All News articles – Page 1626

  • News

    Clarke urged to save cash-strapped immigration advice provider

    2010-06-02T00:00:00Z

    Charities, faith leaders and human rights experts are calling on new justice secretary Kenneth Clarke (pictured) to save the UK’s largest immigration advice provider, which is facing closure because of delays in receiving legal aid payments. In an open letter to Clarke and home secretary ...

  • News

    Tender trauma

    2010-05-31T00:00:00Z

    I agree with the article 'LSC tender unfair' [link]. It is wholly unfair for the Legal Services Commission to favour those firms that have a Children Panel member or an Advanced Family Panel member over those that simply have a Family Panel member.The notification concerning domestic violence was not flagged ...

  • News

    HIPs and consumer protection

    2010-05-31T00:00:00Z

    Now that the home information pack regulations have been effectively scrapped, the unintended consequence is the loss of any consumer protection for the supply of CON29O and R and CON29DW standards searches. HIPs set out, for the first time, clear standards for the conditions upon which searches should be provided, ...

  • News

    Stop bleating

    2010-05-31T00:00:00Z

    What a clever juxtaposition of letters (see [2010] Gazette, 27 May, 9) – 'Hurt in the pocket' and 'A Serious Fee'– where the question of low wages for conveyancers is posed, then answered.

  • News

    A day in the life of an international legal conference attendee

    2010-05-31T00:00:00Z

    The flowering season for that most exotically located of plants, the international legal conference, has begun. It runs from May to October. It does not mean that there are no legal conferences outside those months...

  • News

    Is outrage over anonymity for defendants in rape cases justified?

    2010-05-28T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers representing rape victims have been up in arms over the coalition government’s recent commitment to introduce anonymity for defendants in rape cases, up until the point where they are convicted.

  • News

    Is outrage over anonymity for defendants in rape cases justified?

    2010-05-28T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers representing rape victims have been up in arms over the coalition government’s recent commitment to introduce anonymity for defendants...

  • News

    Walking wounded

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    The inference of Paul Rogerson’s In Business feature titled ‘Surveying the damage’ (see [2010] Gazette, 13 May, 14), is that the recession is solely responsible for the dire straits which many hundreds of law firms up and down the country now find themselves in.

  • News

    Paws for thought

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    It seems new government ministers are not the only ones to go in for ever-so-slightly cheesy photo opportunities.Obiter received this pic from that wonderfully named Leamington Spa firm Wright Hassall, announcing that it has completed some legal work on behalf of pet food producer client Butcher’s Choice. Clearly the lawyers ...

  • News

    Negligence

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    Contacts – Damages – Legal profession (1) Levicom International Holdings BV (2) Levicom Investments Curacao NV v Linklaters (a firm): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Jacob, Lloyd, Stanley Burnton): 11 May 2010 ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    The changing decorum of women in law and assessing the double emphasis on a phrase in a 1950s article. Law Society’s Gazette, May 1960 ...

  • News

    Insolvency

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    Administration – Creditors – Debtors In the matter of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Ltd (In Administration): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Mummery, Hughes, Etherton): 11 May 2010 The appellant joint ...

  • News

    Law Society launches privacy rights initiative

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has joined forces with surveillance watchdog Privacy International to found a privacy rights centre to provide pro bono legal help to victims of ‘oppressive surveillance’ technologies. The centre will coordinate pro bono privacy advice, advocacy and legal action to uphold individuals’ rights. It ...

  • News

    Hurt in the pocket

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    We keep hearing about the improvement in the housing market and, as a conveyancing solicitor, I can certainly vouch for this.

  • News

    Sinking HIPs

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both proclaimed that their coalition government signals the start of a new era in which politics will be done differently. Obiter had a taste of just how differently at a media briefing last week. The press had been called ...

  • News

    A serious fee?

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    I wonder whether I am in the majority in disagreeing with the findings of the report on referral fees prepared for the Legal Services Board

  • News

    LSC could face judicial review of 'unfair’ family tender process

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Services Commission could face a judicial review of the process and selection criteria used in the recent tender exercise for its new family contract. A family solicitor who did not want to be identified told the Gazette he has got the support of ‘a ...

  • News

    Leading international law experts overlook high-profile failures

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    Ditchley Park is a sublimely beautiful 18th century mansion in Oxfordshire where the Ditchley Foundation holds impeccably well-run conferences on international affairs. Last weekend, the state of international law was debated by some of the world’s leading experts. I was there too.

  • News

    UK lawyers raise questions over EU e-justice system

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    UK lawyers have questioned moves by the umbrella body for Europe’s lawyers to support a common e-justice system spanning the EU. At its meeting in Malaga last week, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) narrowly won support for its plan to assist ...

  • News

    Finding solutions in dispute resolution

    2010-05-27T00:00:00Z

    The master of the rolls’ call for mediation to become part of every lawyer’s training (see [2010] Gazette, 13 May, 3) is a much welcome endorsement by a member of the senior judicial establishment of the need for a fundamental rebuild of every lawyer’s toolkit.