Last 3 months headlines – Page 1211

  • News

    Brand loyalty – and the ski-jacket owners’ club

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Recently I was presenting the results of a mystery shopping campaign, and as commonly happens, the issues of capturing accurate contact details and inadequate follow-up were discussed. Two particular areas of weakness identified were the provision of contact information to the marketing team and failing to ...

  • News

    Survey paints gloomy picture of MoJ morale

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Ministry of Justice staff lack confidence in the organisation’s leadership and ability to manage change, the civil service’s annual people survey has revealed. The results show that 28% of staff had confidence in senior management and 32% said the department is managed well. Less than a quarter (23%) of respondents ...

  • News

    Civil justice advisers condemn PI fixed fees as ‘unrealistic’

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Fixed-fee proposals for personal injury work are unrealistic and should wait until at least 2014, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) has advised. The independent advisory body chaired by the master of the rolls has told the government it should hold back from new costs plans before ...

  • News

    DWF rides to rescue of Cobbetts

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    National firm DWF has announced its intention to acquire troubled firm Cobbetts.

  • News

    Advocacy quality scheme set back to September

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Introduction of the controversial quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA) has been delayed by nine months, the joint advocacy group (JAG) responsible for the scheme admitted today. Under the revised implementation timetable, published by the three legal regulators charged with designing QASA, a handbook on the ...

  • News

    Ombudsman predicts more cases as compensation limit rises

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    The Legal Ombudsman is expecting to increase the number of investigations it carries out under new powers coming in to force today. The new rules lift the ceiling on compensation awards from £30,000 to £50,000 and allow the ombudsman to accept complaints from prospective as ...

  • News

    Ask the staff

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    The annual civil service people survey is a great annual diversion, juxtaposing low levels of staff satisfaction and confidence in the Ministry of Justice’s leadership on the one hand, and hyper-positive confidence of senior management spin on the other. This year my colleague Catherine Baksi reported it as news - ...

  • News

    A dissenting Judge

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Lord Judge, as we all know, has a wonderfully apt name. Not as good as the anaesthetist from Essex called Doctor De’ath but certainly enough to raise a smile. However that’s not the main reason why I’ll miss the Lord Chief Justice when he hangs up the gown and retires ...

  • News

    Call for care failings disclosure laws

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    NHS trusts and their lawyers should be forced by law to reveal when care providers have made serious mistakes, campaigners have said in the run-up to the report of the inquiry into alleged failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Peter Walsh, chief executive of ...

  • News

    Leniency for whistleblowing? This is not the NYPD

    2013-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Call me a stooge if you like, but I reckon the Law Society is bang on the money with this one. Yesterday it emerged that Chancery Lane is opposed to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s plan to offer whistleblowers leniency if they shop their partners in crime. ...

  • News

    Planning

    21 January 2013

    Human rights – Right to respect for private and family life AZ v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and another: Queen's Bench Division, Administrative Court: 20 December 2012 ...

  • News

    Copyright

    21 January 2013

    Judge finding defendants having defence – Whether defence ought to be limited Football Association Premier League Ltd v QC Leisure and others and other cases: Court of Appeal, Civil Division: 20 December 2012 ...

  • News

    Costs

    21 January 2013

    Assessment – Detailed assessment – Conduct of parties Wilkinson v London Strategic Health Authority: Patents County Court (Judge Birss QC): 23 November 2012 The court considered the award of costs ...

  • News

    Injunction

    21 January 2013

    Conflict of laws – Foreign proceedings – Restraint of foreign proceedings Malhotra v Malhotra and another: Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court: 30 October 2012 The claimant sought the continuation of ...

  • News

    Appeal

    21 January 2013

    Unfair dismissal – Claimant working as a lap dancer for defendant – Whether EAT erring Quashie v Stringfellows Restaurants Ltd: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justices Ward, Elias and Pitchford): 21 December 2012 ...

  • News

    A review of the 2012 changes to criminal law

    21 January 2013

    Two major cases regarding case management were decided in 2012. In R (on the application of Drinkwater) v Solihull Magistrates’ Court [2012] EWHC 765 (Admin), the court had to consider whether a trial should be adjourned or go ahead in the absence of a defendant. Following the decision in R ...

  • News

    Smaller firms can thrive by turning size to their advantage

    21 January 2013

    Sarah Harman’s comment that ‘the days of the small practice are numbered’ (My Legal Life, 14 January) is simply wrong. The days of the small general practice reliant predominantly on legal aid may well be coming to an end, but small specialist practices are unquestionably in a hugely competitive and ...

  • News

    Help is at hand for addiction

    21 January 2013

    In 2006 I got a job with a City firm. It proved to be very stressful and within months my occasional recreational use of drugs had turned into a full-blown addiction. I found myself deeply in debt and alienating my family and my firm.

  • News

    No magic bullet cure for cancer

    21 January 2013

    Having studied Lord Saatchi’s draft Medical Innovation Bill, I was pleased with Robert Illidge’s thoughtful perspective. As a retired NHS consultant and an expert witness with experience of medical negligence from both sides (and at the risk of becoming frightfully unpopular), I would suggest that entrusting only the medical profession, ...

  • News

    Legal advice agencies hit by funding cut

    21 January 2013

    Organisations helping not-for-profit agencies and litigants in person have been dealt another blow by the decision to axe Community Legal Service grants. After consultation, the Legal Services Commission announced this week that funding to the Advice Services Alliance, Law Centres Network and the Royal Courts ...