All News articles – Page 1805
-
News
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 ...
-
News
The issues raised by police officers conferring on their notes
Last May barrister Mark Saunders was killed by police after he repeatedly fired a shotgun out of the window of his Chelsea flat.
-
News
Personal injury
Limitation periods - Personal injury claims Stephen Cain v Bernice Francis: Shona Mckay v (1) Stephen Hamlani (2) Direct Line Insurance Plc: CA (Civ Div) (Sir Robert Andrew Morritt, Lady Justice Smith, Lord Justice Maurice Kay): 18 December 2008 ...
-
News
Scots unveil plans to revamp £1.2bn legal market
The Scottish government has published proposals to overhaul the nation’s £1.2bn legal market that partly mirror the Clementi reforms introduced south of the border. They include the introduction of alternative business structures, allowing other professionals to set up in business with solicitors and permitting external ownership of law firms.
-
News
No action against ‘touting’ libel firms
The Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority have said they will not act on an MP’s call in Parliament to investigate the alleged ‘active touting’ for business by libel law firms. Denis MacShane (pictured), Labour MP for Rotherham, made the allegation in December. He told an ...
-
News
Overwhelming demand for family advice leads to helpline expansion
Advice on family law is to become a permanent feature of the Community Legal Advice service as part of an expansion of the helpline’s remit and service hours. The Legal Services Commission this week launched a tender for law firms or not-for-profit organisations to provide ...
-
News
Liability fears over bad advice
Loopholes in partnership law could allow investors to sue individual hedge fund managers - and possibly partners in law firms - for giving bad investment advice, according to a former hedge fund chief operating officer. Jérôme de Lavenère Lussan, managing director of London law firm Lussan, ...
-
News
Solicitors and judicial appointments
Solicitors will have to try a little harder if they want to become High Court judges, the Lord Chief Justice suggested last week. ‘I doubt whether it is fully understood that any solicitors intending to seek a full-time judicial appointment should gain part-time sitting experience,’ Lord Judge said, ‘and that ...
-
News
Seeking equality with barristers
As you correctly reported, solicitors welcome any system that will allow them to demonstrate that they can compete on equal terms with barristers (see [2008] Gazette,18 December, 1). The quality assurance scheme ‘should’ do that. But will it?
-
News
Beer, pensions and ice drilling
Beer billions: magic circle firm Allen & Overy advised banks including BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan on a €6.4bn (£5.7bn) rights issue by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the recently merged Belgian brewer. ...
-
News
Solicitors need bench support
The Lord Chief Justice (pictured) has urged the profession to support solicitors who want to pursue a judicial career to help more make it to the High Court bench. Of the 110 High Court judges in post as of April 2008, only one was a solicitor. ...
-
News
QC process seen as biased
Solicitors believe that the new process for appointing QCs is still biased in favour of barristers, according to an online survey carried out by the Law Society. Of the 170 who responded to the survey, more than 70% felt the award of silk should be ...
-
News
Bribery bill and corruption clampdown
This year will see a new Bribery Bill. It promises to reform the criminal law so that a new and comprehensive scheme of bribery offences will enable courts and prosecutors to provide a more effective response to bribery in the 21st century at home and abroad.
-
News
Raising the standards of client care
At a recent event a solicitor asked me to sum up what the majority of the Legal Complaints Service’s work involves. My response was surprisingly simple. The problems cited most often by clients are: ‘The matter took too long and cost more than I expected.’ Problems ...
-
News
LCS 'takes too long' on coal health compensation cases
A snapshot of coal health compensation cases shows almost two-thirds of cases handled by the Legal Complaints Service are taking too long. However the audit, carried out by complaints commissioner Zahida Manzoor, shows ‘significant improvements’ have been made, with 99% of the sample audited ...
-
News
More law centres face closure as funding fears increase
Six more law centres are on the critical list and will struggle to survive 2009 as they try to plug funding gaps, according to the Law Centres Federation. Six law centres closed in 2008, leaving 54 centres to cover England and Wales. A similar number ...
-
News
New pre-action protocol for mortgage possession claims
A new civil procedure protocol for lawyers of much practical relevance came into effect on 19 November 2008. It applies to both money and possession claims by the lender on mortgages of residential property.
-
News
Lord Hunt consults on regulation
Lord Hunt of Wirral will today call for evidence from the entire legal profession as part of his Law Society-commissioned review of regulation.
-
News
Staying the course
Secs appeal. Either you’ve got it or you haven’t, and Ann Moody had it for 39 years and five months. That was how long she was secretary to former solicitor Tony Mackintosh, who retired from Birmingham law firm Tyndallwoods in July 2008 after a career spanning 55 years. He said: ...