All News articles – Page 1649
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News
Information law: the future
The coalition government has announced a series of legislative proposals and initiatives which will have a big impact on information law. David Cameron has said he wants to rip off the ‘cloak of secrecy’ around government and public services and extend transparency as far as possible.
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Pots and kettles
The Gazette website reported this week on the dodgy doings of judges and magistrates contained in the Office for Judicial Complaints’ annual report. Snippets of bad behaviour gleaned from the report included one instance where an unnamed magistrate, presumably in a frightful sulk, refused to return to the courtroom to ...
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Payback time
Ken Clarke is very keen on restorative justice, if we are to believe reports that criminals will be let out of jail early if they say sorry to their victims. Restorative justice is an important way for criminals to realise the human cost of their crimes. And it also happens ...
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Will tender contracts survive government’s legal aid strategy review?
Over the last four months I have been kept busy writing about the outcomes of the Legal Services Commission’s tender exercises. First there was crime, followed by mental health, immigration, family and social welfare.
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Chancery Lane appoints chief assessors to lead best practice panels
The Law Society has begun the process of updating and reviewing its professional accreditation schemes with the appointment of three chief assessors. The new chief assessors are Law Society council member for child care law Christina Blacklaws, who will lead the children law panel; Stuart Barlow, ...
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Marcoms – get the basics right
Recent posts from Clare Rodway and Richard Cohen explore new ideas in the changing market for legal services. Both provide useful indicators of future marketing and business process methods that firms need to consider as part of their planning.
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City lawyer leads push for Indian market liberalisation
Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham, the sole UK law firm representative in the prime minister’s trade delegation to India, is expected to meet determined opposition from the country’s legal establishment to any attempt at opening up the market to foreign law firms.
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Government announces consultation on Jackson’s CFA reforms
No-win no-fee agreements will be the focus of a government consultation on Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals for reforming civil litigation costs, the government announced today. In a written ministerial statement laid before parliament this morning, justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said that the reform of conditional fee ...
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Lloyds Banking Group to review conveyancing panel
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) is to review the criteria for membership of its conveyancing panels and reduce the number of firms it instructs using a ‘risk based’ model that it says will allow it to assess firms individually. The group, which includes Lloyds TSB; Halifax; Bank ...
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Lessons from a conference on a turbulent legal profession
I have just participated in a conference at Stanford University in California, called The Legal Profession in Times of Turbulence. It was attended by professors from leading American universities, with presentations of the highest quality. I have conclusions to draw of interest to us in Europe.
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Insurers set to move into small firm market
Broker Marsh is in discussions with two major insurers to open their doors to two- and three-partner firms, it has said. At a press briefing last week, Janine Parker, head of solicitors’ professional indemnity, said that Marsh is ‘trying to put together a solution for two- ...
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Lawyers 'optimistic' over legal services reform
Alternative business structures will bring more work for high street and other firms as the big brands educate the public that they need to make a will, solicitors have suggested in a recent report. However, practitioners also indicated that the cost of regulation is driving some ...
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Judiciary reprimanded for inappropriate comments
Twenty-eight judicial office holders were removed from office last year, a 12% rise on last year, and a further 18 resigned during conduct investigations, according to the Office for Judicial Complaints’ annual report published yesterday. Matters investigated by the OLC included one instance where a magistrate ...
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Will Nick Green QC’s question on drugs possession be heard by government?
In his recent report to the profession, Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC attracted headlines by raising the question of whether personal possession of drugs should be decriminalised.
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New insurer to enter PII market
A new insurer is to enter the solicitors’ professional indemnity market focusing on firms of up to five partners, the Law Society revealed today. Vision Underwriting Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Limited (LMIE), which is a member of US Group Liberty ...
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Fears mount over ‘£500m’ legal aid cut
Speculation mounted over the future of legal aid this week amid reports that the Ministry of Justice plans to slash the £2.1bn legal aid budget by half a billion pounds. Justice secretary Ken Clarke (pictured) submitted proposals to the Treasury last week, outlining how the department ...
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What litigators need to know about the forensic investigation process
In today’s electronic world, where filing cabinets of information can be copied onto a device small enough to swallow, litigators are increasingly turning to forensic investigators to help identify the data that could make or break their case. This is creating a growing industry, from specialist teams within the big ...
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Probate – resulting trust and joint bank accounts
Joint bank accounts often give rise to problems on death, either because of uncertainty as to the extent of the deceased’s interest or because of uncertainty as to the correct inheritance tax (IHT) treatment.
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Administrative law
Penology and criminology – Imprisonment – Release on licence R (on the application of Ellerton) v Secretary of State for Justice: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justices Sedley, Richards, Goldring): 7 July 2010 ...
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London law centre admits to ‘speculative’ mental health bid
A London law centre has admitted bidding for mental health work even though it had no experience in the field, but claimed it needed to diversify ‘in order to survive’. Following the result of the Legal Services Commission’s recent mental health tender exercise, lawyers claimed that ...