Last 3 months headlines – Page 1218
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This judgment is sponsored by Budweiser
There are always two clues for the eagle-eyed journalist that an announcement is going to cause trouble. The first is the announcement itself: the less detail, the more controversial it’s likely to turn out. It’s like the Titanic captain telling passengers the ship is suffering a ...
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Society wins more flexibility for Santander panel firms
Conveyancing firms will continue to be able to act on behalf of Santander while their Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) applications are being considered, the Law Society has announced, following negotiations with the bank. Last year the bank changed the terms of its residential conveyancing panel to ...
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Judge criticises ‘desultory’ training in run-up to 1 April
A senior member of the judiciary has become the first judge to criticise in public the level of training given ahead of the Jackson reforms coming into force. Senior master Steven Whitaker (pictured), who is also the Queen’s remembrancer at the Royal Courts of Justice, said ...
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LSB throws gates open to bar public access
The Legal Services Board today approved rule changes that will allow barristers to deal directly with clients in areas eligible for legal aid and for barristers of under three years’ call to be directly accessible to clients. The Bar Standards Board (BSB) said it is strengthening ...
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If you’re happy and you know it…
With Jackson Day almost upon us and the legal world on the brink of armageddon, it’s nice to know we’re all staying positive. How else to explain the results of a survey that arrived on Obiter’s desk today saying that lawyers are among the happiest workers in the UK. ...
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Police services
Police attendance at football matches – Defendant police force providing police services in certain identified streets and public areas beyond stadium and areas owned and controlled by claimant football club (the extended footprint) Leeds United Football Club v Chief ...
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Changes to criminal law – part 2
On 1 September 2012 it became an offence under section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) for a person to trespass in a residential building by living or intending to live in the building when he knew or ought to have known that ...
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A better approach to diversity
Larissa Hutson (4 March) states that one of the statutory responsibilities of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is ‘to reach and encourage a wide range of applicants to properly reflect the full diversity of the profession’. The fact that the judiciary does not properly reflect the diversity of the legal ...
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Judicial appointments: random access
I am responding to a letter (Larissa Hutson, 4 March) concerning research being carried out to discover what attracts members of the legal profession to apply – or puts them off from applying – to be a judge. This work is being undertaken by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) in ...
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Two decades of greed
Amid all the doom and gloom of Jackson et al, perhaps the best thing that has happened to our profession in recent years is the government’s collaboration with the insurance industry orchestrating the complete collapse of the personal injury sector. With headlines suggesting ‘shock’, and announcing redundancies and closures of ...
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Identity check conundrum
Do the Land Registry rules regarding confirmation of identity spell the end for selling property under a power of attorney? According to Practice Guide 67 and rule 17 of the Land Registration Rules 2003, the chief land registrar is entitled to require evidence of identity of ...
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Ministry doublespeak
The embarrassing court interpreter outsourcing saga continues. Courts minister Helen Grant repeats the same old mantra of ‘a dramatic improvement in the interpreter contract’. Who says, exactly? The Ministry of Justice has in all conscience been asked this often enough. When its responses are shorn ...
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Grayling flies flag for City law firms
Justice secretary Chris Grayling has announced a renewed drive to export the UK’s legal services as City firms fight to maintain healthy profit margins. Grayling used a speech last week to stress that London was as much as a legal centre as a financial one and ...
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Prepare for the worst, SRA tells struggling firms
The Solicitors Regulation Authority has urged struggling firms to establish a contingency plan for insolvency, as the cost to the profession of interventions increases. The regulator has committed £2.2m to interventions in failed law firms in the first quarter of 2013 – almost £1m more than ...
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Insurers blamed for blocking Atteys sale
The interim manager handling the wind-down of Yorkshire firm Atteys has alleged that the successor practice rules (SPR) allowed ‘the professional indemnity insurance (PII) tail to wag the profession’s dog’. The SPR ensure insurance is in place to cover claims against firms that no longer exist, ...
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Society calls for tribunal fines to fund regulation
The Law Society has proposed that fines imposed at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal be used to fund regulation of the legal profession. Last week the Gazette revealed that almost half of the solicitors fined by the tribunal in recent years had avoided paying those fines in ...
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Family courts cuts will create ‘perfect storm’
Lawyers have voiced concern about plans to cut the number of judges and courts dealing with family cases in central London at a time when increasing numbers of litigants in person are expected to put greater strain on the service. The family justice system is working ...
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Inter-firm initiative to promote diversity
Firms need to work together to achieve ‘true change’ in the legal profession’s approach to diversity, according to the co-chairs of a new inter-firm initiative that launches this week. NOTICED has been set up by eight City firms to help make the profession more accessible and ...
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Apprenticeships ‘risk alienating international firms’
A leading City training specialist has warned that legal apprenticeships may be less appealing to the biggest corporate firms with overseas offices. Tony King, chair of the City of London Law Society training committee, said: ‘Internationally, the lack of a degree will raise issues with ...
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Leveson haunts crime bill
The House of Commons is to vote today (18 March) on amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill that would implement the Leveson proposals on press regulation in conjunction with a royal charter. The vote follows the prime minister’s announcement last week that the Conservatives were ...