All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 17
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OpinionA new way into the law
Rachel Rothwell says a new apprenticeship scheme is a welcome alternative to conventional routes into the law – and students will know exactly what they are getting.
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OpinionCracking the whip on costs
Judges have been instructed to take a tough line on costs budgeting rules.
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OpinionBusiness booming in insolvency funding
With most areas of civil litigation beginning to feel the effects of the Jackson reforms, there was some interesting news this week from the insolvency quarter
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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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Feature
Private Client: a new quality standard
Last week, Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson formally launched the Society’s new accreditation scheme for wills and inheritance work
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OpinionTactics emerge in costs budgeting
Some interesting points emerged in relation to costs budgeting at IBC Legal’s Impact of Jackson conference last week. By now, many litigators will have had to knuckle down and complete Precedent H – the form through which they must provide the opposing party with an estimate of their costs in ...
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OpinionPrivate client: a good place to be
There was a very positive mood at the Private Client Section’s annual conference on Friday.
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News
Lord Young shuns meeting with profession’s regulator
Lord Young of Graffham turned down an offer to meet with the solicitors’ regulator in advance of his report on health and safety and the ‘compensation culture’, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. The SRA said it had ‘offered to engage’ with Young during the research ...
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News
Case management conferences – your war stories, please
A couple of months on from the Jackson start date, and life may not feel that different for litigators – just yet. But have you had your first post-Jackson case management conference?
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News
Time limits mooted for pre-Jackson ATE
The glut of after-the-event insurance deals signed before 1 April to take advantage of the old rules on recoverability could have time limits imposed on them, it emerged at the Law Society’s civil justice section conference yesterday. Solicitor David Greene said he understood that Lord Justice ...
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News
Coming soon – fixed defendant costs in PI
At the end of July, the current protocol for low-value road traffic accident claims will be extended to claims worth up to £25,000, and new protocols will be introduced for employers’ and public liability personal injury claims – draft copies of which have been published. New fixed recoverable fees for ...
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News
Back to the drawing board on DBAs
So, nearly two months on from J-Day, has any brave soul attempted to do a damages-based agreement (DBA) yet? Thought not. The only one I have heard about was mentioned by a delegate from a large national firm at a Westminster Legal Policy Forum event the ...
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News
Judicial tension over costs budgeting
The final report on the costs budgeting pilot, which was published last week, gives an interesting insight into a battle going on within the judiciary. As is known, the Commercial Court managed to win itself an exemption from costs budgeting some time ago by convincing Lord Justice Jackson that, in ...
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News
A blow to EL claims
Last week, an attempt to oppose changes to health and safety law that will make it harder for employees to bring claims against their employers, failed in the House of Lords. At the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers’ annual conference this month, APIL past-president David Bott ...
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News
Rise in small-claims limit may be good for litigants
When it comes to the small-claims court, all the focus seems to have been on personal injury.
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News
Firms are getting cold feet over DBAs
A couple of weeks ago I went along to an excellent debate on damages-based agreements chaired by Michael Napier QC, and hosted by Harbour Litigation Funding and Expedite Resolution. One of the main points that came across was the extent to which the shoddy drafting of ...
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News
ATE rush prompts another ‘emergency’ cover product
An after-the-event insurer has introduced a new emergency insurance product to cope with the surge in demand from solicitors in the run-up to 1 April. Keystone Legal said the product would enable it to issue policies ahead of the April deadline, when the Jackson reforms ...
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News
ATE insurers are gearing up for 1 April
If you are an after-the-event insurer, you are probably rather busy right now. Solicitors are (metaphorically speaking) queuing outside your front door, down the street, round the corner, and in some cases halfway down the M4 to sign their clients up to policies before 1 ...
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News
Judges begin flexing their Jackson muscles
What with judges’ general dislike of all things costs related, and the latest announcement from the senior judiciary that new costs budgeting rules will not normally apply to disputes of a commercial nature over £2m, one could be forgiven for thinking that our friends on the bench are really not ...
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News
Assessing costs: a nasty shock
With the Court of Appeal’s recent judgment in Henry, much attention has focused on the new costs budgeting rules coming in this April as part of the Jackson reforms. But there is another change on its way that will also affect lawyers and costs professionals quite significantly – and its ...