All News articles – Page 1607
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News
The issue of what constitutes a legal adviser
When is a legal adviser not a legal adviser? Based on section 147 of the Equality Act 2010, it appears to be when he is a legal adviser. Confused? Many have been. At this time of year one’s thoughts often turn to compromise agreements. Yet as ...
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Legal aid tender quality checks 'flawed'
The High Court ruled this week that the process used to check the quality standards of firms awarded public law and mental health legal aid contracts breached equality standards, but there was ‘no legal flaw’ in the Legal Services Commission’s public law tender.
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Legal aid backlog leaves some defendants unrepresented
Delays in processing legal aid applications are leaving some defendants in London’s Crown and magistrates’ courts unrepresented, criminal solicitors have warned. Malcolm Duxbury, president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, told the Gazette there is a ‘very large’ backlog in processing and assessing Crown court ...
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'Unrelenting' pressure on Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal is facing ‘unrelenting’ pressure from increased demand and reduced resources, the lord chief justice has warned. In his foreword to the court’s annual report, published today, Lord Justice Judge (pictured) paid tribute to the judges who work ‘late into the night ...
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Students get murder case referred back to Court of Appeal
A group from the University of Bristol have become the first students to succeed in having the case of a convicted murderer referred back to the Court of Appeal through the university’s Innocence Project. The students convinced the Criminal Cases Review Commission to refer the case ...
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Hugging the attorney
Back in the days when I was articled (how long ago did that word become obsolete?), barristers did not mix socially with solicitors, writes James Morton. Taking their instructing solicitor out to dinner was known as ‘hugging the attorney’ and was, I believe, a disciplinary offence. Certainly, they did not ...
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Why it is going to be even harder for LLPs to borrow new money
‘All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned,’ wrote Karl Marx, alluding to capitalism’s awesome capacity for creative destruction. In this at least he was right, as evidenced perhaps by the demise of Ashton Morton Slack, a century-old mainstay of the Sheffield legal scene.
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Will your brand stand up to the new competition?
The spectre of increased competition in the legal market has prompted wildly different responses from law firms. Some are rolling up their sleeves and preparing for the fight; others seem to have given in already or have senior partners whose main strategy is to hope they ...
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Law firms face new year 'cash crunch'
Law firms will face a ‘cash crunch’ at the end of January, but are likely to find it difficult to source finance from their banks, experts warned this week The news came as the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed that it wrote to the top 50 law ...
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City claims EC proposal would 'dilute English law'
A European Commission proposal to consolidate contract law across the EU would hamper international trade by diluting the strength of English law, City lawyers have warned. Responding to a Ministry of Justice call for evidence on a European Commission green paper proposing a new European contract ...
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Civil procedure
Coroners – Inquests – National security – Terrorism R (on the application of Secretary of State for the Home Department) v HM Coroner for Inner West London: DC (Lords Justices Maurice Kay, Stanley Burnton): 30 November 2010 ...
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FOIL president: cut claimant lawyer fees
Claimant personal injury lawyers’ fees should be cut by extending the new road traffic accident (RTA) claims process, and by allowing insurance companies to undertake ‘third-party capture’, the new president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) told the Gazette this week.
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Code of Conduct – conflicts of interest and conveyancing
Among the changes the Solicitors Regulation Authority is intending to make as part of its move to outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) in October 2011 is the removal of the detailed provisions, under rule 3 of the current Code of Conduct, on conflicts of interest, relating to when a solicitor may or ...
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Confrontation not consultation
In her latest column, the Law Society president urges us all to stand up and fight for access to justice against the threatened legal aid cuts. She writes: ‘This really is a process of genuine consultation; it is not a done deal and we still have all to play for’. ...
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SRA consults on simplifying regulation for sole practitioners
Sole practitioners should no longer be required to have their practising certificate endorsed every year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has proposed, publishing a consultation on the matter this week. Instead, the SRA has proposed that sole practitioner firms will be indefinitely authorised from 31 March 2012. ...
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CQS needs teeth
Paul Marsh is quite right, in talking about the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS), when he says ‘it is crucial that good firms of whatever size are able to compete on quality and not just on price with substandard firms’. We are a Lexcel-accredited firm with 25 ...
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Defamation
Defamatory statements – Defences – Fair comment – Libel Spiller & Anor v Joseph & Ors: SC (Lords Phillips (president), Rodger, Walker, Brown, Sir John Dyson): 1 December 2010 The ...
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Solicitor-advocate training 'not fit for purpose'
The training given to solicitor-advocates is ‘not fit for purpose’ and must be improved to conquer the perception that they are inferior to barristers, according to an independent review. In a report commissioned by the Law Society, consultant Nick Smedley said that, unless the training of ...
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Lost generation?
I write as a parent who happens to be a solicitor. Hurrah for Mr Justice Coleridge (tinyurl.com/32xekfd). It is so refreshing to hear a judge talking openly about what is a serious and untackled malaise. He has demonstrated quite clearly the detrimental effects of raising children as your ‘best friends’ ...