All News articles – Page 1626
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News
Lawyers issue warning over Young’s proposals
The government must not hinder access to justice for personal injury victims as it takes forward Lord Young’s report on the so-called ‘compensation culture,’ lawyers’ groups have warned. In his report released on Friday, Young (pictured) acknowledged that ‘the problem of the compensation culture prevalent ...
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Consumers ‘crowded out’ of small claims process
Businesses are monopolising small claims courts and crowding out the people the courts were designed to help, a consumer watchdog has warned. A report by national consumer champion Consumer Focus warns that business is ‘clogging up’ the small claims courts and causing delays for individual claimants. ...
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Why are lawyers worried about probate rights for accountants?
As it is now less than a year until the non-legal big brands are permitted to begin their grab for high street legal services next October, those areas of work that are reserved (more or less) exclusively for solicitors are beginning to seem increasingly precious in the eyes of the ...
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Young report seeks to curb ‘compensation culture’
The volume and content of personal injury advertising should be controlled, but there will be no outright ban, Lord Young (pictured) has recommended in his report on the ‘compensation culture’ published today. In Common Sense, Common Safety, Young also proposes that the road traffic accident (RTA) ...
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Consumer’s voice in legal reforms under threat
The Legal Services Consumer Panel has warned the government against pressing ahead with its ‘surprise’ plans to merge it with campaigning group Citizens Advice, at what it said was a ‘crucial period in legal services reforms’.
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Legal services reforms will create ‘tougher market’, says LSB
The ‘competitive effect’ of new players coming into the market from October next year will mean that ‘existing firms need to improve their levels of service [and] focus on consumers, to be able to compete in a tougher marketplace’, Legal Services Board chairman David Edmonds has said.
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Consumer protection is at heart of SRA’s 10 core principles
The legal media are awash with stories about the changes that face the legal profession. These include the arrival of alternative business structures (ABSs) and the possible consequences for firms on the high street; the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new handbook and Code of Conduct; the SRA’s approach to outcomes-focused regulation ...
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Read all about it
False modesty can become so tiring that Obiter found it somewhat refreshing to receive the paperback edition of Richard Susskind’s The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. Any readers in possession of the hardback edition only will not have seen his introduction to the paperback. During the ...
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US delays ABS decisions
A decision in the US on whether or not to allow UK alternative business structures to operate across the Atlantic is unlikely to be made until well after 2012, the new American Bar Association (ABA) president Stephen Zack told the Gazette in an interview this week. ...
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We are abseiling
Obiter recently issued a plea for pics of solicitors in improbable locations. So this image of Helen Jolly, solicitor at West Midlands firm Addison O’Hare, dangling 30ft in the air having just stepped off the top of the Walsall Art Gallery fits the ...
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Accountants to apply for probate rights
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has begun its second application to the Legal Services Board for a probate services licence, with takeup expected to be high among small accountancy firms. The institute announced its intention to apply for the licence last week. ...
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The Bribery Act and how in-house counsel can help combat corruption
In July the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that the Bribery Act will not come into force until April 2011, a full year after it received royal assent. At the same time, it promised to issue guidance to enable commercial organisations to understand the concept of ‘adequate procedures’. This guidance ...
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LSB must address unsavoury tactics
I noted the items in the Gazette of 7 October relating to referral fees and legal expenses insurance. There are some insurers with whom it is a pleasure to work. However the behaviour of others does give cause for concern. For example: ...
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Higher rights advocates - we need evidence for further regulation
I was delighted to read Legal Services Consumer Panel chair Dr Dianne Hayter’s commitment to the reduction of regulation and her call for the expansion of consumer choice.
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Employment solicitor sets up legal aid support network
An employment solicitor has set up a website dedicated to offering support to legal aid firms that are closing down, merging or moving away from publicly funded work.
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Court of Appeal confirms limits to legal professional privilege
The Court of Appeal today unanimously confirmed that legal professional privilege (LPP) only applies to qualified lawyers – solicitors and barristers. The decision was welcomed by the Law Society as giving certainty to solicitors and their clients.
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Family lawyers await LSC appeal move
Uncertainty mounted over the future of family legal aid contracts this week, as solicitors await a decision by the Legal Services Commission on whether it will appeal a High Court ruling that its tender process was unlawful. Some firms that did win contracts in the tender ...
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Appointing legal executives to bench will diminish respect for judiciary
I read with dismay that a legal executive has been appointed as a deputy district judge. David McGrady, president of the Institute of Legal Executives, welcomes the appointment. I do not. I have been in practice as a solicitor for 41 years, following my father ...
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TUC brands asbestos ruling 'obscene'
Victims of a deadly disease caused by work-related asbestos exposure could miss out on compensation following a Court of Appeal ruling last week, campaign groups fear. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and trade union Unite branded the victory for insurance companies as ‘obscene’. The ...
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Higher education review may put off aspiring law graduates
Who’d want to be approaching adulthood today without a private income? Jobs are scarce; wages are stagnant or falling; affordable housing remains way out of reach; and cheap and secure pension schemes that do not rely on the lottery of investment returns are an endangered species. ...