All News articles – Page 1639

  • News

    Royal mint?

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Everyone knows the Queen never carries cash. And nor, it seems, do other members of the aristocracy. According to a report by the Press Association, London firm Davenport Lyons has apparently issued proceedings against the Duchess of York, claiming that Sarah Ferguson has failed to stump up the readies for ...

  • News

    Legal profession

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Legal advice and funding – Breach – Conditional fee agreements – Reasons Carlo Moise Silvera v (1) Bray Walker Solicitors (a firm) (2) Bevans Bray Walker Ltd (T/A Bevans): CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Pill, Wilson, Richards): 29 ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, April 1980 Letter to the editorWe have rather an eccentric client who recently failed to ...

  • News

    Keep the Scottish legal profession united?

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    ‘It's never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine,’ quipped PG Wodehouse. And it’s fair to say that a great many Scots – or Scottish solicitors at any rate – have a grievance pertaining to the nation’s embrace of ‘Tesco law’.

  • News

    In-house upgrade at SABMiller

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    One of the UK’s biggest listed companies is conducting a major upgrade of its in-house legal capabilities because it believes that the legal pressures on business have escalated, its general counsel said this week. John Davidson (pictured), general counsel and group company secretary at brewer SABMiller, ...

  • News

    LibDems propose to scrap HIPs

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    A Liberal Democrat government would scrap home information packs, ID cards and the Labour Party’s prison building programme, according to its manifesto published yesterday. Nick Clegg’s party said its core aim is to ‘hard-wire fairness back into national life’. Like the ...

  • News

    Recipe for fraud

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society’s insert in the 25 March Gazette highlighted the issue of fraud in relation to money laundering and mortgages. To my mind it beggars belief that, in the same issue, it is reported that the Land Registry is consulting (again) on electronic signatures and ...

  • News

    Publicity provokes firm into file-sharing rethink

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Fear of adverse publicity has prompted a law firm to stop taking on cases against individuals for alleged copyright infringement through illegal downloading of material.

  • News

    Are immigration solicitors an endangered species?

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The current climate for solicitors who practise non-legally aided immigration is arduous to say the least.

  • News

    Defamation

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Chiropractors – Fair comment – Libel – Evidence British Chiropractic Association v Singh: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Chief Justice Judge, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Sedley): 1 April 2010 ...

  • News

    IFA commissions clampdown welcomed

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The organisation pushing for closer relations between solicitors and independent financial advisers (IFAs) this week welcomed the Financial Services Authority’s decision to clamp down on commissions paid to IFAs. The FSA will ban IFAs from taking commissions from finance companies for recommending the company’s investment products. ...

  • News

    Civil Mediation Council to consult on training standards

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The Civil Mediation Council (CMC) is to consult on the introduction of minimum training standards for mediators to combat ‘cowboy operations’. Paul Randolph, chair of the CMC communications committee, said the board is initially ‘leaning towards’ a minimum of 40 hours’ training before individuals can be ...

  • News

    Lord chief justice has emphasised the importance of judicial independence

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    If there is one legal issue that’s likely to make headlines during the election campaign, it is human rights. So there was some surprise when the lord chief justice touched on such a controversial topic in a speech released just a few days before the election was called – even ...

  • News

    McGrigors chief offers ‘Tesco law’ rift solution

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The head of Anglo-Scottish law firm McGrigors has put forward a proposal that could prevent the full implementation of ‘Tesco law’ in Scotland and heal a damaging rift over the future of the nation’s solicitors’ profession. Managing partner Richard Masters wants the majority ownership of a ...

  • News

    Immigration rules ‘poisoned chalice’, warn lawyers

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The government’s decision to add a new ‘highly trusted sponsor’ category to the points-based immigration system is a possible ‘poisoned chalice’ for education providers, immigration lawyers have warned. Educational institutions, such as language schools, can qualify for the new sponsor category, which came into force on ...

  • News

    Libel lawyers should disclose outcomes of their CFA-funded cases

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    by Gillian Phillips, director of editorial legal services at Guardian News & Media Ltd Steven Heffer can’t resist the temptation to overstate his case (see [2010] Gazette, 9 April, 6). It is simply not the case that the press has ‘chosen not to report the ...

  • News

    President's ill-informed claims over equal pay cases

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society president is guilty of making extremely derogatory and ill-informed claims about the role of trade unions in equal pay cases.

  • News

    Practical consequences of Twomey case for non-jury trials

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors need to start thinking about the practical consequences of Twomey for non-jury trials, explains Seth Levine

  • News

    Fears over child care lawyer shortage

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    A shortage of child care solicitors has led to a rise in the use of unqualified paralegal staff to present cases on behalf of local authorities, the Gazette has learned. Jordan Gooch, public sector consultant at recruiters Badenoch & Clark, said there has been a significant ...

  • News

    Bringing lawyers to life

    2010-04-15T00:00:00Z

    They say image isn’t everything, but whoever ‘they’ are, they clearly have no idea about what it takes to succeed as a modern law firm. Why else would so many firms feel moved to rebrand or relaunch? The latest to jump on the bandwagon is London firm Fisher Meredith. It ...