Last 3 months headlines – Page 1191
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More work, but conveyancers still cautious
Conveyancers have reported a 15% rise in work over the past year – although one in five fear the weak property market still poses a threat, according to a national survey. The poll of 320 solicitors and licensed conveyancers carried out by search provider SearchFlow found that 59% reported a ...
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How to spot solicitors’ involvement in ‘financial abuse’
Concern that a growing number of solicitors are unintentionally involved in the ‘financial abuse’ of their clients has prompted the Law Society to issue new guidelines. As a result of economic recession, social change and advances in technology the risk of financial abuse is increasing, Chancery Lane said. A practice ...
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Law Society hard-hitting PI campaign
A bold new advertising campaign by the Law Society beginning today focuses on the benefits to personal injury claimants of getting proper legal advice. The six-week campaign ‘deliberately takes a bold, humorous and memorable approach to convey an important message’, the Society said. The ‘Don’t Get Mugged’ campaign will feature ...
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Radio ad censured
A Cardiff personal injury firm has been told not to repeat a radio advertisement that encouraged people to make it ‘the second person’ they call after an accident. The Advertising Standards Authority said Secure Law’s advertisement was irresponsible and carried the implicit message that listeners should make a claim irrespective ...
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Malthouse to speak at Society marketplace event
Kit Malthouse, deputy London mayor for business and enterprise, will be the closing speaker at the Law Society’s International Marketplace 2013 conference in London on 9 July. The all-day event will highlight business opportunities in providing legal services for emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Each session will ...
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Lawyering through the medium of dance
You would have thought Craig Holt, the mastermind behind the QualitySolicitors brand, would have enough on his plate keeping his 250-plus flock of branches in check. But apparently the pioneering brand whizzkid has time for a little covert calling as well. Holt and QS have been rather quiet in recent ...
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Where there’s a will, there’s a… won’t
Heartening news of a 29% productivity leap from our beloved consumer watchdog. The 2013 annual report of the Legal Services Consumer Panel runs to 36 electronic pages, up from 28 last year. That’s not all. Inside, Obiter reads that since 2011-12 the panel has ‘almost doubled the speeches and presentations ...
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A plum position
This week’s gardening tip from Obiter: tootle on your clarinet to encourage soft fruits to mature. The tip came via Worcestershire plum charmer Paul Johnson (pictured), who also happens to be a partner at Pershore firm Thomson & Bancks. His role, in between county court and employment tribunal cases, is ...
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Memory lane
The Law Society’s Gazette, 22 June 1988Sex discrimination should not be a disciplinary offence, says YSG Recent recommendations by a special Law Society working party that discrimination against women solicitors should be made a disciplinary offence and tax relief should be available for child care expenses, have been rejected by ...
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Clegg fuels rumours of cabinet split over legal aid
Signs of a cabinet split over the government’s legal aid proposals have emerged after the deputy prime minister voiced concern over the removal of client choice and the attorney general appeared to endorse barristers’ concerns that the changes would ‘damage the justice system’. The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday that ...
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Case management conferences – your war stories, please
A couple of months on from the Jackson start date, and life may not feel that different for litigators – just yet. But have you had your first post-Jackson case management conference?
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Trademarks in toys and games – part two
A recent High Court judgment concerning the Scrabble ‘tile’ trademark highlights the tension between trademarks and the functional elements of toys and games. Below is part two of a two-part summary of a few key decisions in this area; claims with varying degrees of success. Part one was published on ...
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Defamation on social media
On 24 May Mr Justice Tugendhat handed down the judgment in McAlpine v Bercow [2013] EWHC 1342 (QB), finding that Mrs Bercow’s tweet carried a defamatory meaning. Following the judgment it was announced that Bercow had accepted an earlier settlement offer, saying that ‘today’s ruling should be seen as a ...
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Plans underline PCT failings
One of the main planks of the profession’s – sorry, ‘industry’s’ – opposition to price-competitive tendering is that, if implemented, ‘if you are accused of a crime, you will have to take the solicitor allocated to you’. This is the position already.
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Don’t access all areas
It is clear that fraud on the Land Registry is increasing and takes various forms. Recently, there were pictures in the newspapers of an incident in a London street. The number plates on cars in the pictures were pixellated. Fair enough, I thought, given that the number plate might be ...
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Chris Grayling: divide and rule
I read in the Gazette of 10 June that Grayling believes there is a straight choice between saving £220m from either criminal legal aid (budget £1bn) or the NHS (budget £109bn). This is classic divide-and-rule stuff that will not fool either lobby. But even on this faulty logic, he should ...
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Shortcomings of mediation
Mediation is ‘flavour of the month’ and doubtless there is a lot to be said for it in reducing the costs of civil litigation. I was involved in mediation recently in a consumer claim, and cannot say that the process did more than delay the listing of the case and ...
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PI claims barrier
I refer to Rob Barley’s letter and my comment is that you ‘don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater’. The incident Mr Barley refers to is utterly inexcusable. As a claimant PI lawyer of getting on for 35 years’ standing, I probably feel even ...
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You can help shape improvements to legal regulation
by Helen Grant, justice minister Anyone who has worked in the legal industry will know what a nightmare the sector’s regulatory set-up can be.
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Freedom of information: limits of privilege
One of the key recommendations of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee in its July 2012 report on the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) was the introduction of a new exemption for academic research. The government accepted this recommendation in its official response late last year.