All News articles – Page 1633

  • News

    Capture conflict

    2010-05-10T00:00:00Z

    ‘It is in everyone's interests to have a low cost system,’ a director of the Association of British Insurers told the annual conference of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (Gazette news, 29 April, 4). Like most people, I do want to believe what I am told by people who ...

  • News

    The law is about quality not nationality

    2010-05-10T00:00:00Z

    The news grows worse in the eurozone. The tardiness of leaders to come to the rescue of Greece has made a crisis for all of us, and leads me to think about the role of nationality in the EU, with a particular focus on how it plays out in the ...

  • News

    Can the middle classes be persuaded to seek more compensation?

    2010-05-07T00:00:00Z

    There is an awful lot of talk just now about threats to solicitors’ business, particularly in commoditised areas like personal injury.

  • News

    Public fails to chart financial assets in wills

    2010-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Nearly three-quarters of the British public do not have a will that clearly charts their financial assets, research has revealed. Some 73% of Britons have not documented financial assets such as pension plans and life insurance policies in their wills, a YouGov survey of 2,384 adults, ...

  • News

    Torts

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Bankruptcy petitions – Negligence – Insolvency rules Trustee in bankruptcy of Louise St John Poulton v Ministry of Justice: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Pill, Lloyd, Pitchford): 22 April 2010 ...

  • News

    Thick as thieves

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Obiter put out a request two weeks ago for amusing anecdotes about daft defendants – and it turns out there are plenty of them about.

  • News

    RTA portal launch runs into trouble

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    The new road traffic accident (RTA) information exchange, which is designed to handle hundreds of thousands of low-value RTA claims, has been dogged by problems since its belated introduction last week, the Gazette has learned. Many solicitors have still not received access codes for the new ...

  • News

    Off with his head

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Obiter understands how easy it is for fingers to slip while typing, so is naturally hesitant to highlight the typos of others. But a press release posted on the Bar Council’s website last week caused a moment of head scratching in Obiter Towers. ...

  • News

    Manchester's legal sector has rallied following recent market turbulence

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    It’s officially all smiles in Manchester: the city has the highest level of happiness in the country, according to the UK Competitiveness Index 2010. And, in terms of actual competitiveness, it is ranked 13th overall, and the third most competitive ‘large city’. After a difficult couple of years, the city’s ...

  • News

    Equal treatment

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    I read in the Gazette of 22 April that the Co-operative Group is planning to promote its legal services and become an alternative business structure (see [2010] Gazette, 22 April, 4).

  • News

    Employment

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Civil procedure – Bonus payments – Summary judgements Saleem Khatri v Cooperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank BA: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Rix, Longmore, Jacob): 23 April 2010 ...

  • News

    Criminal: defence witness notices

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    A new obligation has been placed on defence lawyers by the implementation of section 34 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, introducing a section 6 C into the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996.

  • News

    The Law Society can help solicitors navigate cost issues and training

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    The law is a noble profession, where to succeed requires not only flair, but business acumen. This is as true for in-house solicitors (whether commerce or government-based) as it is for private practice. We all have to work within a budgetary framework and provide outputs and outcomes relative to cost. ...

  • News

    Quality and competence are not the same

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Diane Hayter, chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel, is right in saying that ‘CPD is an insufficient check of quality’ 1 April). In the eyes of the client...

  • News

    QualitySolicitors to launch personal injury claims management scheme

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    National law firm network QualitySolicitors is to launch a new personal injury claims management scheme designed to target claimants from higher socio-economic groups and drive down the cost of referrals, the Gazette can reveal. QualitySolicitors Personal Injury (QSPI) is a members-only claims management-style company which will ...

  • News

    Partner promotions up at top City firms

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Top City law firms have upped their partner promotions this year, in what appears to be a good round for City lawyers. As the Gazette went to press, only two City firms outside the magic circle, Norton Rose and Denton Wilde Sapte, and two within ...

  • News

    Chancery Lane condemns criticism of Chinese human rights lawyers

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Two Chinese human rights lawyers face losing their licences to practise law following ‘absurd’ accusations by Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau that they had behaved illegally in court. Chinese human rights lawyers Tang Jitian and Liu Wei, who represented a follower of the Falun Gong movement in ...

  • News

    Law Society survey reveals BME insurance divide

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Law Society research into last year’s professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewal process has revealed a growing divide in the market, with ethnic minority firms encountering greater problems than most of the rest of the ­profession. The Society said it would ‘explore urgently’ the reasons behind the ...

  • News

    Law Society seeks to block privilege for non-lawyers

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has been granted permission to intervene in a Court of Appeal case that could see legal professional privilege (LPP) extended to non-lawyers. In his High Court judgment in Prudential v Special Commissioner of Income Tax and Philip Pandolfo (HM Inspector of Taxes) in ...

  • News

    Barristers could have right to sue solicitors for unpaid fees

    2010-05-06T00:00:00Z

    Barristers would be able to sue solicitors for unpaid fees under proposals published by the Bar Council last week to put the relationship between the two professions on a more commercial footing. The consultation proposes the introduction of new legally binding contractual terms to govern the ...