All News articles – Page 1656

  • News

    Law Society TUPE action reaches the High Court

    2010-02-25T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society’s legal action against the Office for Legal Complaints and the government to determine whether employment protection rules apply to staff at the Legal Complaints Service was heard in the High Court last week. In December 2009, the Society issued proceedings seeking a declaration ...

  • News

    Immigration lawyers unhappy over new accreditation process

    2010-02-25T00:00:00Z

    Immigration solicitors are concerned that they have been ‘singled out’ from other legal aid lawyers through the introduction of a new reaccreditation process. The compulsory immigration and asylum accreditation scheme, administered by the Law Society, was launched in 2004, with reaccreditation required after three years. ...

  • News

    Two solicitors charged over £50m of mortgage frauds

    2010-02-25T00:00:00Z

    Two solicitors have been charged with multiple offences related to a series of high-value commercial mortgage frauds worth around £50m in total. Mark Knights of Cheshire, 45, who worked at Manchester firm Mace & Jones at the time the frauds took place, appeared last Friday at ...

  • News

    Data page for February 2010

    2010-02-25T00:00:00Z

    The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the data ...

  • News

    End of the training contract

    2010-02-24T00:00:00Z

    Could a new holistic approach to training solicitors, being trialed by Northumbria University Law School in partnership with national firm Irwin Mitchell, be the future of legal education?

  • News

    Groundbreaking college scheme sidesteps training contract

    2010-02-24T00:00:00Z

    Northumbria University Law School has joined forces with national firm Irwin Mitchell to pilot a groundbreaking scheme to train future lawyers. It now offers a full-time five-year Master of Law (Solicitor) degree, combining the academic, vocational and training stages of qualification as a solicitor, at the ...

  • News

    Commission proposes radical shake-up of social care law

    2010-02-24T00:00:00Z

    The Law Commission has today proposed the most radical shake-up of adult social care law in 60 years. The proposals, uniting the provisions of 38 separate acts in one modern statute, aim to avoid red tape, delays and litigation. They will also save public money and ...

  • News

    Law Society wins top Business Superbrands award

    2010-02-24T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has been voted the strongest brand in the Association & Accreditation (A&A) sector of the Business Superbrands survey for the second year running. It was also ranked 75th overall out of the top 500 brands across all sectors, up from 118th last ...

  • News

    CPS updates its code for Crown prosecutors

    2010-02-23T00:00:00Z

    The Crown Prosecution Service has issued an updated edition of its code for Crown prosecutors to make it easier for the public to understand how decisions are made. The document, which follows a 12-week consultation, includes a clearer explanation of the public interest factors in making ...

  • News

    Is our fear of identity cards harming us?

    2010-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Here is a topic to raise the blood pressure of every patriotic UK citizen. Whereas on the continent, benign democratic societies flourish with a population which carries ID cards, somehow it is thought that darkness will descend on the UK if ID cards are ever introduced.

  • News

    Regulation of estate agents ‘unnecessary’, says OFT

    2010-02-22T00:00:00Z

    Solicitors have expressed disappointment that the Office of Fair Trading did not propose the regulation of estate agents in its home buying and selling report published last week. Despite representations made by many in the industry, including the Law Society, the OFT concluded there was ‘not ...

  • News

    A positive verdict on juries

    2010-02-19T00:00:00Z

    I have never served on a jury, so I have no experience of how they work in practice. But I have regarded trial by jury as one of the cornerstones of the English legal system and a vital safeguard to ensure justice and protect individuals from oppressive action by the ...

  • News

    Local government lawyers to develop new competence powers

    2010-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Local government lawyers are to draft a new ‘power of general competence’ to give local authorities greater freedom to act independently of central government to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their areas. The new power of general competence is intended to complement the ...

  • News

    Two solicitors charged in connection with £50m fraud

    2010-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Two solicitors have been charged with multiple offences related to a series of high-value commercial mortgage frauds worth around £50m in total. Mark Knights of Cheshire, 45, who worked at Manchester firm Mace & Jones at the time the frauds took place, appeared today at the ...

  • News

    Tools of the trade

    2010-02-18T00:00:00Z

    I write further to Pat McFadden's article entitled ‘Breaking the class ceiling’ (see [2010] Gazette, 11 February, 10).

  • News

    Planning

    2010-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Local government – Certificates of lawful use – Change of use – Deception Welwyn Hatfield Council v (1) Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (2) Alan Beesley: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Pill, Mummery, Richards): 29 ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2010-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, February 1970 Random ramblingsWatch out, brothers. We’re being computerised. We shall soon be able to ...

  • News

    Insurance tracking plans welcomed by personal injury lawyers

    2010-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Personal injury lawyers have welcomed government plans to help people obtain compensation if they cannot trace their employers’ liability insurance policies. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation on setting up an Employers’ Liability Tracing Office (ELTO), which will manage an electronic ...

  • News

    Human rights

    2010-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Deformation – Breach of confidence – Freedom of expression – Injunctions LNS v Persons Unknown: QBD (Mr Justice Tugendhat): 29 January 2010 The applicant (X) applied for an injunction ...

  • News

    Microsoft to outsource general legal work to India

    2010-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Software giant Microsoft will begin outsourcing general legal work to India after signing a deal with legal process outsourcing (LPO) company CPA Global. The news comes as CPA outlined plans to expand its Indian workforce from 600 to 1,000 by the end of 2011, and hinted at opening another outsourcing ...