All News articles – Page 1748
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News
Debt blocks access
The final report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions should have been seen as the propaganda it is.
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Bar Council accuses CPS of ‘Alice in Wonderland accounting’
The Bar Council accused the Crown Prosecution Service of ‘Alice in Wonderland accounting’ this week over the CPS’s claim to have saved millions using its own lawyers rather than external advocates. In its 2007/08 annual report, the CPS said it had saved £17.1m ...
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Solicitors hit by HSBC bank charges on client accounts
HSBC, the world’s biggest bank, has taken a ‘commercial decision’ to introduce extra charges for solicitors which could add thousands of pounds to law firms’ banking bills, the Gazette has learned. The new policy, which applies specifically to solicitors, comes despite the fact that most client ...
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Apple iPhone app makers need legal advice, says Law Society
The Law Society has urged UK inventors of Apple iPhone applications to secure their intellectual property rights by seeking advice from a solicitor. Apple iPhone applications or 'apps' can be worth tens of thousands of pounds in revenue, and anyone with the PC skills and a ...
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IP and copyright – the fight against online piracy
The tide may have turned against online piracy in the UK. In its Digital Britain final report, published on 16 June, the government outlined proposals to legislate to achieve a reduction of 70-80% in the incidence of unlawful peer-to-peer file-sharing.
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LSC delays tendering for civil legal aid contracts
The Legal Services Commission has delayed tendering for civil legal aid contracts by six months. The delay means that family solicitors will have to wait longer for the new rules which will ensure they are paid the same as barristers for advocacy work. ...
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Legal aid providers offered free business and financial management training
The Legal Services Commission has announced a series of free training sessions in business and financial management skills for legal aid providers, which will begin in the areas where best-value tendering is to be piloted. The LSC’s ‘provider readiness’ team has commissioned accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers to create ...
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New Law Commission chairman appointed
Justice secretary Jack Straw (pictured) appointed Family Division High Court judge Sir James Munby on Saturday as chairman of the Law Commission for three years, until August 2012. Straw said he was confident Munby would be a valuable asset to the Law Commission and further enhance ...
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Legal Services Commission asks crime lawyers to join assessment pilot
The Legal Services Commission has called for more criminal lawyers to take part in its scheme to test different methods of assessing advocacy, after too few practitioners signed up. Piloting of the Quality Assurance for Advocates (QAA) scheme began in February at Crown courts in Birmingham, ...
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Huge fines await regulators under LSB proposals
The Legal Services Board could punish non-compliant regulators with multi-million-pound fines if its proposals on enforcement, released today, are accepted. From January 2010, the LSB would be able to fine the Law Society up to £28m for non-compliance if its proposals come into force in their ...
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Free dispute mechanism does the bar no credit
I wonder how many solicitors undertaking occasional litigation are aware of the Bar Council’s terms of work, and in particular the mechanism that comes into play if the solicitor disputes a barrister’s fee note.
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News
Blakemores does battle
Being a lawyer is not all about sitting at a desk, as this fearsome bunch from Blakemores in Birmingham and Leamington Spa will attest. Sometimes it is also about walking through minefields, fighting with guns, spending the night in a homemade shelter, and – from the look of it – ...
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Lord Justice Goldring to become senior presiding judge
Lord Justice Goldring has been appointed senior presiding judge for England and Wales. Currently deputy senior presiding judge, Lord Justice Goldring will take on his new role from 1 January 2010. He will succeed Lord Justice Leveson, whose three-year term of office ...
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Law lords sit for the last time before moving to the Supreme Court
So farewell, then, law lords. The appellate committee of the House of Lords is sitting today for the last time in 133 years, hearing a short immigration appeal and then delivering seven judgments. On 1 October, the law lords will be transformed into the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
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Claims management regulator places blame firmly on solicitors
Law firms may be feeling the pain of the recession, but it seems business is booming for claims managers. As we report this week, a study by the claims management regulator, which sits in the Ministry of Justice, shows that the number of players moving into this market is increasing ...
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ITV and Lovells form pro bono partnership
ITV Legal has launched a new pro bono initiative with City firm Lovells as part of an innovative partnership programme with its panel law firms. The ITV Legal pro bono bank gives in-house lawyers at ITV the opportunity to take part in Lovells’ pro bono work. ...
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Cashflow: is your IT supplier doing the business for you?
I have a thing about financial reports and consistency. The problem for IT suppliers is that everybody they supply wants something different. I can sympathise with that.
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News
BVT consultation
I write with reference to the letter in support of best value tendering (see [2009] Gazette, 23 July, 11). I am pleased to see that others recognise the potential benefits of best value tendering (BVT). I would, however, reassure Gazette readers that in developing our proposals we have spoken with ...
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SOCA ignores call to give lawyers feedback on money laundering reports
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) intends to reject a recommendation that it should provide solicitors and other professionals with feedback when they make suspicious activity reports (SARs), the Gazette has learned. A House of Lords committee last week asked SOCA to provide ‘increased levels of ...
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Controversy continues over miners' claims
The work that solicitors have done under the mineworkers’ compensation scheme has attracted the attention of press, parliament and the public ever since details of wrongdoing began to emerge earlier this decade. But the debate has focused on two controversies: the millions of pounds that solicitors have earned, and the ...