All News articles – Page 1584
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News
Women still half as likely as men to become partners in private practice
Forty years on from the Equal Pay Act, the Law Society and Legal Services Board continue to highlight gender differences as a significant category of career disadvantage. The raw data remains extremely dispiriting; although the proportion of women admitted as solicitors continues to increase, pressing issues remain concerning retention, progression, ...
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New 'behaviour committee' to police RTA portal
Disputes between solicitors and insurers over alleged abuses of the new road traffic accident (RTA) claims portal are to be dealt with by a special ‘behaviour committee’. The RTA Portal Company, a collaboration of representatives from the insurance and legal industries that oversee the portal’s operation, ...
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Women lawyers believe they are paid less than male peers
Most women lawyers believe their male colleagues earn more than they do, research has suggested. A survey of 200 UK lawyers by jobs board twosteps showed that 61% of women lawyers thought they earned less than men, while 100% of those earning £95,000 or more ...
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Web redefines relationship between journalism and the law
Write an article for publication these days and the chances are that it will attract ill-informed comments. No longer content with sending in a letter to the editor and waiting to see if it is printed, readers now demand an instant right of reply on the publisher’s website. ...
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Legal bodies fear government interference
The independence of the legal profession is being threatened by government ‘diktats’ ordering that the websites of three legal quangos be closed, the chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) told a House of Lords debate this week. Baroness Hayter said that the Legal Services ...
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CLA telephone helpline survey results questioned
A survey of users of the Community Legal Advice (CLA) telephone helpline has called into question government claims that ‘many vulnerable groups’ prefer telephone advice. In its legal aid consultation, which proposes making the CLA compulsory for most areas of civil work, the Ministry of Justice ...
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Gender gap closes but progress is slow
The ‘gender gap’ within the profession is closing, but disparities still exist in pay and partnership prospects, the latest Law Society figures have suggested. Speaking at an event to celebrate International Women’s Day this week, Law Society president Linda Lee revealed that the proportion of ...
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LSC debt collection tactics criticised
Delays in granting legal aid by the Legal Services Commission and ‘aggressive’ enforcement by its debt collectors of legal aid contributions are causing anxiety for clients and have driven some to attempt suicide, the Gazette has learned.
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Compact Disken
There must be plenty of lawyers out there who dream of escaping the daily grind to become a singer-songwriter. So all credit to Teresa Disken (pictured), with her ‘Cherokee blood and Irish soul’, who left a commercial law job at City Hall to record Venus and the Director, and promptly ...
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Counsel of woe
Establishment stalwart Obiter is, of course, deeply reluctant to take the michael out of esteemed government departments. But sometimes it simply cannot be resisted. Last week’s Ministry of Justice announcement of 120 new QC appointments raised an eyebrow at Obiter Towers, and not because there were only a measly two ...
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Law firms develop new strategies to stand out from the crowd
In Kingdom, a TV drama, Stephen Fry plays Peter Kingdom, a local solicitor with a natural human and personal touch, going out of his way to help the locals in a small town in Norfolk. This idealised portrayal of life as a solicitor could not be further from the world ...
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Four Cumbria law firms say no to referral fees
Four Cumbria law firms have declared their practices to be ‘no-go areas’ for referral fees to estate agents. Wigton firm Beaty & Co; Penrith, Keswick and Carlisle firm Scott Duff; Carlisle and Wigton firm Atkinson Ritson; and Carlisle, Penrith and Brampton firm Cartmell Shepherd said ...
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How the law can be used to fight cuts to services for disabled people
Disabled children and disabled adults need significant support from public bodies to help them lead ordinary lives. These groups require both specialist and targeted services and flexible universal services which can be adapted to their needs. The past decade has seen services for disabled children ...
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Radical shakeup of social housing is potentially damaging
The Law Society has been coordinating responses from members of its relevant committees (planning, conveyancing and housing) to large parts of the Localism Bill. This is the bill that proposes to bring in far-reaching plans to devolve power to the local community to build on the government’s idea of the ...
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Russia pressured on Sergei Magnitsky death
Prime minister David Cameron has thrown his weight behind a campaign to expose the truth behind the death of a lawyer investigating an alleged £142m fraud against a UK company in Russia. Sergei Magnitsky (pictured) was working for UK investment firm Hermitage Capital when, after alleging ...
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Defence solicitors warn MoJ over interpreter outsourcing
Criminal defence solicitors have urged the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the standard of interpreters does not deteriorate as a result of cost-cutting plans to outsource translation services across the criminal justice system.
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‘Glass windows’ are not for everyone
I doff my cap to Tania Jeffery and Kellie-Jayne Cox, who have recently opened a new practice in Hampshire. It is particularly noble in these difficult days. I think, however, that the ‘glass window’ policy may be questionable, and a grumpy old gaffer like me would ...
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Government words are hard to stomach
I read with interest your excellent feature 'War of the words'. For some time, I have been criticising the manner in which government departments and regulators use language that is intended to mislead.
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Reinventing intellectual property litigation
The Patents County Court has undergone a major makeover, to make it the venue of choice for small-to-medium-sized intellectual property disputes. Intellectual property is generally seen as being a good thing, both for businesses or the individuals that own it, and for society at large. Patents ...
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Lawyers are not just motivated by money
I have to take issue with something Lord Neuberger said in his recent Bentham lecture. ‘Now, it is no part of my function to defend lawyers’ fees,’ said the master of the rolls, ‘although I would say that, unless you pay lawyers properly, you won’t attract able people to the ...