All News articles – Page 1593

  • News

    Even judges are powerless in the face of family cuts

    2010-09-24T00:00:00Z

    Like his predecessor Sir Mark Potter, Lord Justice Wall is not afraid to tell it like it is when it comes to problems in the family justice system.

  • News

    Legal quangos face cull

    2010-09-24T00:00:00Z

    Nine legal-related bodies are among the 177 quangos set to be axed by the coalition government, according to a leaked report obtained by the Telegraph. The nine bodies are: the Legal Services Commission; the Legal Services Ombudsman; the Legal Deposit Advisory Committee; the Magistrates Court Rule ...

  • News

    LSC puts its case in family judicial review

    2010-09-24T00:00:00Z

    On the second day of the Law Society’s judicial review of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for family legal aid work, counsel for the LSC today told the High Court that it should have been ‘obvious’ to solicitors that panel membership was going to be an important factor in the ...

  • News

    Why the timidity around billing?

    2010-09-24T00:00:00Z

    In the current economic environment, law firms, like other businesses, are keeping a close eye on cashflow. This is always a particular concern for professional firms, who are rarely paid up front for their services.

  • News

    Law Society doubles Diversity Access Scheme places

    2010-09-24T00:00:00Z

    A Law Society scheme that aims to improve social mobility in the legal profession is to double the number of candidates it takes on next year. The Diversity Access Scheme (DAS) supports entrants to the solicitors' profession who face exceptional social, educational, financial or personal obstacles ...

  • News

    Words of warning

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    On the subject of semantics, a group of international law experts has claimed that the use of ‘unclear language’ by lawyers and other professionals was to blame for the recent economic meltdown. Clarity, the association of lawyers, judges and lay people which promotes the use of plain legal language, said ...

  • News

    Supermum

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Any solicitors who have ever arrived at work to look down and realise there is baby sick on their new shirt, or changed out of their work clothes at the end of a long day to find there are Rice Krispies stuck to the back that have been there since ...

  • News

    Sentencing

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Criminology – Long-term prisoners – Rape – Release on licence R (on the application of Webb) v Secretary of State for Justice: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Pill, Wilson, Sullivan): 8 September 2010 ...

  • News

    Not right to reply

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    It’s fair to say that, what with the mayhem that is the civil legal aid tender and the recent debacle over late payments (to cite but two examples) the Legal Services Commission cops a fair amount of stick from the Gazette and its readers at times. It does seem reasonable ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, September 1970 View from the countryI will not easily forget the case of Milton v Shrewsbury. It never found its way into any law ...

  • News

    Immigration

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Administrative decision-making – Armed forces – Character – Conduct R (on the application of Charly Ngouh) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: QBD (Admin) (Mr Justice Foskett): 27 August 2010 ...

  • News

    Grammar, we love you

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Every year, when a fresh intake of students begin their law degrees, British legal academics quietly shake their heads and mutter to one another about the poor standard of written English of many of their new charges – and they are not talking about the foreigners. So it’s always comforting ...

  • News

    Fraud

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    VAT – Groups of companies – Input tax – Knowledge (1) Mobile Export 365 Ltd (2) Shelford (IT) Ltd v Revenue & Customs Commissioners: FTT (Tax) (Judge David Williams, K Goddard, R Spector): 6 August 2010 ...

  • News

    Law firms and insurers join forces to fight Jackson reforms

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Five law firms and two insurers have set up a pressure group with the aim of preventing Lord Justice Jackson’s proposed reforms to the funding of personal injury and clinical negligence claims, which they claim will leave victims ‘at the mercy’ of large insurance companies. The ...

  • News

    Eschig ruling and non-panel firms

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    The article FSA underlines policyholder right to choose solicitor could leave some readers with the impression that the Eschig judgment has in some way affected the position of already-compliant legal expenses insurers, which is not the case.

  • News

    Lib Dem minister faces economic reality

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    The justice system cannot escape the ‘realities of the economic situation’, Lord McNally, minister of state at the Ministry of Justice, said in an interview with the Gazette this week. The Liberal Democrat peer said he is relying on the ability of the legal profession ...

  • News

    Publishing diversity data ‘powerful incentive’ for firms

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Legal Services Board plans to compel law firms to publish data about the diversity of their staff will act as a ‘powerful incentive’ for firms to increase social mobility in the profession, LSB chief executive Chris Kenny has said in a letter to legal regulators. Kenny ...

  • News

    ‘Use town halls as courts’, says LGA

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Town halls should be used as courts to generate cost savings, the Local Government Association (LGA) suggested this week. Responding to the Courts Service’s consultation on the potential closure of 103 magistrates’ courts and 54 county courts across England and Wales, the LGA said making use ...

  • News

    Working party plea for costs rules to be liberalised

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    A working party led by a senior judge has called on the government to liberalise the costs rules to make it easier for parties to make challenges under environmental law.

  • News

    Corporate governance and coping with visits from the FSA

    2010-09-23T00:00:00Z

    The telephone rings. It’s reception. Financial Services Authority investigators are downstairs with a search warrant. How prepared are you to respond to such a knock at the door? That question has been put high on the agenda of in-house lawyers as the regulatory and business crime regime becomes ever more ...