All News articles – Page 1597
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News
LSC and consumer bodies call for complaints publication
The Legal Services Commission is pushing to obtain access to 'detailed information' about successful complaints made against solicitors, which it will use to assess the performance of its providers. Responding to a Legal Services Ombudsman (LeO) consultation of what information it should publish on the complaints ...
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Profits continue to fall at Scottish legal firms
Scotland's solicitors’ profession is becoming increasingly polarised as the downturn continues, new figures show. Smaller firms in Glasgow and Edinburgh are continuing to suffer sharp declines in profitability, but the biggest practices, including cross-border firms, are showing strong signs of recovery. ...
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MoJ pledges £29m for victims of crime
The Ministry of Justice has announced that £29.4m will be dedicated to support vulnerable victims of crime over the next three years. The victim and witness voluntary sector will receive £9.8m annually from the MoJ. This will include £3.5m a year to support the work of ...
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Mock trials are an aptitude test that works
Policemen have been looking impossibly young to me for years, but now to my horror some barristers look like they have just stepped out of the school playground, too. The defence counsel I was watching had a mop of fair hair, the fringe overhanging his ...
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Law Society warns over control orders
The government’s new counter-terrorism measures continue to put at risk the UK’s unrivalled reputation for upholding the principles of freedom and fairness, the Law Society warned this week.
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National Grid slashes legal panel
National Grid has cut the number of law firms it employs on its panel by a quarter, the utilities giant announced today. The company said that it has ‘sought to introduce fixed pricing and other innovative billing solutions wherever possible under the new arrangements, which also ...
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Calunius Capital raises £40m fund
Third-party litigation funder Calunius Capital has raised £40m from a private fundraising in Guernsey, marking the first successful closure of a third-party litigation fund for 15 months. Calunius, which previously acted as a broker rather than an investor in litigation, will use its Calunius Litigation Risk ...
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Six solicitors defend £50m fraud charges
Six solicitors charged with offences relating to a series of alleged commercial mortgage frauds worth a total of nearly £50m appeared in Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which brought the charges, alleges that the six solicitors and two non-solicitors ‘participated in ...
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Legal aid cuts spark child abduction fears
Leading family solicitors have warned that withdrawing legal aid for private law family cases could lead desperate parents to abduct their children. Lawyers also predicted that the government’s reforms would prompt people to make false allegations of domestic violence in order to obtain legal aid. ...
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Misusing ABSs
I refer to the letter from Tim O'Sullivan of the Bournemouth and District Law Society. I agree with his view, and predict that alternative business structures may lead to a tidal wave of claims arising from misuse of client money and the use of ABS law firms as a front ...
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Coalminer court actions set for 'special hearing’
All pending court actions brought by former coalminers who allege their solicitors did not claim adequate government compensation on their behalf have been suspended pending a special hearing in April, the Gazette has learned. The miners allege their solicitors did not claim adequate compensation for vibration ...
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Administrative law
Discrimination – Employment – Government administration – Department for Business Innovation and Skills R (on the application of Cordant Group Plc) (claimant) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (defendant) and HM Treasury (interested party): QBD (Admin) ...
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Cuts will ‘prevent young lawyers from entering legal aid sector’
The proposed cuts to legal aid could prevent low-income students from entering the legal aid sector, the Junior Lawyers Division has warned. In response to the government’s consultation on legal aid reform, the JLD has said that the proposed £350m budget cuts will ‘severely affect’ entry ...
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Aircraft purchase, Russian deal, water metering, and property
Easy purchase: City firm Norton Rose advised airline easyJet on buying 15 Airbus A320 aircraft worth $1.1bn (£700m); upgrading its order for 20 A319 aircraft to 20 A320 aircraft, and securing options for a further 33 A320 aircraft. Airbus was advised by its ...
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A practical approach to LPC over-subscription
by Rachel Falconer, West London Law Society Junior Lawyers Division committee member and solicitor with Hodders Law In October 2010, BPP announced the decision to open three new branches nationwide, namely in Cambridge, Newcastle and Liverpool. This announcement sparked a heated debate and provoked passionate challenges ...
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Marketing budgets – not such a black art!
Are you in marketing budget limbo-land? Perhaps, you submitted your 2011 marketing budget for approval last year, but do not expect to hear what and how much has been approved for at least a month, maybe longer? Or maybe you are just starting ...
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Jackson attacks government's partial reform plan
Lord Justice Jackson criticised the way the government plans to implement his reforms to civil justice costs in a sternly worded letter to the justice secretary last week. Jackson (pictured) said the detailed package of reforms aimed at reducing civil litigation costs, which he published last ...
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DLA Piper to merge with Australian firm
National firm DLA Piper is poised to merge with its Australian associate firm DLA Phillips Fox, the firms announced today. If partners approve the merger, DLA Piper, which posted global revenues of £581m for the 2009/10 financial year, would have the biggest Australian operation for a ...
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Are shared services a panacea for local authority spending cuts?
There is a road in one English town that falls between two boroughs – the boundary between them is an imaginary line down the middle of the road. Each borough has its own waste-management contract. On two different mornings, a truck from each borough goes down its half of the ...
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How the self-employed criminal bar intends to compete with solicitors
There are probably about 5,000 self-employed barristers and 1,000 higher court advocates active in criminal defence work. While the number of firms has dwindled substantially in the last few years, the number of barristers has increased, notwithstanding the fact that the work has diminished, mainly through the Crown Prosecution Service ...