All News articles – Page 1683
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Scots to debate compromise plan that would derail ‘Tesco law’
The head of Anglo-Scottish law firm McGrigors has come up with a compromise proposal that could prevent the full implementation of ‘Tesco law’ in Scotland and heal a damaging rift over the future of the nation’s solicitors’ profession.
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Pre-packaged insolvency proposals are ‘expensive duplication’
Proposals to boost confidence in the pre-packaged insolvency process published this week are ‘an expensive recipe for duplicating costs’, a City insolvency lawyer has warned. The proposals follow a recent report by the Insolvency Service which found that one-third of insolvency practitioners are failing to comply ...
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MoJ announces changes to Crown court fees
The Ministry of Justice and Legal Services Commission have today announced the fee changes for Crown court legal aid work. The government has decided not to implement the 17.9% cut proposed to the advocates’ graduated fees. Instead there will be a staged reduction over three years ...
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Metropolitan Police revises document charges for civil cases
The Metropolitan Police Service has issued revised charges for providing copies of documentation in civil proceedings. The following most significant changes came into effect on 1 April: Charges for civil cases – statements and interviews ...
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Edwards Duthie wins contract for first London CLAC
East London firm Edwards Duthie has won the contract to run the capital’s first Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC). It will operate the service in Barking and Dagenham in conjunction with the local Citizens Advice Bureau. Over the next three years the ...
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Yorkshire Forward launches two legal panels
Development agency Yorkshire Forward has launched two legal service panels. Nine firms have won a place on the two panels, with contracts that will run for three years, with an option to extend the term for a further 12 months. The ...
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All you need to know about victims of crime in the EU
Since we are entering a general election period, it is timely to speak of a group that will be a focus for pledges and one-upmanship all round: victims of crime. Crime victims are high on the European Commission’s agenda, too. This
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Why is the profession so tough on working mums?
The Association of Women Solicitors’ recent survey confirmed something that those lawyers who work part-time – often, but not exclusively, women with children – already know only too well.
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Newspaper sales, Volvo acquisition and lottery numbers
Paper chain: US firm Mayer Brown advised publisher Independent News & Media on selling the Independent, the Independent on Sunday and independent.co.uk to billionaire Alexander Lebedev’s publisher Independent Print, advised by London firm Tulloch & Co. ...
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Shamed into action
Joshua Rozenberg’s view that there is ‘nothing to be gained by an arrest of someone who is never going to be prosecuted’ may be good legal analysis but it lacks political sense (see [2010] Gazette, 18 March, 8).
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Whitehall to consult lawyers over move to cut fees in libel actions
The government has agreed to consult media lawyers on its controversial proposals to cut success fees in libel actions. In a House of Lords debate on a draft order that will reduce the success fees paid to lawyers who win defamation actions from 100% to 10% ...
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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.
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Quinn administration – what now for its insured law firms?
It’s just not getting any easier for solicitors when it comes to professional indemnity insurance. After two consecutive years of renewals pain, many small firms are once again burdened with uncertainty following yesterday’s bad news about Irish insurer Quinn Insurance.
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Friendly advice
Mark Stephens, of law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said that Davenport Lyons’ methodology for handling illegal file-sharing cases conforms to industry best practice, and has been adopted in the Digital Economy Bill currently going through parliament (See ‘File-sharing "bully tactics"’, [2010] Gazette, 11 March, 4)’.
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Scotland’s high street solicitors are on the march against ‘Tesco law’
The government wants to open up the legal market and give consumers more choice by lifting restrictions that prevent solicitors from working in business structures that include non-lawyers. Sounds familiar? Not when I tell you that the government’s plans were almost derailed last week by high ...
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Grieve slams Whitehall plans for reforming criminal legal aid market
The shadow justice secretary has dismissed the government’s proposals for reforming the criminal legal aid market as ‘pre-election posturing’. Dominic Grieve QC said the plans outlined last week by justice secretary Jack Straw were ‘woefully inadequate to tackle the deep problems in the way legal aid ...
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Bar offers legal aid ‘olive branch’ on criminal fee proposals
The Bar Council has offered the government an ‘olive branch’ to avoid judicial review proceedings if it withdraws the current criminal fee proposals and negotiates a way forward. In February, the Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association launched judicial review proceedings in relation to two consultations ...