All News articles – Page 1685
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News
Chancery Lane is fighting for members’ interests in testing times
Time passes quickly. Three months after becoming president it remains the case that the main challenge facing the profession is change. After all of the changes currently in train are complete, one hopes (prays) for a period of constancy, unlikely as that may seem. Alas, ...
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Cause of freedom
I am not an uncritical admirer of the US, but full marks to states which are passing laws enabling their courts to refuse to enforce English libel judgments. It is no cause for pride that our courts attract libel claimants.
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Law firms fail for lack of cash, not profit
Solicitors are a vain lot. We say this not out of admiration for their sartorial elegance but as a reflection of the first part of a well-worn business axiom – ‘turnover is vanity, while profit is sanity...’ As Professor Stephen Mayson has indicated, this is a ...
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Home truths: new regulations for cancelling contracts
Solicitors who see clients at home need to be aware of new regulations for cancelling contracts, says District Judge Pal Sanghera The Cancellation of Contracts made in a Consumer’s Home or Place of Work etc Regulations 2008 came into force on 1 October 2008. In a ...
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UPDATE: Calls for end to single renewal date for PII
The Law Society’s council yesterday voted overwhelmingly in favour of pressuring the Solicitors Regulation Authority to abolish the single renewal date for professional indemnity insurance (PII), in favour of staggered renewals. Some 55 council members voted in favour of the move, with 14 against and three ...
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Employment – is Or-well with the Equality Bill?
Was it Harriet Harman who wrote that ‘all employees are equal, but some employees are more equal than others’? Whoever it was, they may well have foreseen some of the more interesting provisions of the latest version of the Equality Bill, which, we are assured, is still cranking its way ...
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‘Failed’ Kent virtual court pilot to become compulsory
Only seven defendants have chosen to use the virtual court in Kent since the pilot began three months ago, the Gazette has learned, as the Ministry of Justice seeks to make the Kent scheme compulsory. The pilot enables defendants to make their first court appearance from ...
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Bank buyouts and nuclear land sales
Loan arrangers: Magic circle firm Clifford Chance advised 11 banks as lead arrangers on a $2.4bn (£1.46bn) financing for agricultural, industrial and energy supply chain manager Noble Group. Noble Group was advised by Allen & Overy. ...
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Solicitors rebut claim that they ‘overcharge’ for legal aid work
Solicitors hit back this week at claims that they have been overpaid by nearly £25m for legal aid work, blaming the ‘mountain of bureaucracy’ they face from the Legal Services Commission. A report by the National Audit Office said the LSC had overpaid solicitors by an ...
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Law Society Council votes against referral fees
The Law Society will lobby the government and Legal Services Board to ban the use of referral fees by all providers of legal services. The Law Society’s council voted to change its policy on referral fees yesterday. It adopted a motion by council member Sue Carter ...
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Some advocates are more equal than others
Re: Animal Farm (In the Court of Appeal)All animals are equal except that in the Court of Appeal some are more equal than others.
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Court in the act
Has anybody heard of William Garrow? The chances are you will have soon, as a new BBC drama based on this unsung hero of the criminal justice system began on Sunday. Garrow was a pioneering barrister who stood up for the rights of the defendant ...
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European Commission accuses law firms on lobbying disclosure
The European Commission has accused law firms of ‘hiding behind the rules’ to avoid revealing the names of clients for whom they conduct lobbying activities. The commission has reopened the debate on disclosure of firms’ lobbying clients despite the UK government’s recent decision not to force ...
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Regional administrative courts attract only 8% of cases
The new regional administrative courts have attracted only 8% of new cases since they opened six months ago, figures seen by the Gazette have revealed. In April 2009, the administrative courts began to sit in four regional venues – Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester – to ...
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Lawyers provide £400m of pro bono work a year
The value of pro bono work done annually by lawyers has soared to more than £400m according to estimates published by the Law Society in advance of next week’s national pro bono week. The estimated value of the pro bono work performed by private practice solicitors ...
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LSC launches £2.1m CLAC tender
The Legal Services Commission has launched a tender for the new £2.1m Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) in Barking & Dagenham. The new centre, which will provide a one-stop shop for social welfare problems, will be jointly funded by the LSC and Barking and Dagenham Council. ...
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Government offender management IT project a ‘shambles’
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has branded the government’s delayed and over-budget IT project to set up a single database to manage offenders through the prison and probation services a ‘shambles’, in a damning report published today. Five years after the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) ...
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Lawyers lick their lips over banking work
Today’s official (but much leaked) announcement of the government’s plans for Lloyds and RBS comes as both banks are carrying out reviews of their legal panels. Law firms big and small, in the City or in the regions, must be licking their lips at the thought of being party to ...
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Family judgments to be made available online in pilot areas
Judgments in some family cases will be made available online as part of a 12-month Ministry of Justice pilot, launched today. Family case decisions of the magistrates’ courts in Leeds and the magistrates’ court and county court in Cardiff will be published in what the MoJ ...
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Notaries in revolt
I had business with a notary this week. Visiting a notary in Belgium – I suspect the same holds true in all of the continental countries in which they practise – is like entering a scene from a 19th-century French novel. Typically, you are ushered into a specially furnished room, ...