Last 3 months headlines – Page 1193
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History book; care home fees; charging charities
Thursday marks a key milestone in the history of local government lawyers. John Emms (former solicitor to the council at Kirklees MBC) will publish his book Local Lawyers: Public Practice. As Solicitors in Local Government merges with its chief officer counterpart, the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors, the book ...
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Testamentary capacity
In Hawes v Burgess [2013] EWCA Civ 74, the Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s finding that the deceased’s last will (which cut out her son) was invalid and that her earlier will (leaving everything equally to her three children) therefore remained unrevoked.
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Legal help must be restored to all private law children disputes
The result of enormous effort and faith, The Children Act 1991 enshrined the rights of children in family law as paramount. Yet the regulations that will come into effect on 8 April will seriously undermine all the good work and progress made to date. For the ...
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Stolen identity
We have encountered a problem where this firm’s identity is being used by a potential fraudster. On one day in January, we were contacted by seven people/firms in Canada who received a letter from a potential fraudster, holding himself out as being an attorney at this firm, using this firm’s ...
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Swings and roundabouts
Here we go again. In classic Daily Mail-style, out come the stories – which we are expected to treat as typical – of solicitors charging £4,000 for photocopying or overcharging by £30,000. Just like the single mother with 13 children.
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Fairness plea
Am I the only solicitor worried about the future of criminal litigation in this country? I see fewer young solicitors becoming involved in criminal work. The reasons why would seem to be simple. The remuneration and conditions of practice cannot attract new people.
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Foreign territory
Martin Maloney responds to my response to his original letter about assumptions of guilt within criminal law procedure. In essence, Mr Maloney repeats his previous assertions which I have already answered; basically that what distinguishes us from others is that we are lawyers and that this is a legal journal. ...
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What's your firm called?
Anita Scott in Scarborough writes to wish London firms Teacher Stern and Butcher Burns success in their merger. ‘I was a little disappointed, however, that they did not adopt the name Stern Teacher Burns Butcher.’ With mergers increasingly à la mode, Obiter hopes to see ...
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Budsworth gears up for laughs
Obiter was reminded of Roald Dahl’s The Witches last week, when a small boy is led into a room full of snarling crones and turned into a mouse. Of course no such fate awaited the Motor Accidents Solicitors Society chairman Craig Budsworth as he stepped ...
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Browbeaten spouses
The marital coercion defence raised by Vicky Pryce has had a long if intermittent history. It stemmed from the time when, because they often could not read and write, women were denied the benefit of clergy at assizes and so could not avoid punishment.
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Pedal power propels lawyers to Paris
So, what did you do in February? Lawyers at JD Spicer Zeb Solicitors cycled from London to Paris to raise funds for the Free Representation Unit. Simon Maughan and Michael Situ led the ride, which covered over 200 miles in three days and has so far raised close to £2,000. ...
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Curse of the Tome Raiders
Help for newly ensconced COLPs and COFAs was at hand this week at franchise network HighStreetLawyer.com’s conference at Chancery Lane. One top tip came from risk manager PNCR Legal’s Tim Prior, who noted that many COLPs and COFAs are still struggling with keeping systems and policies up to date. ...
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Ten-point plan for solicitors to cut claims delays
Solicitors can cut delays in processing claims at the County Court Money Claims Centre by not stapling forms together, the centre has suggested. The advice appears in a list of ways in which ‘customers’ can help the much-criticised Salford centre, which marks its first birthday ...
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UK law firms are making headway in the tough South Korean market
North Korea’s belligerence casts a long shadow over its southern neighbour. But South Korea has shown it can develop and thrive despite the tension across the 38th parallel. It is, many insist, a good time for UK law firms to be thinking about South Korea. Although the country has ...
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Half of all tribunal fines remain unpaid
Nearly half of the solicitors fined by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal in recent years have avoided paying those fines in full, figures obtained by the Gazette reveal. Of 579 cases since 2008 in which such a penalty was imposed, the fine has yet to be ...
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Lloyds counsels calm on credit
High street firms should not fear a ‘kneejerk’ reaction from banks restricting lending in the wake of high-profile firm failures, according to a big-four bank. The collapse of Manchester firm Cobbetts in January, which followed the demise in 2010 of regional giant Halliwells, has led ...
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Nine out of 10 oppose criminal tendering plan
Nearly 90% of solicitors are opposed to price-competitive tendering (PCT) for criminal defence work, a Law Society survey has revealed, after the government announced accelerated plans for its introduction. The online poll of 200 solicitors showed overwhelming opposition to tendering – 89% strongly disagreed or disagreed ...
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Drug and Alcohol Court pioneers drink monitors
The judge leading London’s pioneering Family Drug and Alcohol Court has voiced concern that lack of money will stop families in care cases getting adequate support to turn their lives around. Judge Nicholas Crichton (pictured) spoke to the Gazette following the end of a three-month pilot ...
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No ‘stay of execution’ from banks for PI firms
Personal injury firms will struggle to convince banks that they are viable when fees are slashed next month, an insolvency expert has warned. Practices across the country have begun making redundancies ahead of fixed recoverable costs being cut by 60% at the end of April, the ...
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Eight-week PCT consultation period looks like a fig leaf
Like striking miners in the 1980s, criminal defenders must sometimes feel they are treated as the ‘enemy within’ by government. Pointedly overlooked for their role in expediting justice after the 2011 August riots, they have now been hit by an accelerated price tendering process which bears all the hallmarks of ...