Last 3 months headlines – Page 1179
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Want to be a partner? Borrow against rising house prices
A loan provider is offering finance to solicitors aiming to become equity partners in law firms – in exchange for a stake in the rising value of their home. Castle Trust, which was set up with backing from private equity giant JC Flowers, says there is ...
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Bar gets into shape for ABSs
The Bar Standards Board is simplifying criteria for approving new business entities, ahead of an application to become a licensing authority for alternative business structures. Several compulsory rules are to be made discretionary to make the authorisation regime more ‘agile’. These currently oblige entities to have: ...
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Ministers find £160m for Wi-Fi transformation of justice
The government has pledged £160m to fulfil ambitious plans to make courtrooms fully digital by 2016, ending the criminal justice system’s ‘outdated’ reliance on paper. Justice minister Damian Green this morning outlined a plan Transforming the Criminal Justice System covering initiatives ranging from increased use of ...
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Sentencing guidelines will prioritise victims
Proposed new sentencing guidelines for financial crimes published today encompass bribery and money laundering for the first time, while setting out to prioritise the impact on the victim. The guidelines, which will replace existing guidance published by the Sentencing Guidelines Council in 2009, also cover ...
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Public less likely to trust lawyers
Declining public confidence in the professions continues to take its toll on lawyers, according to an annual survey commissioned by watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel. A YouGov survey of 1,702 adults found that 42% trust lawyers to tell the truth, down from 47% in 2011. ...
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New consultation on hate crime
The Law Commission has published a consultation on extending the law on hate crimes to cover sexual orientation, transgender identity and disability. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 allows for aggravated offences, including assault and criminal damage, if race or religion have motivated or formed part ...
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Judicial oversight promised for white-collar prosecution deals
US-style deals to defer prosecutions for offences such as corporate bribery will be transparent and supervised by a judge under a code of practice for prosecutors published today. Deferred prosecutions, under which a prosecution for corporate crime is suspended in return for a promise of ...
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Inducements: damage limitation
Let’s make this clear: inducements to purchase a service or product are a fundamental and legitimate part of business. I’m still with the same bank that offered me free cash back in freshers’ week at university, and I’ll bet many others are in the same boat. ...
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Watchdog: reform ‘unnecessarily complicated’ election law
Moves to rationalise the 25 separate pieces of legislation that govern national elections received the support of the electoral watchdog today. A report ‘Reflections on a new structure for the United Kingdom’s electoral law’, published by the Electoral Commission, argues that the ‘voluminous, complex and ...
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LSC running costs rose as legal aid shrank, report reveals
The amount spent on legal aid and the number of people helped dropped over the past year - but the cost of administering the Legal Services Commission went up, according to the commission’s final annual report. The report, published yesterday, is the first in five years ...
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Judges look again at £2m claims exemption
Exempting mandatory costs budgeting for claims in excess of £2m may be ‘unnecessary and inappropriate’, a newly established sub-group of the Civil Procedure Rule committee has suggested. An intervention from the Judicial Office in February ensured that high-value commercial cases would be exempt from impending Jackson ...
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Redundancies at Direct Line
Up to 40 legal staff, including solicitors, have been placed at risk of redundancy after insurance giant Direct Line announced a major restructuring plan. The Gazette understands a mixture of fee-earners and back-office staff from national firm Parabis were told this morning they are affected. Based ...
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LETR: allow non-graduates direct access, says SRA chair
Law courses should be tailored to allow non-graduates a direct route into the solicitors’ profession, Charles Plant, chairman of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, said today. He was responding to the report of the Legal Education and Training Review, published this afternoon, which says more flexibility ...
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LETR: debt is the elephant in the room
Picture the scene – you walk into a party, nod at the elephant in the room (you and the elephant go way back), then steadfastedly refuse to talk to it until it’s time to leave, when you get your coat and wave a wordless goodbye. You couldn’t really get away ...
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LETR: legal executives welcome ‘mainstream recognition’
The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) welcomed today’s report of the Legal Education and Training Review – but said it had already embraced many of the report’s recommendations. In an initial response, Nick Hanning, CILEx president, said: ‘This is a valuable piece of work. ...
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LETR: law students not prepared for work, Society says
Potential entrants to the legal profession must be given more and better information before embarking on costly programmes of study, the Law Society said in response to the report of the Legal Education and Training Review. Chief executive Desmond Hudson (pictured) said there is an ...
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Taylor Wessing looks to cut a quarter of secretarial posts
More than a quarter of secretarial roles are at risk of redundancy at top-20 firm Taylor Wessing. The international firm wants to cut its London-based secretarial staff by 26 roles and has started a 30-day consultation process with affected staff. A spokeswoman for the firm said voluntary redundancy would not ...
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CPS under fire for failures in two serious cases
The Crown Prosecution Service has been criticised by two separate Crown court judges after sending an ‘incompetent’ advocate to prosecute a murder trial and for ‘lamentable failures’ that delayed a rape trial. In the first case, judge Richard Griffith-Jones, sitting at Warwick, ordered an investigation after a murder trial had ...
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Bar chief calls for royal commission
More than two decades after the Runciman Commission was set up following high-profile miscarriages of justice, the chairman of the Bar Council has called for a royal commission to conduct a root-and-branch review of the criminal justice system. Maura McGowan suggested that the system be reviewed holistically, as the government ...