A stroll down Gazette memory lane

Law Society Gazette, 2 February 2012

SRA apologises for delays

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has apologised for further delays to online renewals of practising certificates as it starts to clear a backlog of applications. The new mySRA system, which replaces paper forms and cheques, has been the subject of widespread criticism in the profession.

7 February 2002

Direct access to barristers

Solicitors have expressed concerns about who will be seen as the first port of call for clients after the Bar Council unanimously voted to relax the direct access rule for its members in 2003. The move came after the Kentridge committee said there are ‘undoubtedly cases in which a barrister can usefully give legal advice or draft a document without the intervention of a solicitor’.

5 February 1992

Appeal court clarifies right of silence

Kevin Maxwell, former director of the troubled Mirror Group Newspapers, has had his petition to the House of Lords rejected, following the Court of Appeal’s decision that he was not entitled to make use of the right of silence in an insolvency investigation.

3 February 1982

Legal aid – five fruitless years

The Law Society’s statutory annual report to the lord chancellor on the running of the legal aid scheme concludes: ‘Whatever the reason, the continued failure to make a move in virtually any direction in the legal aid field, even when reforms are almost universally agreed to be desirable, stultifies the legal aid scheme.’

2 February 1972

How to handle the press

A reporter’s request for information, provided it is reasonable and courteous, deserves reasonable and courteous attention, Mr Reginald Evans, weekend editor of the Press Association, said at a PR workshop at the Law Society’s Hall last week. ‘The myth may indicate otherwise, but reporters and newsmen always try to get at the truth and publish balanced reports,’ he said.

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