All News articles – Page 1782
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News
Law Commission proposes new tests for expert witness evidence
Expert witness evidence may have to undergo formal reliability tests to determine whether it can be admitted in criminal trials under proposals from the Law Commission. A consultation published this week calls for guidelines to help judges determine whether or not evidence is ‘sufficiently trustworthy’ for a jury to consider. ...
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Training contracts and the SRA's powers
Judging by the phone calls received by the SRA since the start of the recession, there is anxiety among trainees about their contracts and some employers are unsure about their responsibilities. Let me try to shed some light on the matter and explain the extent of our role.
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Tax prosecutors to merge with CPS
The Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) is to merge with the Crown Prosecution Service four years after it was set up, in a move to save public money and improve efficiency. The Attorney General, Lady Scotland QC (pictured), announced the change following a review of ...
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Why legal disciplinary practices are off to a slow start
On the face of it, Nick Hanning, a legal executive from Dorset; Clint Evans, chief executive at City firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert; and John Durcan, practice director at a large legal aid firm in Yorkshire, have little in common apart from their membership of the extended legal family.
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Green recovery will push environmental law mainstream
Robert Lee is Professor of Law at Cardiff Law School and a member of the academic panel at Landmark Chambers’ Centre for Environmental LawLast month’s Budget introduced a range of measures to encourage investment ...
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Fool's gold
The solicitors’ profession, punch-drunk and cynical, has learned to expect surprises from a government that does not always give the impression of liking lawyers very much.
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New rights for people trafficking victims in force in UK
Immigration lawyers have a new weapon in their armoury following the implementation of a European agreement to stamp out people trafficking.
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Green shoots
I hate the phrase ‘green shoots’, mainly because it was being used months back by a few economic commentators who only really wanted to be the first to say it. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have joined the dole queue, while the great British pound has fallen towards ...
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Immigration
Criminal liability – Refugees – Terrorism – Convention relating to the Status of Refugees MH (Syria) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: DS (Afghanistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA (Civ Div) (Lords Justice ...
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Social immobility the norm in legal profession
The legal world emerges badly from the findings of government research into social mobility published today. According to the Phase 1 report of the Cabinet Office’s Fair Access Panel, solicitors and barristers were far more likely than the population at large to have been privately schooled. ...
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PPPs will not provide international opportunities for the legal profession
George Rosenberg is a consultant at construction firm Corbett & Co International in TeddingtonI was interested to read the comment by the minister for trade and investment, Lord Davies of Abersoch (see [2009] Gazette, ...
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Press intrusion
I read with horror your article and editorial in relation to the scheme to allow journalists access to family court proceedings.
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 14 April 1999 One of the country’s largest chains of estate agents announced this week that it planned to slash the ...
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Public recognition
The true source of Ken Gulati’s grief about public sector pay (see [2009] Gazette, Letters, 26 March, 11) is readily apparent from his own letter.
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Unfair punishment
Following an SRA spot check, the partners of my firm were advised of two minor infractions. More than six months later, and following a delay in the reissue of practising certificates, we were advised over the phone that we were to be reprimanded.
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Smashing time
Sussex firm Griffith Smith Farrington Webb takes pride in offering a full range of legal services. But it draws the line at drive-in personal injury clients. So staff were relieved that nobody was hurt when an elderly lady lost control of her Toyota Yaris and arrived in the Hassocks ...
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Wisdom of Solomons
Here’s a challenge for the chaps in spotty bow ties: how can we ‘sex up’ board meetings of the Solicitors Regulation Authority? The question actually came up at a board meeting last month – in the context, we hasten to add, of encouraging more members of the public to come ...
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Scotland must try harder after report on trafficking
Scotland lags behind the rest of the UK in the fight against people trafficking. That is, at least, what a Scottish government report published earlier this month says.
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Only 14 firms become first-wave LDPs
The legal profession has largely snubbed the first wave of the Legal Services Act’s business structure reforms, with only 14 legal disciplinary practices up and running as the new regime came into force on Tuesday. The takeup remained low despite a one-month extension to the original ...
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Legal aid - 60th anniversary
Steve Hynes is director of the Legal Action Group As it enters its seventh decade, and despite its flaws, legal aid remains one of the best such systems in the world, providing access to ...