All News articles – Page 1609
-
News
Government announces consultation on Jackson’s CFA reforms
No-win no-fee agreements will be the focus of a government consultation on Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals for reforming civil litigation costs, the government announced today. In a written ministerial statement laid before parliament this morning, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said that the reform of conditional fee ...
-
News
New insurer to enter PII market
A new insurer is to enter the solicitors’ professional indemnity market focusing on firms of up to five partners, the Law Society revealed today. Vision Underwriting Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Limited (LMIE), which is a member of US Group Liberty ...
-
News
Will Nick Green QC’s question on drugs possession be heard by government?
In his recent report to the profession, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC attracted headlines by raising the question of whether personal possession of drugs should be decriminalised.
-
News
Judiciary reprimanded for inappropriate comments
Twenty-eight judicial office holders were removed from office last year, a 12% rise on last year, and a further 18 resigned during conduct investigations, according to the Office for Judicial Complaints’ annual report published yesterday. Matters investigated by the OLC included one instance where a magistrate ...
-
News
The yoke's on you
Is there, Obiter sometimes wonders, a genetic imperative encoded into the DNA of every solicitor, that makes them physically unable to allow any error to slip past uncorrected? It is, no doubt, this unrelenting quest for accuracy – rather than any desire to make mischief – that prompted Neil Howlett, ...
-
News
The MoJ’s structural reform plan replaces targets with timetables
At last, we have some idea of what the Ministry of Justice is planning to do during the coming months. It was one of the first departments to publish its so-called structural reform plan, setting out how it will implement the coalition agreement. We can gloss ...
-
News
Immigration
Homosexuality – Persecution – Refugees HJ (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: HT (Cameroon) (appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: SC (Lords Hope, Rodger, Walker, Collins, Sir John Dyson): 7 July 2010 ...
-
News
Round and round they go
The golfing event of the year has just finished. Not the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, but a far more impressive two-day golfing marathon just completed by a lawyer from Merseyside firm Weightmans and his colleague. David Lewis, head of the firm’s Liverpool office and Nick Wilson, health and ...
-
News
Safety first at work
Last year saw the lowest number of employment-related fatalities. As a claimant personal injury lawyer I feel a sense of relief. There I was thinking I was an ambulance-chasing waste of space, with no social utility or worth. Perhaps the ‘potty’ Brussels ‘bureaucrats’ who inflicted ...
-
News
Private equity to target legal process outsourcing
Private equity investment is set to transform legal process outsourcing in a trend that will see many commercial firms miss out on work and could affect the training of future solicitors, leading experts have predicted. David Hawley, partner in the consulting strategy department at Deloitte, said ...
-
News
Why not let us do our own duty rotas?
As one due to depart on annual leave, I feel that the Law Society’s comments on the new duty solicitors rota and the delay in issuing it are well founded. I received the rota only on Monday 12 July and find that, during the subsequent fortnight, I have no fewer ...
-
News
Could a graduate tax help reduce the profession's diversity deficit?
by Paul Rogerson editor-in-chief of the Gazette ‘It surely can’t be right that a teacher, or care worker, or research scientist, is expected to pay the same graduate contribution as a top commercial lawyer, surgeon or City analyst… whose graduate premium is so much bigger.’
-
News
‘One-stop cyber shop’ for legal services
A ‘one-stop cyber shop’ for legal services across all 27 EU member states was launched last week amid fears about data protection and the expense of maintaining the site.
-
News
Criminal procedure
Road traffic – Aiding and abetting – Death by dangerous driving – Jury directions R v Paul David Martin: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Hooper, Mr Justice Gross, Judge Moss QC): 6 July 2010 ...
-
News
Corporate and securities law falls short on human rights
Corporate and securities law recognises human rights, but only to a limited extent, a UN report compiled with input from two magic circle firms has found. There is ‘limited to non-existent’ coordination between corporate regulators and government agencies tasked with protecting human rights, and a lack ...
-
News
Do corporate law and human rights mix?
‘Corporate and securities law directly shapes what companies do and how they do it. Yet its implications for human rights remain poorly understood. The two are often viewed as distinct legal and policy spheres, populated by different communities of practice.’ Discuss.
-
News
New Law Society president unveils conveyancing scheme
The new president of the Law Society has pledged to promote the profession’s role at the ‘heart of society and commerce’, as she revealed plans for a new scheme to support conveyancers. The conveyancing quality scheme, to be launched by the Law Society this autumn, will ...
-
News
EC plans could mean greater protection for client money
Client money held in solicitors’ bank accounts could be given far greater protection in the event of a bank collapse, under European Commission proposals unveiled last week. The commission proposed an EU-wide €100,000 (£83,200) cap on the compensation available for deposits that are lost in the ...
-
News
Employment tribunal claims soar
Employment tribunal claims soared by 56% in 2009/10 compared to the previous year, according to Tribunal Service statistics. Actions brought by multiple claimants, mostly unions, rocketed by nearly 90%. These included 10,600 claims brought on behalf of airline pilots in relation to the working time ...