Last 3 months headlines – Page 1140
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Major CMCs win argument on MoJ fees
Large claims management companies (CMCs) have convinced the government to reinstate a cap on the fees they have to pay for regulation. The Ministry of Justice, which regulates CMCs, had planned to remove the annual cap of £30,000 for companies with contractual relationships with clients. ...
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 7 February 2008Bar Standards Board wants to abolish ‘cab rank rule’ The Bar Standards Board this week proposed the abolition of the ‘cab rank rule’ in a consultation on changes to be made in relation to the Legal Services Act 2007. BSB ...
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Shambolic interpreter deal is a vision of things to come
The Ministry of Justice’s deal for the central procurement of court interpreters has now been the subject of three damning reports. The National Audit Office (NAO), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and most recently the Justice Committee have criticised almost every aspect of the flawed procurement process and contract management. ...
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Would you mourn if your firm was no more?
Just how much attachment do you have to your firm beyond an email address and headed note paper? Do you feel a surge of loyalty every time you walk past the water feature in reception? Do you relish rivals’ struggles and recoil in horror when your ...
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Contempt of court
Orders in family proceedings – Enforcement Young v Young: Family Division (Mr Justice Moor): 16 January 2013 The Family Division imposed a sentence of six months’ imprisonment for contempt of court, in circumstances where the husband had failed, in certain very important aspects, to comply with an order of the ...
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Sentence
Defendant harassing actress and breaching interim restraining order – Defendant appealing – Whether sentence manifestly excessive R v Rumbelow: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Justice Rafferty, Globe and Mr Justice Leggatt): 18 December 2012 The defendant, who suffered from Asperger’s syndrome and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, was sentenced to two-and-a-half ...
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Employment
Discrimination – Religious discrimination Eweida and others v United Kingdom (App. Nos. 48420/10, 59842/10, 51671/10 and 36516/10): European Court of Human Rights: 15 January 2013 The European Court of Human ...
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Injunction
Copyright – Newspaper – Article – Breach of privacy – Interlocutory injunction Rocknroll v News Group Newspapers Ltd: Chancery Division: 17 January 2013 The claimant, who was married to the ...
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Legal privilege
The eagerly anticipated Supreme Court judgment in Prudential PLC and Prudential (Gibraltar) Ltd v Special Commissioner of Income Tax and Phillip Pandolfo (HM Inspector of Taxes), in relation to the possible extension of the principle of legal professional privilege (LPP), to encompass advice given by accountants on tax law, was ...
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Rational debate needed over EU crime laws
So the big Cameron speech on Europe has come and gone. He devoted precisely 12 words in it to the most pressing EU issue which will arise before his beloved referendum even takes place: that of the opportunity for opt-out by the UK government from the EU crime and policing ...
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Why government reforms on employment law make little sense
There were some statistics that private equity pioneer Adrian Beecroft did not include in his highly controversial report on employment law published last year. The number of claims brought by employees in employment tribunals fell from 236,000 in 2009-10 to 186,000 in 2011-12. The number of claims for both sex ...
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Hitting gender targets
I write in connection with the report that says we should work more flexibly and get more women in. Here, at solicitor level, we are more than 50% women and they all work flexibly. Unfortunately we did not attend a conference, or write out a plan for any of this. ...
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Degrees of learning
Of a cohort of 2,174 who sat the Part II Qualifying Examination in February 1967, 48 passed all seven heads, in one sitting, with distinction in two or more subjects. The group comprised 25 ‘five-year men’ (they were all men!) and 23 graduates, mainly from ...
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Mediator fee cost anomaly rankles
There is a striking anomaly caused by the omission of a mediator’s fee from the list of recoverable disbursements in Civil Procedure Rule 45.10 (fixed-costs cases). It means that a receiving party must bear the costs of the mediator’s fee, which creates a disincentive for mediating. ...
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Brilliant Law heralds new era
I read that Brilliant Law ‘is founded by non-lawyers, which is a radically different scenario to other law firms'. It is indeed. I read on: ‘That brings with it innovation and a commercial appreciation but also mechanisms to market ourselves differently.’ But ...
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Defendants and principles of fairness
I would like to share my recent experience of the Criminal Procedure Rules (CrimPR) danced to the tune of Ministry of Justice training. Acting for a defendant who had no recollection of the incident, or what he had said in interview, I was faced with a single statement and a ...
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Defending strict liability for workplace safety
I write with reference to the government’s latest move in its overhaul of health and safety legislation. At the last minute, the proposal to remove strict liability in respect of duties imposed on employers under health and safety legislation has been slipped into the Enterprise Regulatory ...
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How the right words can slay European Convention myths
by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, president of the Law Society ‘Yes we can’ helped propel a rank outsider to the White House; Gerald Ratner wiped half a billion pounds from his company’s value after an unfortunate choice of words. Equally, we ...
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Privilege victory but lawyers need to be on their guard
A fire drill at Chancery Lane last week left shirt-sleeved Law Society staff hopping from foot to foot on the ice outside. Yet there was a roseate glow emanating from a goodly number, particularly in policy – and it wasn’t the cold. ‘Lawyers 5, accountants 2,’ offered one observer, having ...