All News articles – Page 1632

  • News

    Law Society wins family tender challenge

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has won its High Court challenge to the Legal Services Commission’s family tender process. Lord Justice Moses said the process was ‘irrational’. He said it was ‘contrary to the LSC’s own ends’ not to have given firms the details ...

  • News

    Lawyers protest over proposed closure of Mayor’s and City court

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    City lawyers have criticised government proposals to close the oldest local civil court in England, which they claim is one of the most efficient and successful county courts in London. The government is consulting on closing the historic Mayor’s and City court, along with 54 ...

  • News

    Civil procedure

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Insurance – Conflict of laws – Applicable law – Choice of law Stonebridge Underwriting Ltd v Ontario Municipal Insurance Exchange: QBD (Comm) (Mr Justice Christopher Clarke): 10 September 2010 The ...

  • News

    Let CMCs operate within the rules

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    I am writing to respond to John Holtom’s letter last week. Banning claims management companies would return us to the position we were in before the Ministry of Justice launched the regulation of claims management companies (CMCs) in 2007 – where CMCs could get away with cold-calling, giving misleading ...

  • News

    Counsel count cost of Halliwells collapse

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    The protracted demise of Halliwells was set to enter its final chapter on Tuesday as administrators awaited creditor approval for proposals that would see the defunct firm formally wound up. As the Gazette went to press, it remained unclear how much secured creditor Royal Bank of ...

  • News

    Law Society president and colleagues fight for members

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    As a partner in a small property-based firm that started just 18 months ago, I have been greatly concerned by two issues in particular – mortgage panels and professional indemnity insurance. Like many colleagues in the provinces, it has often appeared to me that the ‘powers that be’ within the ...

  • News

    Family contracts quashed

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Family contracts have effectively been quashed following today’s judgment in the Law Society’s successful judicial review of the family tender process. Giving judgment this evening, the High Court declared the LSC’s failure to give advance notice of the requirement for panel membership as unlawful. It also ...

  • News

    Flood liability warning for conveyancers

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Conveyancers could be exposing themselves to liability by failing to obtain information about flooding, which is set to become the latest ‘uninsurable risk’, a leading commercial property solicitor has warned. Suzanne Gill, a commercial property partner at McGrigors in London, said that flooding is affecting an ...

  • News

    What a HIP-free property landscape will mean for conveyancers

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Jan Boothroyd considers the new HIP-free property landscape and what this will mean for conveyancers

  • News

    High Court to rule on LSC tender review

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    The High Court will rule today on the outcome of the Law Society’s expedited judicial review challenge of the Legal Services Commission’s family tender. The three-day proceedings heard by Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Beatson concluded on Monday, with judgment expected to be handed down ...

  • News

    Life of crime

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Sir Ivan Lawrence QC’s new autobiography, My Life of Crime, could spark a revival in lawyers’ memoirs, which have gone out of fashion of late, writes James Morton.

  • News

    Employment

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Discrimination – Comparators – Reasons – Unfair dismissal JP Morgan Europe Ltd v R Chweidan: EAT (Judge Serota QC, A Gallico, K Mohanty): 26 August 2010 The appellant employer (M) ...

  • News

    Female perspective

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Obiter is intrigued by a new book to be launched by Hart Publishing next month entitled Feminist Judgments. The book takes bone fide Court of Appeal and House of Lords judgments and rewrites them with a feminist slant, making a point about how ...

  • News

    Local government

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Employment – Equal pay questionnaires – Statutory grievance ­procedures DM Birch and 99 others v (1) Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council (2) Housing 21 Ltd (3) Sodexo Healthcare Services Ltd (4) Pinnacle Housing Ltd: EAT (Mrs Justice Cox): 10 September ...

  • News

    High thrive

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Obiter tips his thermal cap to Chris Rawstron (pictured), consultant and former managing partner at national firm DLA Piper, who scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania this month to raise an impressive £10,000 for Marie Curie. Do you have any pics of solicitors in ...

  • News

    PII spend predicted to hit record high

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors are facing the ‘most challenging’ professional indemnity insurance market in years, commentators said this week ahead of Friday’s renewal deadline. The news came as the Law Society launched a SafetyNet scheme designed to help firms that cannot obtain cover. Brokers ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, September 1960 Letter from a council member

  • News

    Reform of the law relating to murder is long overdue

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    by Julian Young, senior partner at Julian Young & Co I have in front of me a copy of an Order for Assize and General Gaol Delivery, dated 1955, ordering the execution of a defendant for ... ‘the crime of wilful murder’. That sentence was carried ...

  • News

    Negligence

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Contractual liability – Exclusion clauses – Liability insurance – Burden of proof Omega Proteins Ltd v Aspen Insurance Uk Ltd: QBD (Comm) (Mr Justice Clarke): 10 September 2010 The claimant ...

  • News

    War of words

    2010-09-30T00:00:00Z

    Over the past few weeks, a theme has been emerging on this page about the profession’s veritable obsession with the correct use of language. But it transpires that it is not only solicitors of the Supreme Court who get hot and bothered about the use and abuse of English; their ...