All News articles – Page 1763
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News
Providing answers
In last week’s Gazette, the LSC’s spokesman said the commission is working with representative groups and planning how best to support providers.
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Solicitors encouraged to apply for judicial posts
Solicitors have never been in a better position to apply for judicial office, the Law Society has said in response to research suggesting that many still perceive the judiciary as ‘a career for others’. A study sponsored by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) says that solicitors ...
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Despite the recession Birmingham continues to attract new talent
One-time workshop of the world, today a metropolis renowned for its diversity and commercial nous, Birmingham has grown accustomed to reinventing itself. Since the early 1990s, England’s second city has been in a long regeneration phase. And although the recession has hit it hard, major development projects are keeping Brummies’ ...
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Bad form, whichever way you look at it
Even if your firm does not undertake legal aid work, please don’t switch off. Although I want to query just what the Legal Services Commission’s intentions are with regard to electronic working, there are implications in what I have to say for the Courts Service, the Tribunals Service and other ...
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Cut-price HIPS boost interest
Solicitors could oust estate agents as the first port of call for home sellers if a trend started in Merseyside catches on nationally, a conveyancer claims. Liverpool firm MSB says that after launching a cost-price home information pack (HIP) it has had a 500% surge ...
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On the brink
The Legal Services Commission says that my figures in respect of the number of firms that may fold following implementation of best value tendering (BVT) are ‘inaccurate’ (see [2009] Gazette, 4 June, 2).
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Lord chief justice calls for profession to work together
The lord chief justice has called on lawyers to take the initiative in shaping their future and not wait for events to shape it for them. Lord Judge said he would be ‘delighted’ if barristers, solicitors and legal executives ‘would together and separately address the ...
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Top dogs herding cats
Obiter has always lived by the maxim ‘be nice to your human resources people, for when the chopping starts, it is they who will be wielding the axe.’ But perhaps such thinking is for losers and wimps. Certainly ...
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Chancery Lane defers decision on compensation fund levy
The Law Society’s Council yesterday deferred a final decision on the level of this year’s compensation fund levy until its next monthly meeting in July.Society president Paul Marsh said this was to accommodate further discussion with the SRA on the matter. Papers for yesterday’s meeting include ...
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Chancery Lane hits out at means testing proposals
Government proposals for Crown court means testing could deny vulnerable people access to justice and are being ‘rushed in’ too quickly, the Law Society said today. Chancery Lane said the Ministry of Justice has failed to consider the economic climate, which has seen many people ...
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LCS puts coal-compensation claims on hold
The Legal Complaints Service has gone against the advice of its watchdog by refusing to re-open around 160 complaints against Yorkshire law firm Raleys concerning compensation payments to miners. The LCS, which suspended investigations in March, said it will not reopen the cases until the ...
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Clarity on TUPE
In your article titled ‘Law Society calls for halt to BVT rollout’, [Law Society chief executive] Des Hudson expressed concerns about BVT (see [2009] Gazette, 21 May, 3).
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Local government: surveillance powers, tenancy and effective consultation
There is always a public authority tension between what might be called 'customer-centred governance' and regulation. So while most local authorities will try to be 'customer responsive' to their council tax payers and other stakeholders, their regulatory functions mean that not everyone will always feel treated as a 'customer'. For, ...
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Counselling the counsel
At the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, one theme resonated the loudest – and surprisingly, it had nothing to do with slashing panel law firms and cutting external legal spend. Still, external counsel shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
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Criminal procedure
Legal advice – Living expenses – Money laundering – Proceeds of crime Crown Prosecution Service v Susan Jane Campbell: Michael Joseph McInerney v Financial Services Authority: Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency v Graeme Trevor Carlton: CA (Crim ...
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Guardian raps decision to keep judicial disciplinary proceedings private
The Guardian newspaper has reacted angrily to losing its freedom of information (FoI) bid to force the Ministry of Justice to name more than 100 judges who have been disciplined over the last 10 years and disclose why they were disciplined.
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Dressing down
Judicial interest in the fashion sense of female lawyers is not a purely British phenomenon. We read in the New York Times that a distinguished panel of US judges has been debating this vital issue. According to the newspaper, Judge Michael P McCuskey, chief judge ...
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Global Managing Partners Summit - exclusive report
When times are tough, it’s good to talk – no matter how big or how tough you think you are. But the annual Global Managing Partners Summit in London, chaired by Law Society vice-president Robert Heslett and Gazette editor Paul Rogerson, kicked off with an observation that this year’s financial ...
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SRA immigration ‘loophole’ exposed
Loopholes that allowed a solicitor to practise for two years in England despite being an illegal immigrant are still in place, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed. Jitendra Kumar Sharma, 44, of Southall, London, was last week jailed for seven years for a multi-million-pound visa scam.
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Solicitors need to take initiative and plan for the future
The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, has not spoken much about the organisation of the legal profession since assuming the role, which made last week’s slightly cryptic call to arms all the more interesting. There was some head scratching at the Institute of Legal Executives luncheon ...