All News articles – Page 1624
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SRA: public 'satisfied' with legal services but not always 'informed'
The public has faith in legal services providers and rarely questions their expertise, but most cannot distinguish between a qualified solicitor and an unregulated practitioner, research commissioned by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has suggested. Preliminary results of a focus group study of 40 consumers indicated that ...
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LPC aptitude test risks ‘clones’
Solicitors have warned that proposals to introduce a compulsory aptitude test for law students seeking to enrol on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) could lead to only ‘clones’ being selected to enter the legal profession. The Law Society’s education and training committee is examining whether ...
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The Solicitors Benevolent Association has a modern makeover
Many years ago Establishment publications like the Telegraph carried advertisements for the Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association. This charity’s raison d’être appeared to be to ease the money problems of well-bred Home Counties types who had fallen on hard times. I remember thinking then that this must have been a ‘tough ...
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SRA's new regime will free it up to focus on the big issues
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s decision to move to what it terms outcomes-focused regulation has plenty of detractors. The idea of moving from a rulebook of hard and fast ‘dos and don’ts’, to regulation founded largely on just 10 broad ‘principles’, is anathema to many lawyers. ...
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Pro bono enterprise
Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly believes pro bono work is good for us. With 25% cuts looming at the Ministry of Justice, how convenient to transfer government social obligations to lawyers.
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Hotel meetings and break clauses
I attended a meeting in a hotel lobby this week. As I entered the vast room, I was struck by just how many similar meetings were going on.
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Brush with the stars
It has been an Indian summer for one Manchester sports lawyer. Mark Hovell, managing partner at Manchester firm George Davies, has spent the last fortnight at the 2010 Commonwealth Games as the British representative on the six-strong legal panel of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, helping settle disputes arising ...
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Budget cuts – the numbers game
As happens with the budget every year, the chancellor George Osborne’s Commons statement on the comprehensive spending review triggered a mad scramble to clarify and unpick the numbers referenced, and work out their significance.
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The JAC picks candidates through fair and open competition
I was disappointed with David Kirwan’s letter, which appears to have been written from ‘the hip’ and without any research into the subject.
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Investors want law firms with capital
Law firms must bulk up their capital reserves if they want investors to consider them as serious acquisition targets, experts said at the Claims Standards Council’s annual conference last week. Royal Bank of Scotland relationship manager Sara Hutton told delegates that firms should retain up to ...
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Catching clients
One of the troubles with criminal clients of the 1970s was their ‘out of court – out of mind’ syndrome, writes James Morton.
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Civil procedure
Costs - Insolvency - Local government - Bankruptcy petitions Banfield v Harrow London Borough Council: ChD (Mr Justice Lewison): 6 October 2010 The appellant (B) appealed against a costs decision ...
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Thompsons reprimanded over miners’ claims
The chief executive of national trade union firm Thompsons has been reprimanded by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for the firm’s mishandling of sick coal miners’ government compensation claims. In a regulatory settlement agreement signed on 30 September, Stephen Cavalier accepted a severe reprimand on behalf of ...
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Clive wows 'em
Noted wit Clive Anderson’s obituary – and let the day of its publication be far distant – is unlikely to dwell for long on his legal career. And why should it, when the one-time Cambridge Footlights president can boast of being the very first act on stage when London’s legendary ...
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Huge court closure response, says Djanogly
A Ministry of Justice consultation proposing the closure of 103 magistrates’ courts and 54 county courts has received a huge number of responses, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly told the House of Commons’ Justice Committee this week. The minister said that the MoJ had received ...
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SRA publishes ‘final draft’ of its radical reforms to the code of conduct
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has today published the ‘final draft’ of its move to principles-based regulation, which will see a radical overhaul of the current code of conduct, abolishing many of the current detailed rules in favour of 10 broad principles.
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Lawyers issue warning over Lord Young’s compensation proposals
The government must not hinder access to justice for personal injury victims as it takes forward Lord Young’s report on the ‘compensation culture’, lawyers’ groups have warned. In his report released last week, Young (pictured) acknowledged that ‘the problem of the compensation culture prevalent in ...
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Conveyancing quality mark launched
The Law Society has launched a conveyancing quality scheme (CQS) designed to give clients a recognisable quality mark for firms providing a high standard of service. The scheme is based on a new Law Society transaction protocol, which will introduce consistent standards to speed up the ...
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Regulatory creep
The new rule in place from 13 October on the requirements to be shown on letterheads reminds one of the various bites at this particular matter the regulators have had. First, it was ‘regulated by the Law Society’. One dutifully reprinted the notepaper. Then came ...