Opinion – Page 306
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Opinion
£10 too wealthy for legal aid
Today I received an application from an individual who was roughly £18 per month too wealthy to qualify for legal aid.
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Opinion
Avoiding costs disputes with clients
The next growth industry for costs disputes will be between solicitor and client.
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Opinion
Repaying a debt
Armed Forces Legal Action is a nationwide initiative calling on law firms across the UK to provide members of the armed forces community one-third off legal fees. Its aim is to benefit serving personnel and those who have served within two years of engaging the law firm. It also seeks ...
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Opinion
Motor insurance: health checks
I was interested to see AXA’s recent report on whiplash – an issue on which we have submitted evidence to the Transport Select Committee. The insurance industry continually issues figures about how much whiplash claims allegedly add on to motor insurance policies every year. However, no one appears to be ...
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Opinion
Painting by numbers
I need an outside painting job done at my house. It needs to be done in the summer months in the good weather. So I asked two decorators to give me a quote. One came and looked and I never heard from him again. The other came and looked and ...
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Opinion
Legal aid: children suffer
Comments by Charles Falconer QC in The Times law section regarding a tightening of the process in criminal and family care cases are worthy of careful attention. On the face of it, removal of private law family legal aid is serving the same purpose, except that it has produced the ...
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Opinion
A review of pre-packs is well overdue
Cadbury, Greenbury, Hampel, Turnbull, Higgs, Myners, Smith. No, this is not Blackpool’s backline from the 1953 cup final, but a list of grandees commissioned to review aspects of company law and corporate governance in the 1990s and early 2000s. Fading memories of attending their dessicated and often inconsequential press conferences ...
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OpinionGovernment bank sanction plans are flawed
The Treasury has accepted the recommendation of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards
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OpinionLawyers need to think tactically on costs
A few months in to the new costs budgeting regime, many litigators have already had to knuckle down and complete Precedent H
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Opinion
Embracing compliance - like going to the gym
Much has been said and reported about the cost of regulatory compliance, but not so much about the benefits of compliance as a driver of quality and competitive advantage through creating better processes and controls. The SRA’s report Attitudes to regulation and compliance in legal services showed that the majority ...
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OpinionMesothelioma and Monopoly
There's a moment in most games of Monopoly when you have to make the choice. Your opponent needs your Pall Mall to complete their set, and they'll offer you a red, a green and a station in return. The deal looks too good to be true - what the hell ...
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OpinionChannel 4 is wrong to screen The Murder Trial
The strangest moment I ever faced while reporting a murder trial was some years ago in Braintree. The victim had been killed outside a nightclub and the DJ was giving evidence about the last time he saw the accused: dancing enthusiastically to ‘Oops Upside your Head’ (this really does constitute ...
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OpinionChannel 4 was right to screen The Murder Trial
Last night’s two-hour TV documentary about the Scottish trial of fruit and veg seller Nat Fraser for the murder of his wife Arlene offered a fascinating insight in the reality and banality of the courtroom. Despite the horrific and extraordinary nature of the offence, the programme, even with its sometimes ...
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Opinion
PI firms not playing by the rules
In the new personal injury claims environment we all have to play by the new rules. The trouble is that there are many firms which are not. I have seen adverts on the internet offering, without qualification, ‘100% compensation’, but when the firm in question is called the offer is ...
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Opinion
Stop this PI lawyer-bashing
I read with sadness the letter from Rob Barley. I work for a small practice which mainly deals with personal injury claims. I have in the past month received at least five calls to my firm’s telephone number asking me if I am sure I have not been injured in ...
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Opinion
'Posturing' on victim levy
How right Joshua Rozenberg is to pour scorn on the legerdemain of the Ministry of Justice over levying the victim surcharge. This has been brought into effect irrespective of any of the philosophical underpinning or due process safeguards applying to all other financial sanctions. ‘Looking tough’ in this way is ...
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Opinion
Hollow laugh with High Court application
There is still amusement in the law. I delivered an application to the High Court today. Royal Mail had lost my previous bundle and I thought it best to hand over a substitute in person (ironically, the case is about a judge who believed in the efficacy of the postal ...
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Opinion
Standing up to the insurance industry
The Law Society deserves to be praised for at long last standing up to the insurance industry. There are critics who (justifiably) will say all of this is too little too late, but the campaign is something which is very close to my heart. We launched Review My Claim earlier ...