Your Letters – Page 52
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Opinion
Speedier ABS processing
In response to Adam Entwistle's letter which was critical of the time taken by the SRA to process an ABS licensing application, I would like to reassure potential applicants that this has speeded up significantly since we introduced changes earlier this year. We listened to the profession, and took into ...
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Opinion
Should we allow non-graduate entry?
SRA chair Charles Plant says there should be a return to non-graduate entry to the profession. Over the years I have thought this too. After all, I am a five-year man myself. At the end of this month I retire and my views have changed. The law too has changed, ...
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Opinion
Time for a ‘sub-profession’ in the law?
The article about interventions in last week’s Gazette, which included a description of the consequences and cost of the collapse of Blakemores, should have us all worried for the future of our profession. It is clear now that our leaders were mistaken when they allowed first advertising and later referral ...
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Opinion
Probate pitfalls
The Law Society’s advertising campaign on behalf of personal injury practitioners is to be applauded. But private client practitioners have long had their own battle with corporate providers of probate services, which include most high street banks. The public is frequently misled and overcharged because they do not go to ...
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Opinion
SRA rules are inconsistent
The Solicitors Regulation Authority is taking an average of seven months to license an alternative business structure, and 20% of applications have taken longer than nine months to process. Schedule 11 of the Legal Services Act prescribes that the decision period must be six months from the date an application ...
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Opinion
Prest confirms simple principle
In the judgments of Mr Justice Moylan in the High Court and Thorpe LJ in a minority judgment in the Court of Appeal, they considered that it was enough, under section 24(1)(a) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, to justify an order to transfer properties from the husband to the ...
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Opinion
Client choice
No, Mr McCulloch. Manchester set up a voluntary court duty solicitor scheme at about the same time as Southampton. Birmingham came soon afterwards, building in particular on the Manchester template. I know this because I was involved. We then expanded it to include a police station scheme, and all of ...
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Opinion
Duty freedom
I write with reference to the letter from Alexander McCulloch. It is incorrect to claim, as he does, that the current system deprives any person charged with a criminal offence of the ability to choose their own solicitor. The duty solicitor scheme certainly forwards a client to whoever is on ...
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Opinion
Lib Dems fighting legal aid cuts
I was very disappointed to read about Ian Craine’s experience of trying to discuss proposed changes to legal aid with Liberal Democrat MPs. May I assure him that the Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association is lobbying hard over these proposals to try and persuade our MPs that they are misguided. So ...
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Opinion
Let us record proceedings
Having just spent another couple of days frantically scribbling notes of the evidence being given and the judgment, I am again at a loss to understand why the lawyers involved in proceedings are not allowed to record them electronically. It is quite ridiculous that we should have to make a ...
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Opinion
Don’t give up on mediation
In his letter of 17 June, Michael Haran related a bad experience with what may have been a small claims telephone mediation provided by the county court. I have great sympathy with him. But he should not compare this cheap and cheerful type of mediation, which incidentally does have a ...
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Opinion
Positive results
Michael Haran’s unfortunate experience of a civil mediation case should not prevent other practitioners from using this valuable resource in dispute resolution. During my early years in practice I had extremely positive results from using civil mediation in a variety of seemingly intractable disputes, ranging from libel, to personal injury ...
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Opinion
Farming out
I recently received a letter from the Law Society inviting me to have a meeting to explore methods of ‘farming’ existing business. Is this an indication of the depth to which the profession has sunk? Harold Immanuel, London W6
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Opinion
Mediation is still misunderstood
I read Michael Haran’s letter ‘Shortcomings of mediation’ (Gazette, 17 June) with some disappointment. Clearly his was an unfortunate experience, but it did not seem to be typical of mediation. I would not like to see it result in either Mr Haran or any other practitioner having a negative view ...
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Opinion
Mediation - quicker and cheaper
It was disappointing to read Michael Haran’s criticisms of a recent mediation with which he had been involved. Mediation is the way forward. It will lead to quicker and cheaper settlements in all forms of litigation. If mediation is carried out correctly, then the mediator should act to facilitate an ...
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Opinion
PCT: choice words
I cannot let Alexander McCulloch’s letter pass without comment. His comparison of the old duty solicitor scheme with Grayling’s price-competitive tendering is invidious. I was a duty solicitor for many years; the scheme was never about restriction of choice. Both at the police station and at the magistrates’ court the ...
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Opinion
Russian evolution: right to choose a lawyer
Your feature on Russia put me in mind of the time I hosted two Russian lawyers in 1995.
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Opinion
Wounded legal aid firms fight back
We are being invited to enter a brave new world of price competition
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Opinion
Unsolicited criticism
I write in response to the letter entitled ‘A sad day for the profession’