All articles by Catherine Baksi – Page 97
-
News
Flint Bishop finds marketing success with affiliate partnerships
A Midlands firm has come up with an innovative way to market online legal services ahead of the more competitive environment heralded by the Legal Services Act 2007. Flint Bishop has set up what it calls an ‘affiliate partnership’ distribution channel, whereby it targets organisations with ...
-
News
Call for public to have direct access to the bar
The public wants direct access to barristers in crime, family and immigration work and is ‘dissatisfied with paying two lawyers for one job’, a panel of leading barristers claimed this week. Kevin Leigh, barrister at No5 Chambers in London, said: ‘It’s about giving proper choice to ...
-
News
Grieve issues warning over access to justice 'crisis'
The country is facing ‘the biggest crisis in access to justice since the second world war’, shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve QC told the Bar Council’s annual conference last Saturday. The warning came as Bar Council chairman Desmond Browne QC revealed that Lord Bach, the legal ...
-
News
CPS rolls out national telephone charging service
The Crown Prosecution Service and Association of Chief Police Officers today announced the nationwide roll-out of a telephone charging advice service for police. From January, the existing CPS Direct service, which provides advice to police when charging suspects out of hours, will be expanded across ...
-
News
Prosecutors should explain sentences to victims, says attorney general
The attorney general has said prosecutors should explain sentences to victims and has issued revised guidelines on plea and sentencing. Speaking to a conference of Crown Prosecution Service Crown advocates – qualified CPS lawyers in the Crown court - as their superintending minister, Lady Scotland (pictured) ...
-
News
Law China delegation to promote UK entrants
China offers business opportunities for UK law firms of all sizes, not just the magic circle, the Law Society’s head of international told the Gazette this week as a Chancery Lane delegation visits the country on a joint mission with the Bar Council. Representatives of the ...
-
News
‘Failed’ Kent virtual court pilot to become compulsory
Only seven defendants have chosen to use the virtual court in Kent since the pilot began three months ago, the Gazette has learned, as the Ministry of Justice seeks to make the Kent scheme compulsory. The pilot enables defendants to make their first court appearance from ...
-
News
Solicitors rebut claim that they ‘overcharge’ for legal aid work
Solicitors hit back this week at claims that they have been overpaid by nearly £25m for legal aid work, blaming the ‘mountain of bureaucracy’ they face from the Legal Services Commission. A report by the National Audit Office said the LSC had overpaid solicitors by an ...
-
News
Regional administrative courts attract only 8% of cases
The new regional administrative courts have attracted only 8% of new cases since they opened six months ago, figures seen by the Gazette have revealed. In April 2009, the administrative courts began to sit in four regional venues – Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester – to ...
-
News
Lawyers provide £400m of pro bono work a year
The value of pro bono work done annually by lawyers has soared to more than £400m according to estimates published by the Law Society in advance of next week’s national pro bono week. The estimated value of the pro bono work performed by private practice solicitors ...
-
News
LSC launches £2.1m CLAC tender
The Legal Services Commission has launched a tender for the new £2.1m Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) in Barking & Dagenham. The new centre, which will provide a one-stop shop for social welfare problems, will be jointly funded by the LSC and Barking and Dagenham Council. ...
-
News
Government offender management IT project a ‘shambles’
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has branded the government’s delayed and over-budget IT project to set up a single database to manage offenders through the prison and probation services a ‘shambles’, in a damning report published today. Five years after the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) ...
-
News
Red tape cut for forced marriage orders
Local authorities can issue orders to protect vulnerable adults and children from being forced into marriage without seeking the leave of the court, under new powers introduced yesterday. Forced Marriage Protection Orders can include orders to compel a person to hand over passports to prevent someone ...
-
News
CPS publishes ethical principles
The director of public prosecutions has today published a ‘statement of ethical principles’, setting out what is expected of public prosecutors in England and Wales. Keir Starmer QC said the document, which sets out the ethical principles that underpin and guide the work of public prosecutors, ...
-
News
LSC launches tender for Community Legal Advice Centre in Barking & Dagenham
The Legal Services Commission has announced the launch of a tender for the new £2.1m Community Legal Advice Centre (CLAC) in Barking & Dagenham. The new service to provide a one-stop-shop for legal advice and representation will be jointly funded by the LSC and Barking & ...
-
News
Conveyancers must enact 'radical' change to survive, says Chancery Lane
The Law Society has warned conveyancing solicitors that they will need to consider ‘radical’ change – such as increasing their liability – to ensure they retain a ‘sustainable commercial role’ in the property market. Pledging Chancery Lane’s support for conveyancing solicitors, chief executive Des Hudson questioned ...
-
News
Top solicitor jailed for cash theft
A former deputy coroner and high-profile probate solicitor has been jailed for stealing more than £43,000 from a charitable trust. Alan Benstock, 51, a former deputy coroner for West Yorkshire and former vice-chairman of the Law Society’s probate section, was sentenced to 22 months for thefts ...
-
News
Solicitors join with bar to fight plans to cut advocacy rates
The government could face legal action by the Law Society and Bar Council as the professions unite over plans to cut criminal defence advocacy rates by 23%. The two representative bodies are taking advice on a potential judicial review action based on the lack of clarity ...
-
News
Barnetts launches iPhone application
Conveyancing firm Barnetts has launched an iPhone application that allows clients to get an instant quote and follow the progress of their case via their phone. The in-house IT team at Barnetts developed the software, which other firms will be able to licence and use. ...
-
News
Criminal solicitors and barristers unite against the MoJ
The rise of solicitor higher court advocates and the perception that barristers have come off better than solicitors in legal aid fee cuts has, over the past couple of years, led to frostiness between the two branches of the profession.