All articles by John Hyde – Page 312
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News
Inducements: damage limitation
Let’s make this clear: inducements to purchase a service or product are a fundamental and legitimate part of business. I’m still with the same bank that offered me free cash back in freshers’ week at university, and I’ll bet many others are in the same boat. ...
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Redundancies at Direct Line
Up to 40 legal staff, including solicitors, have been placed at risk of redundancy after insurance giant Direct Line announced a major restructuring plan. The Gazette understands a mixture of fee-earners and back-office staff from national firm Parabis were told this morning they are affected. Based ...
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Judges look again at £2m claims exemption
Exempting mandatory costs budgeting for claims in excess of £2m may be ‘unnecessary and inappropriate’, a newly established sub-group of the Civil Procedure Rule committee has suggested. An intervention from the Judicial Office in February ensured that high-value commercial cases would be exempt from impending Jackson ...
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LETR: allow non-graduates direct access, says SRA chair
Law courses should be tailored to allow non-graduates a direct route into the solicitors’ profession, Charles Plant, chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, said today. He was responding to the report of the Legal Education and Training Review, published this afternoon, which says more flexibility ...
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Taylor Wessing looks to cut a quarter of secretarial posts
More than a quarter of secretarial roles are at risk of redundancy at top-20 firm Taylor Wessing. The international firm wants to cut its London-based secretarial staff by 26 roles and has started a 30-day consultation process with affected staff. A spokeswoman for the firm said voluntary redundancy would not ...
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‘Last chance saloon’ on costs
A leading academic has warned solicitors that judges will grant no more latitude to those who default on their case budgets. Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School told the Liverpool Law Society conference that firms exceeding their budget will be ‘in the deepest of trouble’. Regan, who assisted Lord ...
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Jackson prompts spurt in law firm start-ups
More firms opened in the month after the Jackson reforms came into force than at any point for almost two years. According to figures published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, 138 firms opened in April – 39% more than in April 2012 and a 77% increase ...
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Hudson questions SRA’s firm finances disclosure
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson has questioned the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s decision to disclose that 30 leading firms are in serious financial trouble. At the SRA board last week, it emerged that 20% of the 160 firms in ‘intensive engagement’ talks about their finances rank ...
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SRA ‘wrong to pursue costs via conduct rules’
The Solicitors Regulation Authority was wrong to use professional conduct rules to pursue a former practitioner for costs, a tribunal has found. David Bellchamber had been ordered to pay fixed costs adding up to £850 in connection with a 2011 tribunal rebuke and subsequent unsuccessful appeal. ...
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Salford civil claims process ‘improving’, manager claims
A senior civil servant from HM Courts & Tribunals Service has insisted that the performance of the Salford civil claims centre is improving – while admitting the IT system is still ‘rubbish’. Jonathan Wood, national business centres cluster manager, told the Law Society civil justice section ...
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News
Hundreds face ‘unrated cycle’ as Balva fails
Hundreds of law firms who insured with failed Latvian insurer Balva face being caught in an ‘unrated cycle’ after offers from other unrated insurance providers. The Law Society today warned that members are being offered to transfer policies across to unrated insurer Berliner Versicherung Aktiengesellschaft, by the same broker that ...
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HRA applies to soldiers on duty, Supreme Court confirms
The solicitor leading the case for the families of soldiers killed on duty in Iraq has welcome today’s Supreme Court judgment that gives them the right to claim against the UK government. Susan Smith (pictured, centre), Colin Redpath (pictured, left) and Karla and Courtney Ellis, known ...
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News
Wiltshire solicitor’s murderer jailed for 28 years
A disgruntled litigant has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for the murder of Wiltshire solicitor Jim Ward. Michael Chudley, 63, shot Ward with a sawn-off shotgun on 2 July last year at the MGW Law building in Devizes. Chudley had ...
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SRA puts a price on extra intervention levy
Each solicitor may have to pay an extra £23 a year in compensation fund contributions to pay for future interventions into failing firms. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has decided to use the compensation fund to meet the estimated £7m budget overspend on interventions this year, occasioned ...
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Law firms warned on debt recovery
Law firms involved in debt recovery work have been warned by the regulator to ensure they have proper control over what is being done in their name. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has seen an increase in cases where solicitors working with debt recovery companies are in ...
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Crackdown on political lobbyists under fire
The legal profession has warned the government it is fixing its sights on the wrong target with plans for a register of political lobbyists. Downing Street confirmed last week that it wants to create a statutory register, with legislation published within six weeks, following allegations involving ...
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Thousands of court workers to strike on Monday
More than 16,000 court and Crown Prosecution Service workers will stage a one-day strike on Monday, as campaigners against various government reforms step up their attack. Around 2,500 CPS employees who are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union will stage industrial action on Monday ...
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Victim review will be ‘costly and time-consuming’
Granting victims an automatic right to review Crown Prosecution Service decisions will be ‘costly, time-consuming and add little to the current process’, a prominent solicitor has claimed. Director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer last week announced plans to allow victims and bereaved relatives to review any ...
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Ombudsman claims wider territory
The handler of complaints about solicitors wants greater scope to investigate all professional services that have a legal dimension. The Legal Ombudsman today called for a broader approach, to mirror changing consumer behaviour and innovations in industry and legal services. The call ...
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News
Who will be our Lehman Brothers?
I was a reporter covering Canary Wharf when Lehman Brothers folded. As a journalist, it was one of those days you dream about – the disgruntled workers willing to tell you everything, the imagery of the staff leaving with hastily packed boxes. (We even found out ...