Last 3 months headlines – Page 1148
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Co-op fined for PPI complaints-handling
The Co-operative Bank has been fined £113,000 for failing to handle payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints fairly. The bank had put a ‘significant proportion’ of its 1,629 complaints on hold in 2011 whilst the British Bankers Association’s ultimately unsuccessful High Court challenge to new Financial Services ...
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Flexed ABS and flip-flops – my predictions for 2013
I’ll admit it’s been a slow start to 2013 here at Gazette Towers. So slow, in fact, that my ‘2013 predictions’ piece is now three days overdue. If I left it any later this piece would have to be a recap on the year so far. So my apologies for ...
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Society calls for freeze on civil justice reform
The government must postpone all further civil justice reforms until lawyers have had sufficient time to prepare for change, the Law Society said today. Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff welcomed justice secretary Chris Grayling’s decision to halt April’s expansion of the RTA Portal – confirmed over ...
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The gong show 2013
Twenty years after John Major sought to open up the honours system by introducing ‘people’s honours’, the twice-yearly hand-out of gongs is as predictable as ever. Look at the new year crop, especially when it comes to the legal world.
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Ombudsman sets out new fees plan
A tougher approach to ‘free’ investigations will allow the Legal Ombudsman to raise an extra £1.6m through case fees in 2013/14, the ombudsman’s office revealed today. In the coming financial year the ombudsman will charge firms for their first case rather than allow two free ...
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Judicial review: the wrong steps for the wrong reasons
by James Packer, a director at Duncan Lewis It is annoying for the government to be told that its actions are unlawful. It is embarrassing for the Home Office to have the disarray in the immigration system exposed in court.
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Minister signals weekend courts U-turn
The government has indicated that it will drop plans to open courts at weekends, instead introducing longer weekday sittings. It also plans to achieve ‘colossal savings’ by expanding the use of video links between courts, police stations and prisons, and to continue its restorative justice and ...
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11% of firms still lack compliance officers
Nominated staff at more than 8,800 firms this week took up their new roles as compliance officers. The Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed that individuals at 89% of firms were approved to start work as watchdogs for legal practice, and finance and administration, known as COLPs and ...
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First day back
One morning during the holiday I popped into the office when the building was well and truly closed. The telephone was ringing and I answered it to give a mouthful to the caller about lawyers needing holidays as well, but it was only a person wishing the firm a happy ...
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RTA Portal: no plan B as government postpones expansion
The government has refused to reveal an alternative date for extending the RTA Portal scheme after announcing a postponement of its 1 April target today. As the Gazette reported before Christmas, the plan to extend the scheme to handle claims up to £25,000, as well ...
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Video to come to 13 more court areas in 2013
Video-link technology will be extended to more than a dozen court areas during the coming year, the justice minister announced today. Thirteen areas, including Avon and Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Dorset, Northamptonshire, Devon and Cornwall, will start using live links in 2013 to allow police ...
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Allen & Overy’s Wootton leads thin line-up of solicitor honours
David Wootton, partner of magic circle firm Allen & Overy - and last year’s Lord Mayor of London - is one of only a handful of solicitors to feature in the 2013 New Year honours list. Corporate finance specialist Wootton, who was admitted in 1975, receives a knighthood ‘for services ...
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Government backs apprenticeship route to law
Apprenticeships equivalent to BA and MA degrees will soon be available as a route in to the law, the government announced today. In a statement strongly backing professional apprenticeships, Matthew Hancock, the skills minister, said there is no reason why aspiring lawyers cannot attain the ...
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Compliments of the season to all our readers
Thank you for visiting our website in 2012. The Law Society Gazette is now taking a break until 2 January, when our daily newsletter will resume publication: if you have not yet subscribed, please do so via the link to the right. Our next print ...
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Dispute numbers decline as crash impact fades
New research shows that the number of commercial and civil disputes resolved in the UK through arbitration, mediation and adjudication fell sharply as the impact of the 2008 crash abated. The total fell from 27,110 in 2009 to 21,260 in 2011, according to figures contained ...
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RTA Portal software may not be ready for deadline
The company running the expanded claims portal today admitted a significant setback in meeting the government’s April deadline for handling new types of claims. In a statement, RTA Portal Co revealed it will have to build the software for the extended system on the basis of ...
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Quality and compliance – it’s all the same, isn’t it?
Well, no... If you have achieved and maintained a quality standard such as ISO and Lexcel that’s great, but both of these are management standards which enable you to document your processes and procedures and then monitor their effectiveness. Unless your standard has been specifically adapted to deal with ...
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What connects us: can the answer be human rights?
A rising tide of prosperity that floats all boats is no longer the glue that can hold our society together. Whatever the consensus was in the boom years around the greater good that could be derived from economic growth driven by personal atavism, to make the same argument at the ...