Last 3 months headlines – Page 1169
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Wider pool of barristers no threat
In focusing on perceived competition between the two branches of the profession (‘"Baby barrister" threat to solicitors’), what Catherine Baksi overlooks are the opportunities for co-operation between barristers and solicitors created by the Public Access Scheme. The bar’s code of conduct requires barristers instructed on a public access basis to ...
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QASA curtailment beggars belief
I read each week with growing dismay about the long-running saga of the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates. This misconceived and unwelcome intrusion into the liberties of our profession may one day restrict, if not deny, our hard-won rights of audience in the higher courts.
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Off centre
Taking up where Nye Moloney left off, I have found the County Court Money Claims Centre (CCMCC) to be lacking. I am uncertain as to how the interaction between the centre and the Northampton Bulk Issue Centre pans out in practice.
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Support costs
Once upon a time we filled in the form to renew our annual practising certificates by hand and then continued to do proper work. Now the Gazette brims with articles on the regulatory process and how to live with it. Charles Plant tells us the ...
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Expensive Saga
At the sort of prices Saga is quoting I do not think the average high street conveyancer should lose any sleep. I just obtained a quote from Saga for a freehold sale at £150k and a freehold purchase at £250k – a typical, everyday transaction outside ...
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McNally: learning as he goes
Lord McNally’s first speech on legal aid since taking the brief was delivered to the Legal Aid Practitioners Group. Into the lion’s den. McNally wants to move on from LASPO, admitting the bill’s passage was ‘bruising for everyone’. His emollience was welcome; the absence of credible answers to practitioners’ questions ...
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Effective extradition and rights must be combined
by Jago Russell, chief executive of Fair Trials International The Gary McKinnon case has again caught the attention following the home secretary’s recent announcement on extradition reform.
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Motor insurance
Compulsory insurance against third party risks – Liabilities required to be covered Bristol Alliance Limited Partnership v EUI Ltd: Court of Appeal, Civil Division: 11 October 2012 The Court of ...
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Extradition
Extradition order – Application for stay of extradition R (on the application of Fawaz) v Secretary of State for Home Department; R (on the application of Bary) v Secretary of State for Home Department; R (on the application of ...
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Beancounter backlash
You would hope that, if anyone produced a Top Trumps pack for the professions, both solicitors and accountants would score in the very high 90s for trustworthiness. But to judge by a lively tit-for-tat debate last week between representatives of the two professions, there are sensitivities. ...
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The Magistrate: win tickets
American stage and film actor John Lithgow takes the title role in Arthur Wing Pinero’s fast, furious, brilliantly plotted Victorian farce. With his louche air and a developed taste for smoking, gambling, port and women, it’s hard to believe Cis Farringdon is only 14. And ...
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Victims of human trafficking and the CCRC
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (the CCRC) is warning that both defence and prosecution lawyers need to become more alert to the issues relating to victims of human trafficking if miscarriages of justice are to be avoided.
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Profit a ‘dirty word’ in law, says Dragon’s Den judge
Entrepreneur and investor James Caan has revealed he found a culture where profit was a ‘dirty word’ when he looked to buy a law firm. Former Dragons Den judge Caan, whose private investment company Hamilton Bradshaw bought Midlands firm Knights in June, said he had spoken ...
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Pain in the neck
Do any personal injury lawyers know the identity of this unfortunate woman? If not, you may want to get in touch. For it seems the poor accident victim simply can’t shake off a sore neck. This photo has appeared more than a dozen times in Daily ...
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Mental health
Patient – Responsible local social services authority – Residence of patient R (on the application of Sunderland City Council) v South Tyneside Council: Court of Appeal, Civil Division: 9 October 2012 ...
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Stop moaning about your pension, m’lud
The sound of judicial bleating about what lesser mortals will surely view as a modest and sensible recalibration of judges’ pensions is hard to bear. It seems their lordships might even take new justice secretary Chris Grayling to court to block reforms that reflect the straitjacket imposed on public spending ...
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Mediation is the future, Falconer says
The Supreme Court’s equal pay ruling yesterday will lead to ‘billions and billions worth of claims’ Labour’s former lord chancellor has predicted. Lord Falconer (pictured) suggested that such claims be mediated rather than leaving them to the ‘vagaries of the legal system’, which he said would be costly and could ...
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Medical expert witness independence
Britain is the whiplash capital of Europe, with more than 1,500 claims a day, including people claiming for whiplash injuries sustained in the most minor of incidents. In May 2011, the House of Commons Transport Committee published a report into the cost of motor insurance, warning that spiralling costs are ...
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Five years on: progress ‘largely static’ towards LSA nirvana
The Legal Services Act has made little difference to standards in the profession, according to a report released today by the Legal Services Board. The baseline report, published five years since the act, found that indicators such as diversity, quality of service and access to legal ...
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Small Fry
Chris Fry, managing partner of Sheffield firm Unity Law, had a double celebration last week. After receiving his Law Society Excellence award for community investment, Fry had to dash from Old Billingsgate in London to Sheffield where his wife Jackie was going into labour. He made it for the birth ...