All News articles – Page 1645
-
News
Judge rejects free access to property information
Local authorities are not obliged to provide free access to raw property information, the High Court has ruled. The decision follows a judicial review action by search company OneSearch Direct, challenging York City Council’s refusal to allow access to its property records so that it could ...
-
News
Indian lawyers accuse 31 foreign law firms of practising law illegally
A collective of Indian lawyers has accused 31 foreign law firms of practising law illegally in India, while simultaneously criticising the Indian government for failing to act on the alleged illegal practice. A writ petition filed with the Madras High Court on 18 March names ...
-
News
Complaints against claims management companies rise 300%
Complaints by consumers against claims management companies (CMCs) have more than trebled over the past year, Ministry of Justice figures have revealed. The number of complaints against CMCs shot up from just under 200 a month in January 2009 to more than 600 a month in ...
-
News
Lawyers warning over family experts fee cuts
Slashing the fees of social work experts will put vulnerable children at risk and increase delays in the family court, their representative groups have warned. From October 2010, the Ministry of Justice will reduce by around 50% the fees paid to social workers who give independent ...
-
News
SRA issues advice on Quinn administration
The Solicitors Regulation Authority today advised 2,911 law firms to sit tight and take no action after Irish insurer Quinn Insurance, which provides their solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII), was forced into administration yesterday.
-
News
Technology does not mean the dumbing down of professional services
I occasionally hear lawyers bemoan the dumbing down of professional services, particularly where commoditisation is concerned.
-
News
Quinn Insurance in administration
Irish insurer Quinn Insurance, a major underwriter of solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) policies in the UK, has today fallen into administration. In a statement, the Irish Financial Regulator said that it has directed Quinn to cease writing new business in the UK. The statement said ...
-
News
D-I-V-O-R-C-E, EU style
The new justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, took to the stage this week as the country-and-western singer, Tammy Wynette. With big blonde wig and microphone, she belted out her hit from the 1960s, D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Although the member states in the audience had dressed in their Stetsons, string ties, and snakeskin boots, ...
-
News
Why you should be interested in World Intellectual Property Day
The World lntellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is a UN agency dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system. Based in Geneva, WIPO has a mandate to promote the protection of worldwide IP through cooperation among states and collaboration with other international organisations.
-
News
Legal challenge threat to RTA process
A collective of personal injury solicitors is planning a legal challenge against the Ministry of Justice over its new road traffic accident (RTA) claims process, the Gazette had learned. The Accident Compensation Solicitors Group (ACSG) claims that fixed costs under the new process ‘have not been ...
-
News
New higher rights qualification approved
New regulations that provide a single route for solicitors to qualify to appear in the higher courts come into effect this week, on 1 April. The Ministry of Justice has approved the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s new system, which will see one route to qualification through an ...
-
News
‘Tesco law juggernaut halted’ in Scotland
Scottish solicitors opposed to the introduction of alternative business structures yesterday hailed the ‘halting of the Tesco law juggernaut’ north of the border, following a heated debate over the future of the nation’s legal profession. At a special meeting held in Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium, the ...
-
News
Pitch writing: because it’s worth it
Ask 100 lawyers why they entered the profession and my guess is that few would answer that it was because they wanted to write pitch documents.
-
News
The legal aid status quo could not continue
Since 2005 when the then lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, commissioned Lord Carter to undertake a review into the future procurement of legal aid, major change has been on the cards.
-
News
Right up our street
There was something of an outcry not so long ago when proposals were announced to relax the rules on product placement on television. It will be the end of sensible plot lines, critics alleged, with gratuitous references to commercial products cropping up all over the place. Well, whatever happens when ...
-
News
Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, March 1940 Excerpt from a speech given by Randle Fynes Wilson Holme, B.A., president of the Law Society, who was chairing a ...
-
News
Lamb to the Slaughter
It is pleasing to report that friendly competition still exists between those on either side of the solicitor-barrister divide. Last week Obiter heard Robert Graham-Campbell, chief executive at top commercial litigation set Maitland, and a very brave man indeed, make a daring remark to an assembled crowd of 60 or ...
-
News
Intellectual property
Contracts – Commercial law – Media and entertainment – Electronic commerce Pink Floyd Music Ltd & anr v EMI Records Ltd: Ch D (Sir Andrew Morritt (chancellor)): 11 March 2010 ...
-
News
Family law
Conflict of laws – Ancillary relief – Divorce – Foreign judgements Agbaje (respondent) v Akinnoye-Agbaje (FC) (appellant): SC (Lords Phillips (president), Rodger, Collins, Kerr, Lady Hale): 10 March 2010 ...
-
News
Paying fair for practising fees
I write in my capacity as president of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors in response to Charles Plant’s article ‘A fairer structure’ (see [2010] Gazette, 11 March, 8).