Last 3 months headlines – Page 1181
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Grayling achieves the impossible
Criminal solicitors and barristers are slowly getting to grips with the enormity of the legal aid changes proposed by the Ministry of Justice in its consultation last week. Most were stunned by the plans, which went much further than even the most pessimistic had expected and seemed to have been ...
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Be proud and fight on, PI lawyers told
The incoming president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has told colleagues they have no choice but to fight on in the face of government-imposed reforms. Matthew Stockwell told the annual APIL conference at Celtic Manor near Newport yesterday that the claimant industry had failed ...
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Barristers to ‘strike’ on Monday
Crown court cases face disruption on Monday as barristers on the northern circuit plan to stay away from court and attend an all-day meeting in protest against the government’s planned changes to criminal legal aid. A spokesman for the circuit said members were balloted this week ...
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Silk quits Bar Standards Board in quality assurance protest
A senior silk has resigned from his position on the Bar Standards Board over the regulator’s support for the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA). Jonathan Kinnear QC, who been a senior member of the BSB’s professional conduct committee for the past five years, wrote to ...
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Criminal legal aid reforms restrict client choice
The government’s consultation paper ‘transforming legal aid’ does affect one transformation. It transforms people into mere economic units by denying them the simple human dignity of choice.
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The yes and no of Scottish independence
On 18 September 2014 two sets of nationalists – Scots and UK respectively – will be hoping their supporters vote in large numbers. Personally I think they’ll both struggle with turnout – given what’s at stake, these campaigns are oddly technocratic. The ‘yes’ campaign, perhaps ...
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Solicitor appears on £3.7m fraud charge
A Cheltenham solicitor and coroner has appeared in court charged with fraud and theft of more than £3.7m. Alan Crickmore, who until December 2012 practised from his firm Alan C Crickmore, was charged with 13 counts of theft, seven counts of fraud by abuse of his ...
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APIL can celebrate survival, if little else
Given that most of the planet has been wiped out by terrifying aliens, the film Independence Day ends on a remarkably happy note. President Bill Pullman rallies his troops and assures them the future is bright. You survived, he tells them, and that’s reason enough to celebrate. Now get digging ...
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Regulator to probe intervention impact on clients
Former clients of firms closed down as a result of interventions by the Solicitors Regulation Authority are to be asked about their experiences in a research project announced by the regulator today. The SRA said the study of the impact of interventions on clients will ...
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Legal aid: exceptional circumstances
The legal framework From 1 April, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) overhauled the statutory framework for legal aid in England and Wales. The areas of law that remain ...
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Special treatment for the City
Perhaps it is just me, but the amount of TLC afforded by the government to the City seems extraordinarily generous. To begin with we have the implementation of the civil justice reforms. All serious commentators agree that they herald a transfer of wealth from accident victims and their advisers (disproportionately ...
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Firm failures
Yet another highly respected, innovative and award-winning solicitors’ practice fails, with untold misery for staff who now find themselves unemployed, and probably with family and financial commitments they cannot meet. Surely, someone must see that there is something radically wrong with the profession. Is it simply a matter of greed ...
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Getting to grips with costs
As the recent ‘Trials and tribulation’ article on the Jackson reforms pointed out, predicting and controlling costs is at the heart of the reforms. Thoughts though now need to turn to the immediate requirements under the new system.
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Insurance giants in law firm ventures
Insurance giant Admiral is poised this week to move into legal services through a joint venture with national firm Lyons Davidson. The partnership – set to be announced as the Gazette went to press – is the most significant of a spate of tie-ups between insurers ...
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Cyber threat warning to UK’s top 100
The security services have advised the UK’s largest law firms to take urgent action against cyber attacks, the Gazette can reveal. Partners from 40 top firms attended a private briefing last month with officials from the government’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure and ...
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Wales broaches support plan
The Welsh government is in talks with the Law Society about providing taxpayers’ money to support new and existing law firms in the country, the Gazette can reveal. Meetings were held last week with a view to the government offering help to domestic firms in ...
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Fighting talk from PI firms despite Jackson
Surviving personal injury firms say they will emerge from bruising civil litigation reforms stronger than ever, despite gloomy forecasts for the sector. The Jackson reforms and this month’s 60% cut in fixed fees through the RTA Portal have forced many firms to make redundancies and reduce ...
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LETR may be ‘outdated’, warns Savage
The much-delayed Legal Education and Training Review (LETR) could be ‘obsolete and outdated’ even before it is published, according to the University of Law’s chief executive Nigel Savage.
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Solicitor gets Met Police damages over assault
A criminal solicitor has received ‘substantial damages’ from the Metropolitan Police after settling a claim that she was assaulted in an East London police station as she sought to represent her 13-year-old client. Catriona Sheehan, a solicitor with 20 years’ experience, started a civil action ...