All News articles – Page 1765
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News
Mediation will come to the fore for personal injury
Personal injury mediation will gain in popularity as a result of the credit crunch, according to a leading provider. Maurice Nichols, mediator and consultant to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution’s personal injury unit (PIU), said: ‘There are always two important drivers to personal injury litigation ...
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Massive rise in civil court fees slammed
Plans for some civil court fees to rise nearly fifty-fold to help raise an extra £38m for the Ministry of Justice have come under fire. Proposals out for consultation could see hikes in 26 fee areas in civil court matters, with increases in 10 fee areas ...
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Privy Council must go, says civil liberty group
The ‘dysfunctional’ and anachronistic Privy Council has no place in a parliamentary democracy and should be abolished, civil rights group Justice has said. In a report published this week, Patrick O’Connor QC of Doughty Street Chambers said the Privy Council (pictured with the Queen, in ...
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City kitty
As if times weren’t challenging enough for City solicitors, a rumour doing the rounds at London’s City Hall set a few corporate fingers twitching towards their calculators. Apparently, Mayor Boris Johnson has come up with a splendid wheeze for funding the Crossrail east-west rail link – a £213-per-square-metre levy on ...
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Chair of 'supercase' review clarifies precedence rule
The chair of a judicial working party on ‘supercases’ has clarified the status of the list of issues submitted to a judge at the start of Commercial Court cases. The list does not take legal precedence over the full pleadings, despite consensus among many City ...
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Compensation fears force schools to cancel trips
Is it me, or is the latest bandwagon for ‘compensation culture’ myth-peddlers that schools and schoolchildren are no longer able to undertake activities and trips that we all enjoyed when growing up? It is not unusual for claimant personal injury lawyers to feel that the whole ...
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Buck the market
Lord Turner’s recent report says the banking crisis was caused by banks abandoning proven, prudent banking principles. Their attitude seems to have been ‘everyone in the market is doing it, so it must be all right. We have to copy them or go out of business’.
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Britain’s military prosecutor will never ‘go native’
News that President Obama had decided to end military trials at Guantanamo Bay broke just as I was on my way to see Britain’s new military prosecutor, providing me with a perfect starting point for my interview. But it is very difficult to imagine Bruce Houlder ...
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Criminal law: changes to bail, sentencing and sexual offences
A number of the provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (CJIA) have been brought into force.
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Firm puts staff on four day week to avoid redundancies
A well-known City firm has offered fee-earners and other staff four-day working weeks as the economic outlook for its business deteriorates. James Holder, managing partner at Charles Russell, said the scheme aims to keep the team together until the market picks up again. ...
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Lasting powers of attorney bureaucracy condemned
Probate solicitors have accused the Office of the Public Guardian of discriminating against the elderly through delays, high prices and excessive bureaucracy. The OPG’s function is to safeguard the interests of vulnerable people, including those who have lost mental capacity through old age or illness. ...
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Linklaters announces London job cuts
Magic circle firm Linklaters will cut between 100 and 120 lawyers and 130 to 150 business services employees as it enters into a redundancy consultation with all UK staff. In a statement today (29 January), Simon Davies, Linklaters managing partner, said: ‘There have been significant changes ...
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Civil legal aid proposals slammed by practitioners
Practitioner groups have slammed the Legal Services Commission’s ‘ill-formed’ and ‘illogical’ plans to create a more integrated service for civil legal aid, which they claim will restrict choice. The LSC received 350 responses to its consultation on the new procurement model to replace the current ...
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Tri and tri again
Staff from healthcare law firm Capsticks take their own health very seriously. This lycra-clad foursome will be participating in triathlons (running, swimming and cycling) throughout the year. We’re talking world class: solicitor Emma Smith is the World Xterra Champion for her age group (something to do with cycling up volcanoes), ...
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Community legal advice helpline could go offshore
Members of the public calling the Community Legal Advice helpline run by the Legal Services Commission could in future be answered outside the UK, it has emerged. The Legal Services Commission is to issue tenders for five-year contracts to provide a contact centre and telephone services ...
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Firms will need more non-lawyers in post-Legal Services Act world
The evolving market and pressure from clients means law firms will have to employ more non-qualified staff, solicitors have been warned. Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the College of Law’s Legal Services Policy Institute, said current economic conditions mean consolidation among firms is inevitable and the ...
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Data page for January 2009
The data page is the financial rates and data compiled for the Law Society Gazette by MoneyFacts Group, the UK's largest supplier of savings and mortgage data. DownloadsDownload the Data Page for January 2009 below ...
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That’s the way it is
Keeping up with our theme of solicitor musicians, this week we present… The King himself. Mark Fitch (pictured), a litigation partner at Hatch Brenner, in Norwich, is lead singer in an eight-piece Elvis tribute band, the BlueSueders. The Sueders describe ...
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Legal profession
Barristers’ fees – Comparators – Funding arrangements Lord Chancellor v John Charles Rees & ors: QBD (Sir Charles Gray): 19 December 2008 The appellant Lord Chancellor appealed against the ...