All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 109
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News
Internet property plea
The Law Society should be the ‘pathfinder’ in developing systems to computerise the process of buying and selling properties, the chairman of the Society’s conveyancing and land law committee said last week. Richard Barnett, who is also senior partner at volume firm Barnetts, told the ...
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News
Social welfare contract threat
Specialist firms could be lost to legal aid under government proposals for a single social welfare contract, practitioners have warned. The Legal Services Commission (LSC) last week began a consultation on a new procurement model for civil legal aid services. From 2010, the commission plans to ...
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Defendants value solicitor choice
A choice of solicitor is important to nine out of ten criminal defendants, according to a government-sponsored study published this week. Users perspectives of defence services in the criminal justice system also says that one-third of defendants at police ...
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Society and bar clash over solicitor-advocates
The Law Society has hit back at criticism from the bar over the ‘appalling’ standards of some solicitor-advocates, who it is alleged are keeping work for themselves for economic reasons rather than instructing barristers. Law Society President Paul Marsh said the comments were ‘exactly what you ...
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CMC plans regulation for mediation providers
The Civil Mediation Council (CMC) is developing a voluntary registration and regulation scheme for mediators and provider organisations, it has emerged. The CMC aims to draft two registration schemes to replace the pilot accreditation scheme it has been running for the last three years. ...
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Whitehall retreat as VHCC fees up by 5%
The government has capitulated to fierce lobbying and increased fees in very high-cost criminal cases (VHCC) by 5% as an interim measure to avoid a potential crisis in the Crown Courts. Solicitors and barristers will see the same percentage increase, with a senior solicitor or QC ...
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Post-charge questioning plans 'unacceptable'
Government proposals to allow defendants to be questioned after charge amount to ‘serious oppression’ and need to be carefully controlled, according to a leading academic. Michael Zander, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, told the Criminal Law Solicitors Association (CLSA) conference last week that ...
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Concern mounts over justice budget cuts
The Law Society has entered the row over revelations that the government may be planning swingeing budget cuts to the justice system. President Paul Marsh voiced fears over the future of the Courts Service and warned justice secretary Jack Straw that legal aid is ‘already ...
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Judge intervenes as VHCC barristers' row rocks trial
A judge has stepped in to try to prevent a trial being derailed by the row over barristers’ refusal to do very high cost criminal cases (VHCC). Several defendants in a case listed for trial at Oxford Crown Court early next year have been unable to ...
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Conveyancing warning
Conveyancing solicitors risk undermining their status as the ‘lynchpin of the property market’ if they overreact to the current banking crisis and stop giving undertakings, Chancery Lane has warned. Law Society President Paul Marsh said solicitors should act with caution, but unless they had a reason ...
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Solicitors assured over criminal costs
Barristers will not gain at the expense of solicitors in the stand-off over very high cost criminal cases, the new legal aid minister assured practitioners this week. In his first engagement as minister, Lord Bach said there is ‘no question’ of funding any increase in advocacy ...
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News
Call for ban over HIPs
An investigation that exposed home information packs (HIPs) as flawed has prompted calls for insurance-backed personal searches to be banned. Birmingham Trading Standards inspected HIPs at 15 estate agents, randomly selecting six packs for scrutiny. Five contained false or misleading search information. ...
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News
Legal aid a 'cottage industry'
Government policies are creating a ‘cottage industry’ of legal aid provision, with large firms being driven out of the market, solicitors warned this week as a major firm shed its bulk criminal legal aid practice. Hickman & Rose, whose managing partner Jane Hickman is a ...
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News
New advice for detainees branded 'illegal' in report
Suspects’ rights to consult a solicitor of their choice have been undermined by potentially illegal reforms to the legal aid process, leading academics said this week. Professors Lee Bridges and Ed Cape, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, accused ...
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News
Tory HIPs rethink
The Conservative Party may abandon its pledge to scrap home information packs (HIPs) if elected, their housing special adviser hinted last week. Owen Inskip, adviser to shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, told the National Conveyancing Congress in London that the party’s plan to abolish the controversial ...
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News
Forty per cent of conveyancing firms lay off staff
Four out of ten conveyancing firms have cut staff numbers because of the fall in home sales, according to a survey by search provider Searchflow published this week. The poll, seen exclusively by the Gazette, revealed that 40% of firms have cut their headcount in response ...
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News
Society stand on striking-off
The Law Society has reiterated its opposition to plans for Crown Court judges to be given powers to strike off solicitors charged with fraud, even when they have been acquitted of any offence. The Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, outlined the proposal in a consultation paper published ...
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News
Corporate counsel hit by crunch
The credit crunch has increased pressure on in-house counsel worldwide to prove their worth and thereby survive the economic downturn, according to a poll carried out by the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA). The results of the 2008 Global Challenge Survey, which will be presented ...
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News
JAC 'can change history'
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) ‘has the potential to alter the historical pattern of under-representation of certain groups among the judiciary’, but a broader range of people need to apply, the Employment Tribunals president said last week. Speaking at an event hosted by the Society of ...
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News
Inquest cash gap fears
Inadequate levels of legal aid funding for inquests mean too many grieving families have to attend coroner’s court without representation, lawyers have warned. Amanda Stevens, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), criticised government proposals contained in a consultation, which closed last week, ...