All News articles – Page 1646
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News
Research shows ‘incompetence’ in will-writing
Two-thirds of trust and estate practitioners have encountered ‘incompetence or dishonesty’ in the will-writing market in the past year, according to research published today. The study has prompted the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), which conducted the survey, to renew its calls for better ...
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News
Act fast to avoid PII misery
It’s not a sexy subject, and it’s not particularly fun to write a stream of gloomy reports on it, but solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) is a hot topic for the profession. We are exactly eight weeks from the 1 October renewals deadline and there is already plenty to ponder.
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Lawyers see 'explosion' in cohabitation cases
The recession has caused an ‘explosion’ in the number of cohabiting couples seeking advice on relationship breakdown, according to family lawyers who have called for the ‘complex’ laws applied to them to be updated. Vanessa Lloyd Platt, founder of London firm Lloyd Platt & Co, said: ...
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LSB approves £428 practising certificate fee
The Legal Services Board has approved the level of the individual practising fee at £428 per solicitor for 2010/11. Solicitors, recognised European lawyers and recognised foreign lawyers (RFL) will pay the individual fee, while their firms will also pay a firm-based fee, which will be calculated ...
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Call for ‘urgent action’ on children’s services
A group of 18 legal, medical and child care organisations has called for urgent action to reform the delivery of court services to children in family proceedings. The Interdisciplinary Alliance for Children issued a joint position statement last week, voicing ‘grave concerns’ about the services currently ...
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Call to give Economic Crime Agency US-style powers
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is pressuring ministers to ensure that tougher US-style powers are available to the new Economic Crime Agency (ECA) once it is formed, the Gazette has learned. The Gazette understands that the SFO, which would be wholly subsumed by and form the ...
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Professional solidarity will be essential in year ahead
Having held the office of president of the Law Society of England and Wales for three weeks now, I am delighted to give my first monthly update to the profession. This month, I want to look at two significant problems facing the profession – professional indemnity insurance (PII) and legal ...
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Legal aid debacle
I have to add my voice to what can only be termed as the legal aid tendering debacle where established existing providers have been cast aside in place of big boys/providers. My practice is in the London borough of Havering. It has been established for over ...
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News
Ain't misbehavin'
Home secretary Theresa May appeared to signal the end of the anti-social behaviour order last week, as she announced a review of asbos. Figures show that more than half of them were breached between 2000 and 2008. But it’s not as if asbos have never been good for anything – ...
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Move to protect anonymity of children
The Law Commission has recommended that children and young people who appear in Crown court trials should have a statutory right of appeal against a judge’s decision to allow reporting of their identity. Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 allows a judge ...
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News
Are Supreme Court justices more assertive than they were as law lords?
The president of the Supreme Court and his second-in-command could be forgiven for the enthusiasm with which they welcomed reporters to an end-of term briefing last week. ‘We think our first year has been a success,’ said Lord Phillips, with justifiable pride. The move from ...
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News
Public health – back to the future
We humans are a discontented lot, constantly seeking release from the imprisonment of the present. Fashions ebb and flow; and if you wait long enough, what was already obsolete yesterday will surely become today’s ‘must-have’. Thus, as Shakespeare’s clown in Twelfth Night would have it, ‘... the whirligig of time ...
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News
Why legal services reforms could turn out to be a big bang
When it comes to external investment in law firms, there is a lot of speculation and not many hard facts about how firms are planning to approach the new opportunities that will be available to them next year. While last month the Gazette reported that ...
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News
Legal bidding website launched
A new website that provides a forum where law firms can bid for legal work launched last week. The site, bid4fees.com, provides an online platform for prospective clients to confidentially list their legal problems and find a lawyer to advise them. ...
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Building the case for a bill of rights
Is the pendulum of justice swinging too far in favour of the prosecution? As a result of allegations of jury tampering, a recent high-profile case was heard by a judge alone. The Crown Prosecution Service has been heavily criticised for refusing to charge a police ...
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Chartis delivers professional indemnity insurance blow
The UK’s largest professional indemnity insurer does not have an ‘appetite’ to take on new law firms with fewer than 10 partners, it told the Gazette this week. Chartis, previously AIG, which had a 15% share of the solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market last year, ...
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News
Lawyers call for safeguards in EU investigation scheme
A planned EU-wide scheme that will make it easier for the police forces of member states to share evidence in their fight against international crime could have ‘grave implications’ for civil liberties, lawyers have warned. Home secretary Theresa May announced last week that the government would ...
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News
LSC chief: family tender outcome 'unintentional'
The Legal Services Commission did not intend the outcome of the recent family tender which saw a 46% fall in the number of providers, its chief executive told the Gazette this week in her first press interview since her appointment. Carolyn Downs (pictured), a career civil ...
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No choice for mental health clients
The letter from Hugh Barrett of the Legal Services Commission refers to the allocation of new matter starts according to ‘client demand’. He implies that the LSC are responding to client needs rather than the interests of solicitors. A clever approach but misleading.
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Cuts to the civil justice system may cost far more than they save
by Seamus Smyth, president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association We understand that all departments of the administration are required to reduce their expenditure by at least 20% – perhaps up to 40%. To the extent that this applies also to the administration of civil justice, ...