Last 3 months headlines – Page 1156
-
News100 years old and still on the roll
Early birthday greetings to George EC Smith, admitted in 1927, and who next week celebrates his 100th birthday, still on the roll. According to his son Charles (also a solicitor), Smith practised law with his uncle, Henry Parfitt, who admitted him into partnership in 1948 at Minet May & Co ...
-
News
The Lawn Society
To Lincoln’s Inn for Obiter’s annual walk on the sacred sod, thanks to the 45th Legal Charities Garden Party. As usual, the rain held off, the company stimulated and, once the Gazette newsdesk had remembered whose round it was, the champagne flowed.
-
News
Wielding the willow
English cricketers have had about as much success as English lawyers at conquering conditions in India. Now the two challenges can combine for the Lawyers Cricket World Cup, scheduled for Delhi this October. The barristers have already formed a team to travel out, but solicitors have yet to take up ...
-
NewsWhose side is he on?
We all know the lord chancellor doesn’t greatly care what lawyers think of his plans for legal aid, but Obiter thought he might have some sympathy for the views of victims of crime. Didn’t his party’s 2010 manifesto say something about being ‘on the side of victims’? Given the lack ...
-
News
Supreme Court judge Lady Hale succeeds Hope
Lady Hale, the only woman among 12 Supreme Court judges, has been appointed deputy president of the country’s highest appellate court following the retirement of Lord Hope. Hale became the UK’s first woman Lord of Appeal in January 2004, before the establishment of the Supreme Court in 2009, following five ...
-
News
MoJ call for QC nominations
The Ministry of Justice is inviting nominations for the 2013/14 round of Queen’s Counsel hononoris causa (honorary silk) awards. These opened on 6 June 2013. For the Law Society, nominations are invited who are members of the law society but not barristers. Only the highest quality individuals will be nominated ...
-
News
Financial crime sentences to prioritise victims
Proposed new sentencing guidelines for financial crimes published last week encompass bribery and money laundering for the first time, while setting out to prioritise the impact of crime on the victim. The guidelines, which will replace existing guidance published by the Sentencing Guidelines Council in 2009, also cover the sentencing ...
-
News
Birmingham Law Centre closes as cash runs out
Britain’s second city is without a law centre following the closure of Birmingham Law Centre last week. Cashflow problems and the anticipated fall in legal aid funding led the trustees to shut down the service, which is descended from bodies that have offered free legal advice for nearly a century. ...
-
News
Delay in switch of CMC complaints
The government is almost certain to miss its target for transferring complaints about claims management companies (CMCs) to the Legal Ombudsman. The Ministry of Justice cannot yet say when the plans – unveiled last August – will come to fruition. The move was scheduled to be completed this year, but ...
-
News
Law Commission looks at extending hate crime law
The Law Commission is consulting on extending the law on hate crimes to cover sexual orientation, transgender identity and disability. Commissioner leading the project, Professor David Ormerod QC, said: ‘We will look at options for reform that would recognise that the criminal law should protect people who are targeted because ...
-
News
Tory maverick Davis blasts 'Soviet' PCT
Pressure on the government to amend its criminal legal aid reforms mounted last week as MPs debated the changes in parliament. Signs of a cabinet split had already emerged after deputy prime minister Nick Clegg voiced concern about the removal of client choice and attorney general ...
-
News
Merged firms promise to retain high street presence
Birmingham firm DBS Law – which last month advertised for potential acquisition targets – has announced the first fruits of its merger campaign. The firm revealed today that it has merged with neighbouring firm Hearne & Co, saying it is determined to challenge current market ...
-
News
I have seen the future and it didn't work
In autumn 2005, on a visit to the Home Office’s shiny new headquarters near Millbank, I enjoyed a demonstration of an all-singing, all-dancing joined-up criminal justice IT system. The ‘walk through’ was to show off a £2bn programme to join up police forces, prosecutors, the courts and prison and probation ...
-
News
Property tribunals combine in new first-tier chamber
A new consolidated property tribunal came into existence today with a single set of procedural rules aimed at simplifying the process. The First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber – which combines the Residential Property and Agricultural Land Tribunals together with the adjudicator to HM Land Registry – ...
-
News
Anger as MoJ accused of deleting legal aid consultation responses
The Ministry of Justice has claimed that an ‘email glitch’ is to blame for many barristers and solicitors receiving a message telling them that their response to the Transforming Legal Aid consultation has been ‘deleted unread’. The Gazette, together with the Law Society, Bar Council and other practitioner groups, have ...
-
News
City lawyers join fight against legal aid cuts – finally
City law firms have joined the attack on the government’s legal aid cuts, warning that they ‘pose a potentially irreversible risk to the standards and reputation of English justice’. In a letter to the Law Society, the chairman of the City of London Law Society Alasdair Douglas criticised the ‘grossly ...
-
News
MASS calls for blanket inducements ban
The group representing RTA claimant solicitors has said it is ‘disappointed’ that inducements for claims will not be banned. Last week the Solicitors Regulation Authority stated there was no reason to outlaw cash or gift enticements to potential claimants. The Motor Accident Solicitors Society today entered the debate and called ...
-
News
Privilege fears over deferred prosecutions
The Crown Prosecution Service has used new draft guidelines on deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) to weaken the privileged status of legal advice, a leading City fraud and investigations lawyer has warned. Simmons & Simmons partner Stephen Gentle told the Gazette: ‘The consultation on DPAs stated that the "Code of Practice ...
-
News
Data mining: what happens next?
Although I try to vary the topic covered each week, to show the range of issues being dealt with at European or international level, I do not apologise this week for going back to a subject that I have covered recently: the fall-out from the data mining revelations by the ...