All News articles – Page 1582
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News
Profession facing 'demographic time bomb'
Legal aid lawyers have warned of a ‘demographic time bomb’ facing the profession as the number of young criminal defence lawyers declines as a result of uncertainty over the future of criminal legal aid. Law Society head of legal aid Richard Miller said the number of ...
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News
Local authority publicity and housing possessions
That the government shop is under new management is clear. It has a radical new look and feel – and an impatient determination to slim the entire operation and to reshape fundamentally the focus of policy. These impressions were reinforced on 29 September when Communities and Local Government issued its ...
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News
New book offers intriguing analysis of role of feminist judges
Is it possible to be both a judge and a feminist? That’s the intriguing question posed by Baroness Hale in her foreword to a fascinating new book, Feminist Judgments from Theory to Practice (Hart Publishing, £22.95). Hale is, of course, the UK’s most senior woman judge. ...
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News
Blonde ambition
Another chance for Gazette readers to win tickets to Obiter’s favourite legal-themed West End show, Legally Blonde: the Musical. For anyone unfamiliar with the plot, college sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods (played by Sheridan Smith) ‘doesn’t take no for an answer’. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone ...
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News
Where will the legal aid lawyers of the future come from?
As uncertainty over the future of legal aid contracts deters firms from taking on the expense and commitment of traineeships, one wonders who is going to train the next generation. Two weeks ago, I attended the Legal Aid Practitioners Group annual gathering in Leeds. Given the ...
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News
LSC rules out appeal against family tender judgment
The Legal Services Commission has announced that it will not appeal against the High Court’s judgment following the Law Society’s successful challenge to the family tender process. It said any appeal would only prolong uncertainty over the future of the family contracts, causing difficulties for ...
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News
Who's afraid of computer generation?
Significant parts of Richard Susskind's The End of Lawyers? focus on the role of technology and automation in the production of legal documents. In particular he looks at the use of software that enables the client, with the use of what is basically a decision tree, to generate employment contracts ...
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News
New advocacy proposals 'prejudice' solicitors
A proposed new quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates could prejudice solicitors because it places too much weight on the views of judges, an advocates group has warned. The Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has voiced concerns about the ‘over-reliance’ on judicial evaluation proposed ...
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Supreme Court backs right to police station advice
Defence lawyers have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling confirming the right to legal advice at the police station, and warned that the Ministry of Justice will have to ‘think carefully’ before introducing any reform that seeks to limit it. Giving judgment in an appeal from the ...
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Excellence adventure
There was quite a buzz at the Law Society’s packed Excellence Awards at Old Billingsgate in London last week. Nigel Priestley, who received the prestigious gong of private practice Solicitor of the Year, used the podium to praise the success of Huddersfield Law Society’s twinning project with Uganda, which he ...
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Future LPC students need to be better informed about career prospects
In your article ‘LPC aptitude test risks "clones"’, you quote Kevin Poulter of the Junior Lawyers Division as stating that ‘there are between 10,000 and 20,000 LPC graduates currently looking for training contracts’. This almost certainly overestimates alarmingly the oversupply of LPC graduates. No one knows how many LPC graduates ...
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News
Abolish single PII renewal date and review conveyancing, says report
The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped, and there should be an investigation into whether more regulation is needed in the conveyancing process, according to a ‘root and branch’ review of client financial protection commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
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News
Lawyers call for details of £350m legal aid budget cut
Lawyers have called on the Ministry of Justice to give details of how it intends to cut £350m from the legal aid budget, following the outcome of the government’s spending review, announced last week. Chancellor George Osborne told the House of Commons that the MoJ’s current ...
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News
Regulators consult on tougher rules for law degrees
A joint committee of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and Bar Standards Board has released two consultations on the future of the undergraduate law degree. The first Joint Academic Stage Board (JASB) paper asks for views on whether students who have failed a single foundation subject within ...
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News
Lord chief justice calls for reform of family system
The adversarial court system is not appropriate for settling parental disputes over the custody of children, the lord chief justice said today. Giving evidence to the House of Commons’ justice committee, Lord Judge (pictured) said he has ‘real concerns’ that the adversarial system ‘leaves a ...
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News
Unregulated will-writers and building case studies
The Law Society has asked members to inform it of any problems their clients may have experienced with unregulated will-writers.
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News
Immigration lawyers issue warning over appeals fee
Immigration lawyers have warned that immigrants could be ‘penalised’ as a result of government plans to introduce fees in certain immigration and asylum appeals. Court fees of up to £250 could be charged for immigration and asylum tribunal appeals. No fees are currently charged.
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News
New advocacy proposals ‘prejudice’ solicitors
A proposed new quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates could prejudice solicitors because it places too much weight on the views of judges, an advocates’ group has warned. The Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has voiced concerns over the ‘over-reliance’ on judicial evaluation proposed ...
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News
The right to choose your own lawyer – part 2
A year ago, I wrote about the Eschig decision of the European Court of Justice, which held that insured individuals in a mass tort case retain the right to choose their own lawyers. Now there is another case on its way to the European Court of Justice on the same ...
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News
Support victims of rape, says Stern
The government must support the victims of serious violent crime despite financial constraints following its spending review, Baroness Stern said last night. The crossbench peer, who led the independent review into how rape complainants are treated by public bodies, said justice had to be balanced, and ...