All News articles – Page 1706

  • News

    New code of conduct for third-party funders

    2009-08-18T00:00:00Z

    Self-regulation of third-party litigation funders has moved a step closer after a draft code of conduct was submitted to Lord Justice Jackson (pictured), the Gazette has learned. However, in putting the code to the judge as part of his review of ...

  • News

    SRA announces new Board appointments

    2009-08-18T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has announced the members of the new Solicitors Regulation Authority board who will take up their posts on 1 January 2010. The 13 appointments – seven solicitors and six lay members – have been made by an independent panel, chaired by the former ...

  • News

    Stephen Fry’s portrayal of a solicitor is a good advert for the profession

    2009-08-18T00:00:00Z

    Channel-hopping the other evening I happened upon a programme on ITV in which Stephen Fry plays an affable country solicitor in the picturesque Norfolk town of Market Shipborough.

  • News

    Land registry sees 75% drop in income

    2009-08-18T00:00:00Z

    The Land Registry’s annual report has revealed the impact of the faltering housing market on the government body, with its core business down by 75%. The Land Registry’s annual report published today shows that its income from fees for the year 2008/09 fell to £308m, compared ...

  • News

    Estate agencies charging 50% more for HIPs

    2009-08-18T00:00:00Z

    Home information packs (HIPs) purchased from estate agents can cost 50% more than those bought directly from specialist HIP providers such as law firms and conveyancing practices, new research indicates. On average, HIPs from estate agents cost about £110 more than HIPs from specialist providers, according ...

  • News

    Money laundering: a review in Europe at last

    2009-08-17T00:00:00Z

    The European Commission has finally announced its plans for a full review of the impact of the anti-money laundering legislation on the legal profession.

  • News

    In marketing once is never enough, as the Co-op model shows

    2009-08-16T00:00:00Z

    News that the Co-operative has launched a high-profile campaign in its stores to promote its legal services is hardly surprising – given that they have a market of 17 million weekly shoppers. What caught my attention and got me thinking was the fact that the campaign will last nine weeks.

  • News

    Diary of a redundancy (part one)

    2009-08-15T00:00:00Z

    ‘You’re signed off for four weeks,’ the doctor said. He nodded down at the sick note, one professional to another. ‘May I use the words "anxiety" and "depression"?’

  • News

    Barnardo’s report claims children wrongly taken into custody

    2009-08-13T00:00:00Z

    Around 170 children between the ages of 12 and 14 may have been wrongly put behind bars in 2007-08, a report published by children’s charity Barnardo’s claimed today. Government policy states that children aged 14 and younger should only be put into custody if they have ...

  • News

    Bahrain to open alternative dispute resolution centre

    2009-08-13T00:00:00Z

    Bahrain is to open an alternative dispute resolution centre to conduct international arbitrations, following an agreement formalised at the Bahrain embassy in London today. Bahrain’s Ministry of Justice signed an operating agreement with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) to establish the Bahrain chamber for dispute ...

  • News

    Judicial Office reveals £4.45m budget

    2009-08-13T00:00:00Z

    The Judicial Office budget for 2009/10 will be £4.45m, the office has revealed in its first ever business plan. The Judicial Office was set up in 2006 to provide administrative support to the Lord Chief Justice and senior judiciary. It also provides training to the 42,000 ...

  • News

    Going paperless is easier than you think, and good for your firm

    2009-08-12T00:00:00Z

    Lawyers can get very hung up on the need to keep paper copies of everything. It’s just not necessary!

  • News

    Speaking out against injustice

    2009-08-11T00:00:00Z

    With the myriad of domestic challenges facing the profession at the moment – from economic downturn to the potential impact of the legal aid reforms and the regulatory challenges flowing from the Legal Services Act, it is good to see that the Law Society has not closed its eyes to ...

  • News

    Belgium in the summertime is the perfect holiday spot (for lawyers, too)

    2009-08-10T00:00:00Z

    You may think that Belgium is no more than a short and tedious motorway journey to somewhere more interesting. You are wrong.

  • News

    Rocky road

    2009-08-06T00:00:00Z

    It looks like Ewan and Charley had better watch their backs. When it comes to riding around random parts of the globe on a funky mode of transport, there’s a new gig in town. John Eley, an in-house solicitor at Lonza Biologics in Slough (pictured sans sunglasses), and his mate ...

  • News

    Memory lane

    2009-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Law Society’s Gazette, August 1959 A Unique Occasion by The Editor

  • News

    What Lord Justice Jackson’s report left out

    2009-08-06T00:00:00Z

    In his interim report Lord Justice Jackson gives a number of suggestions, including such ideas as one-way costs shifting in personal injury claims to avoid the necessity for after-the-event insurance.

  • News

    The FSA: watching the watchdog

    2009-08-06T00:00:00Z

    I remember seeing a straggly white-haired academic type vent his spleen on the Financial Services Authority on BBC News a few months ago. The man, an American economist, was energetic in delivering his verdict on how the UK’s City regulator and the Securities and Exchange Commission, its American brother, had ...

  • News

    Law Society's new president will focus on 'the rule of law'

    2009-08-06T00:00:00Z

    It is an immense privilege to be able to write this piece as the new president of the Law Society. I do so not only with an immeasurable sense of pride, but also in the knowledge that the year ahead will be a considerable challenge.

  • News

    Family law

    2009-08-06T00:00:00Z

    Ancillary relief – Periodical payments – Proportionality – Variation Hvorostovsky v Hvorostovsky: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice Thorpe, Etherton, Mr Justice Bodey): 23 July 2009 The appellant former wife ...