Last 3 months headlines – Page 1101
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‘Google’ asylum refusals
Home Office officials are resorting to searching the internet for reasons to refuse asylum, entry clearance and leave to remain applications – and copying and pasting the resulting text into refusals, the Gazette has been told. Philip Trott, head of immigration at Bates, Wells Braithwaite, ...
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Injunction to prevent ‘defamatory’ employment tribunal evidence refused
The High Court recently refused (among other things) to grant an interim injunction in libel and harassment to a former council employee, Ayodele Adele Vaughan (the claimant) concerning evidence she anticipated being given in forthcoming employment tribunal (ET) proceedings.
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‘Christmas tree’ bills
According to the official summary (slightly paraphrased) the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act exists to make provision about the Green Investment Bank; employment law; to establish the Competition and Markets Authority and to abolish the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading; to amend the Competition Act 1998 and ...
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Poor will suffer from court fee changes, MoJ warned
Government plans to means-test waivers for civil court or tribunal fees could impact the most deprived and vulnerable sections of society, the Civil Justice Council has warned. The advisory group of judges, academics and lawyers, chaired by the master of the rolls (pictured), said there were ...
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PCT will mean the death of Welsh justice, lawyers warn
The government’s plans for price-competitive tendering (PCT) will have a ‘devastating’ impact on firms and chambers in Wales, leaving clients represented by English firms and without Welsh language provision, lawyers have warned. Their concerns come as solicitors and barristers unite today staging a demonstration in Westminster ...
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Small business spurning legal services – LSB research
Just one in eight small businesses will turn to a solicitor to solve a legal problem despite many suffering financial loss as a result. Research published today by the Legal Services Board found only 12% of legal problems resulted in demand for advice from solicitors’ firms. ...
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HMRC proposes crackdown on LLP ‘disguised employment’
Some members of limited liability partnership (LLP) firms could face higher tax and national insurance deductions under government proposals for tackling ‘disguised employment’ published this week. The consultation follows an announcement in the budget that the government would examine removing the presumption of self employment ...
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Paying the price
Not a great week for our beloved uber-regulator, the Legal Services Board. First, the lord chancellor flicks away its impassioned case for the regulation of will-writing like a speck of dust from the irreproachable Mechlin lace at his wrists. All the board’s chairman David Edmonds ...
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Where was the LASPO dissent?
I thought I was dreaming when I switched on my radio this morning. Three pinches and a cold shower later and I knew it was true: a legal aid issue was the headline new story on Five Live (the baby prefers Nicky Campbell to John Humphries). ...
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Hundreds attend legal aid protest rally
Over 500 lawyers attended a mass rally at parliament today to protest over criminal legal aid reforms which ‘strike a dagger through the British justice system’. Gerry Conlon, one of the Guildford Four and Breeda Power, daughter of one of the Birmingham Six, were also ...
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Westminster legal aid protest: images
Over 500 lawyers attended a mass rally at parliament today to protest over the planned criminal legal aid reforms. Here is a selection of images of those who came to raise their voices against the changes. ...
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Privatising the courts
Last year the government fattened up the Royal Mail for privatisation by imposing a 30% hike in the cost of a first-class stamp - its biggest price rise for 37 years. Job done. Annual profits have soared, it was disclosed this week. The Queen’s head is duly on the block, ...
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Unanimous: profession votes for ‘training days’ action in protest over cuts
In an unprecedented show of unity by the legal profession hundreds of barristers and solicitors came together yesterday to oppose the government’s proposed criminal legal aid cuts which they said would ‘destroy the fabric of the criminal justice system’. Over 1,000 attended a London meeting dubbed ...
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Paper weight
What goes around, comes around, and now it’s time to eschew online marketing and go back to using dead trees. Or at any rate that’s what those techie chaps at mylawyer.co.uk have just done. They inserted a printed flyer inside the Sunday Times and awaited a response. ...
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International firms call off merger
International firms Speechly Bircham and Withers today announced that they had dropped merger plans following almost two months of talks. The firms said in March they had entered ‘preliminary discussions’ over creating a joint practice with more than 600 lawyers. But in ...
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Gest appearance
While the nation focused on his appearance (one newspaper even describing him as a Welsh David Gest), it seems the legal world’s Apprentice hopeful may just have a chance of winning the contest. Young Alex Mills (pictured), founder of the Dynamo Legal brand, impressed Lord Sugar with his design for ...
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, May 1913Minutes of the Special General Meeting held in the Society’s Hall Mr Ford asked the President whether, in view of the growth of officialdom in relation to the legal business of the country, the Council had considered, or would consider, the ...
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Extradition: removing the automatic right to appeal will lead to injustice
by Rebecca Niblock, solicitor at Kingsley Napley LLP and co-author of Extradition law: A Practitioner’s Guide Contrary to popular belief, things can move quickly in extradition. Two contrasting proposals for reform, one passing unnoticed last week, the other lying dormant, could lead to significant changes for ...
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LETR ‘delayed by regulators’
The much-delayed final report of the Legal Education & Training Review (LETR) research team was completed on time and could have been published as planned in December 2012, but was stalled when the regulators insisted on a version three times the size of the original, the Gazette can exclusively reveal.