All News articles – Page 1621
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News
Spell test
Legal aid minister Jonathan Djanogly does not have the easiest surname to pronounce. Indeed, in this electronic era, he must find much of his highly valuable time devoted to spelling out his email address letter by letter. But it has come to Obiter’s attention that many in the solicitors’ profession ...
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Law Society criticises jury trial proposals as 'entirely wrong'
Proposals to scrap jury trials for lesser offences were today criticised by the Law Society as ‘entirely wrong’. Chancery Lane said that the ‘constitutional fabric’ of England and Wales would be put at risk if the proposal by the commissioner for victims Louise Casey is implemented. ...
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Trade union backs asbestos appeal
Trade union Unite will back an appeal to the Supreme Court over the liability of insurers to pay compensation to victims of work-related asbestos exposure, it said yesterday. On 8 October, the Court of Appeal overturned a 2008 High Court ruling on mesothelioma, a cancer of ...
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Outsourcing association for law firms launched
Eight UK companies have formed an association, chaired by a solicitor, to provide outsourcing services for law firms across the country. The Solicitors Outsourcing Association said it aims to assist solicitors in reducing their overheads. The association, chaired by solicitor ...
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Trust in marketing management
The semantic debate over the words 'client' or 'customer' that divides the new legal service providers from solicitors only obscures the issues around the future of legal services. The people and businesses that seek legal help might as easily be described as 'service users' or 'punters'. What’s important is to ...
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Personal injury solicitors rebuff ABI claims over ‘excessive’ costs
Personal injury lawyers have hit back at claims that they ‘take motorists for a ride’ by charging high legal fees for settling road traffic accident (RTA) claims. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said last week that legal fees add £40 a year to the average ...
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Two cheers for the European parliament
I have been reading the first volume of Chris Mullin’s political diary A View From the Foothills, covering his period as a junior minister in the Blair government from 1999 to 2005. I can recommend it – very readable and most instructive about those years. He is usually more benign ...
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With economy on the mend, are we out of the woods?
A year has passed since the end of the recession; with an expected lag between a recessionary and subsequent insolvency peak of 12-18 months, many predicted that 2010 would see a large rise in corporate insolvencies. Instead, comparing Q2 2009 and 2010, we have seen a 19% fall in liquidations ...
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‘Nothing is off the cards’ in ABS era, says Co-op
Co-operative Legal Services may offer firms a franchise arrangement for some legal services, its sales and marketing director suggested in an interview with the Gazette today. Jonathan Gulliford said that a franchise or licensing model, whereby firms could operate under the Co-op brand, was one ...
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Law Society calls for reform of murder sentencing
The Law Society has called on the government to look at introducing a three-tier system of sentencing for murder, after research published today revealed a lack of public support for the current mandatory life sentence. The report, by Barry Mitchell of Coventry University and Julian Roberts ...
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How should oversupply of LPC graduates be tackled?
This week’s news that BPP is to open three new legal practice course (LPC) centres this autumn, in Newcastle, Cambridge and Liverpool, has given fresh impetus to what is an ongoing debate about the oversupply of LPC graduates.
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Lawyers call for details of £350m legal aid budget cut
Lawyers have called on the Ministry of Justice to give details of how it intends to cut £350m from the legal aid budget, following the outcome of the government’s spending review, announced last week. Chancellor George Osborne told the House of Commons that the MoJ’s current ...
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Abolish single PII renewal date and review conveyancing, says report
The single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII) should be scrapped, and there should be an investigation into whether more regulation is needed in the conveyancing process, according to a ‘root and branch’ review of client financial protection commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
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Future LPC students need to be better informed about career prospects
In your article ‘LPC aptitude test risks "clones"’, you quote Kevin Poulter of the Junior Lawyers Division as stating that ‘there are between 10,000 and 20,000 LPC graduates currently looking for training contracts’. This almost certainly overestimates alarmingly the oversupply of LPC graduates. No one knows how many LPC graduates ...
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Excellence adventure
There was quite a buzz at the Law Society’s packed Excellence Awards at Old Billingsgate in London last week. Nigel Priestley, who received the prestigious gong of private practice Solicitor of the Year, used the podium to praise the success of Huddersfield Law Society’s twinning project with Uganda, which he ...
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Supreme Court backs right to police station advice
Defence lawyers have welcomed a Supreme Court ruling confirming the right to legal advice at the police station, and warned that the Ministry of Justice will have to ‘think carefully’ before introducing any reform that seeks to limit it. Giving judgment in an appeal from the ...
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New advocacy proposals 'prejudice' solicitors
A proposed new quality assurance scheme for criminal advocates could prejudice solicitors because it places too much weight on the views of judges, an advocates group has warned. The Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) has voiced concerns about the ‘over-reliance’ on judicial evaluation proposed ...
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Who's afraid of computer generation?
Significant parts of Richard Susskind's The End of Lawyers? focus on the role of technology and automation in the production of legal documents. In particular he looks at the use of software that enables the client, with the use of what is basically a decision tree, to generate employment contracts ...
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LSC rules out appeal against family tender judgment
The Legal Services Commission has announced that it will not appeal against the High Court’s judgment following the Law Society’s successful challenge to the family tender process. It said any appeal would only prolong uncertainty over the future of the family contracts, causing difficulties for ...
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Where will the legal aid lawyers of the future come from?
As uncertainty over the future of legal aid contracts deters firms from taking on the expense and commitment of traineeships, one wonders who is going to train the next generation. Two weeks ago, I attended the Legal Aid Practitioners Group annual gathering in Leeds. Given the ...