they have given a degree of certainty as to procedure. The fact that solicitors are still falling foul of the CPR when it comes to service by ...
-
News
Watchdog raps costly CPS failures
Failings at the Crown Prosecution Service and police are costing the taxpayer £600,000 a year in abandoned trials and preventing cases from being brought before the courts, a CPS inspection report found this week. One eminent solicitor warned that the report showed a criminal justice ...
-
News
Vulnerable people 'not consumers'
In the interview with Jonathan Djanogly it is interesting to note that, while not wanting to discuss the legal aid budget, the minister is quoted as saying: ‘Our priority is not about what lawyers do or the number of lawyers there are doing things. Our priority is legal representation ...
-
News
Law Commission launches consultation over new fitness test
The Law Commission has launched a consultation proposing an overhaul of the rules governing who is considered mentally fit to stand trial. The commission suggests scrapping the current ‘fitness to plead’ rules which have been in place since 1836, and replacing them with a procedure that ...
-
News
Senior judge slams court closures
The senior presiding judge for England and Wales has criticised the government’s plans to close 157 courts, in a consultation response intended to reflect the views of many judges and magistrates. Lord Justice Goldring (pictured) said he was ‘particularly concerned’ about the impact of the proposed ...
-
News
Civil procedure
Committal for contempt – Suspended committal orders – Judgment debtor’s failure to attend court Broomleigh Housing Association Ltd v Emeka Okonkwo: CA (Civ Div): 13 October 2010 The appellant (O) ...
-
News
Children 'at risk' over court fees
Solicitors have warned that local authorities may be deterred from placing vulnerable children into care, following the government’s decision not to scrap the controversial court fees paid by councils in care and supervision cases. In a ministerial statement last week, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said the ...
-
News
Proactive firms are setting the pace for change
Membership of a respected profession once conferred a much greater equivalence of proficiency and status than it does today. Consider the almost comical horror with which many lawyers formerly greeted the notion that solicitors should be allowed to differentiate themselves...
-
News
Employment fears spark call surge
Government spending cuts have triggered a sharp rise in employment law queries from consumers in the last three months, according to statistics from law firm network Contact Law seen by the Gazette. Employment-related calls accounted for one-fifth of the 28,000 calls received by the service in ...
-
News
BPP Law School defends new centres
BPP Law School has defended its decision to open three new branches next year, amid concerns over the lack of training contract places available for legal practice course graduates. The law school will launch LPC courses in Newcastle, Liverpool and Cambridge next autumn, providing 180 new ...
-
News
Radmacher judgment will boost demand for pre-nups – but issues remain
by Alison Bull, team leader associate at Mills & Reeve Publicity surrounding the Supreme Court’s judgment in Radmacher (rather than the outcome of the case) is likely to be the single most important factor in increasing demand for pre-marital agreements.