All News articles – Page 1650
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News
Employment and age-old problem
I was very upset to read the letter, titled 'Too old for the legal profession', in which a 59-year-old solicitor said he had been told that he is on the ‘scrapheap’ and unemployable. What on earth are firms thinking? What a fantastic opportunity to employ someone who is likely to ...
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The tender miseries of a legal aid lawyer
Back in March, when Jack Straw announced plans to turn the Legal Services Commission into an executive agency, the Ministry of Justice assured us that the department had already assumed tighter control of the quango. At the time, the Law Society called for greater clarity in respect of the ‘parameters ...
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Brothers in arms
Obiter heard tell this week of an intriguing tale of sibling rivalry – two brothers pitted against each other in a public battle. But this time it was not David and Ed. No indeed: Kamar Uddin, principal at Birmingham firm Res Ipsa, was ...
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Family law supplier base ‘decimated’ by LSC tender
The family law supplier base has been ‘decimated’ by the ‘shock’ outcome of the Legal Services Commission’s tender for civil legal aid work, lawyers groups alleged this week. The Law Society and Legal Aid Practitioners Group said member feedback indicated that around half of firms that ...
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Booth inconvenienced
Some women still reckon the profession treats them pretty shoddily at times, but according to Cherie Booth QC, things used to be a heck of a lot worse. Giving the Association of Women Solicitors’ Fiona Woolf lecture at the Law Society last week, Booth recalled ...
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Personal injury lawyers issue warning over CFA reform
Personal injury lawyers warned that the government was taking ‘a step backwards’ this week as it announced that it will consult on Lord Justice Jackson’s plans for reform of the way lawyers are paid in civil cases. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said the government will focus ...
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Lord chief justice defends trial by jury
The lord chief justice emphasised the importance of trial by jury last week as the Court of Appeal overturned two High Court decisions that trials could proceed without a jury. Sir Igor Judge said that judge-alone trials should only proceed ‘as a last resort’. ...
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Civil procedure
Costs – Human rights – Demonstrations Rebecca Hall and Others v Mayor of London (on behalf of the Greater London Authority): CA (Civ Div) (Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Master of the Rolls, Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Stanley Burton): ...
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Offaly clever
Which sportsman played World Cup football and test match cricket for his country? How many prime ministers have served under our present Queen? What is Inspector Morse’s first name? All, it seems, perfectly easy questions for the profession’s intellectual elite, who – along with Obiter – last week competed in ...
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News
Coal miners pursue law firms over ‘undersettled’ compensation
The first known court actions against law firms for alleged undersettlement of sick coal miners’ government compensation claims will begin preliminary hearings in mid-August, the Gazette has learned. A number of defendant firms have already settled out of court. Oldham County Court is due to hold ...
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Mental health lawyers concerned over tender contracts
Mental health lawyers have expressed concern at the impact of the Legal Services Commission’s recent tender process as national firm Duncan Lewis seeks to recruit 28 mental health lawyers under a new consultancy model to fulfil its contracts. Duncan Lewis, an established legal aid provider in ...
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Conveyancing panel concerns
Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it is to remove from its conveyancing panel those firms that carry out a low volume of mortgage work over a rolling 12-month period. Does that mean that Lloyds no longer wishes to look after our low-volume client and office ...
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Confusion over slots for Criminal Defence Service duty rota
I have reached the end of my tether, with the help of the Legal Services Commission Criminal Defence Service. I realised that the end was in sight when I visited its website on 12 July. The duty rota for our scheme had been published on ...
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Reforms to employment tribunals are urgently needed
by Joanne Owers, chair of the Employment Lawyers Association and chair of the ELA Working Party on Employment Tribunals This spring the management committee of the Employment Lawyers Association (ELA) decided to conduct a survey of its 5,500 members across England, Wales and Scotland to gain ...
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New PII market entrant
A new insurer has entered the solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market focusing on firms of up to five partners, the Law Society disclosed last week.
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Outcry over erosion of rule of law in Maldives
A former Maldives attorney general has called on the Law Society to lead a mission to the country to assess the erosion of the rule of law, as judges are assaulted, courts suspended, and citizens’ rights ‘crushed under foot’, he claimed. Dr Hassan Saeed told the ...
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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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News
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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News
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 ...