All News articles – Page 1736
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Support service launched for bereaved families of victims
A new national service giving one-to-one support for the bereaved families of murder and manslaughter victims is to begin work this financial year, justice secretary Jack Straw has announced. National organisation Victim Support is receiving an extra £2m from the government to fund the new ...
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New IT director blog: how to do, and not to do, outsourcing
In his first instalment, the Masked IT Director reports from the frontlines of legal IT… a suppliers’ conferenceThe Alternative Legal IT Conference: catchy title, eh?...
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Could the LSC be the next target of government cuts?
Relations between the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission do not appear to have improved since my last post on the subject. Indeed, things may even have got worse.
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Bar urges halt on contingency fees reform
The Bar Council has urged the government to halt plans to regulate contingency fees, to allow time for greater public debate. In its response to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on regulating the damages-based agreements that are frequently used in employment cases, the council said proposed ...
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Immigration: what can lawyers do?
There has been a twist to my report last week that the incoming president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, has undertaken to separate justice and security issues at European level by creating a commissioner for justice and fundamental rights alone.
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Law Society acts on ‘inflated’ indemnity premiums
The Law Society has written to every professional indemnity insurer asking for an ‘urgent response’ to its concerns over the ‘hugely inflated’ premiums being quoted ahead of this year’s renewal deadline. The Society said calls to its dedicated professional indemnity insurance helpline indicated that insurers were ...
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General practice firms: look in the mirror, before it's too late
Are some traditional, 'general practice' firms living in cloud cuckoo land? In terms of how well they're managing their firms and especially their staff, and how they're going about marketing themselves, I'm beginning to think they are.
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Data page for September 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data complied for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. ...
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Barristers and the Legal Services Act: will the bar modernise in time? Does it even need to?
It is almost five years since Sir David Clementi rocked the legal establishment with his report on the regulatory framework for legal services. Since then, debate on the product of that report – the Legal Services Act 2007 – and the impact on the profession of new legal disciplinary partnerships ...
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FSA contemplates action on third-party capture by insurers
The Financial Services Authority will decide this month whether to launch an investigation into the insurers’ practice of acting for non-policyholders through ‘third-party capture’. Ken Hogg, director of the insurance sector at the FSA, said it was currently undertaking ‘exploratory work to gather information on the ...
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How will more changes to points-based immigration affect the City?
In August 2009, the UK Border Agency announced further changes to the points-based immigration system that was introduced in late 2008. These changes, introduced after months of lobbying, go beyond the scope of the almost weekly changes and 'fixes' that employers and immigration lawyers have been getting used to. ...
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Probe into amount paid to law firms on Olympic Park project
The London Development Agency (LDA) faces a probe over the amount it has paid to law firms for advice on the Olympic Park project, the Gazette has learned. ...
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SRA board appointment call rejected by LSB
The Legal Services Board has rejected a request from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to take greater direct control of its own board appointments. In its latest consultation on legal services regulation, the umbrella body dilutes an earlier commitment toward a more discrete structure separating Chancery ...
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Dignity speaks volumes on assisted suicide
The sanctity of one’s right to choose whether to live or die will forever attract heated argument. Yesterday, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, reignited the debate by publishing new guidelines for prosecutors on assisted suicide.
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Why bad-mouth conveyancing?
Groan. At the end of a recent Gazette editorial, the piece described conveyancing (and probate) as private practice’s ‘more prosaic functions’ (see [2009] Gazette, 10 September, 8).
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Probate services company ITC signs deal with Barclays
A probate services company which has signed a deal to handle Barclays customers was the subject of criticism this week. ITC Legal Services (ITC), which according to its website has a transparent fixed-fee policy which makes it competitive on price with solicitors, has agreed a third-party ...
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Barristers to form ‘procurement companies’ for block contracts
A Bar Council taskforce has put forward proposals for barristers or groups of chambers to form procurement companies to contract as a block for publicly funded advocacy work. The structure would give barristers greater power in negotiating contracts and allow the bar to take advantage of the practice changes permitted ...
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Personal injury interest calculation tables
The standard rate of interest on general damages for pain and suffering and loss of amenities in personal injury cases was fixed at 2% per annum by the House of Lords in Birkett v Hayes [1982] 1 WLR 816; [1982] 2 All ER 70. This was confirmed as appropriate by ...
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Closing down
I am incensed after reading last week that a London firm has to shut because its professional indemnity insurance premium was quoted as £110,000 for the forthcoming year (see [2009] Gazette, 17 September, 1).