Last 3 months headlines – Page 1219
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'Self-serving' interpreter figures slammed
The shadow justice minister has criticised as ‘self-serving’ performance data released on the company contracted to provide court interpreters. The data, published by the Ministry of Justice last week, revealed that hundreds of cases were still being disrupted by a shortage of interpreters three months into the contract. ...
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Plaid Cymru hails legal devolution
Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd has insisted Wales can benefit from a separate legal jurisdiction - despite warnings it may harm the principality’s appeal to business. Llywd told the House of Commons last week that there would be legal and economic advantages to devolving the administration of justice. ...
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Reserved service plea by Society over immigration advice
Immigration advice should become a reserved legal activity to prevent non-authorised persons causing ‘consumer detriment’, the Law Society argues today. In a response to a Legal Services Board discussion paper, the Society offers to help assure quality standards by ‘providing further adjuncts’ to its Immigration ...
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Government move to replace tribunal judges splits profession
Government plans to save time in employment tribunals by using ‘legal officers’ in place of judges appear to have split the profession. One employment specialist described the idea as ‘short-sighted and utterly wrong’, while another told the Gazette that any innovation that ‘allows heads to ...
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Clarke plea on prisons population
Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has called for a ‘pause’ in prison population growth as the numbers creep closer to the UK’s operational capacity. At a hearing of the Commons Justice Committee last week Clarke described overcrowding in UK prisons as ‘one of the scourges of ...
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Law Society responds to training review
Bottlenecks in the legal training system are inevitable so long as there are more aspiring entrants to the profession than the market can employ, the Law Society points out in its first formal response to the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR). The response is broadly in favour of the ...
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Arbitrary decisions
Picture this: an international arbitration, millions of dollars at stake; an expert is called to give evidence on damages right at the end of the hearing. This is what he says happened: ‘Everyone had flown miles to come to the arbitration. I was the last witness. One of the counsel ...
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Government must not ignore Strasbourg’s overtures on prisoner voting
How did the government get itself into such a mess over prisoners voting? After human rights judges stretched out the hand of friendship to the UK last week, David Cameron promptly bit it off, willingly giving parliament an undertaking that he would not succumb to what one MP had described ...
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Chinese law firm looks to build UK ‘bridge’
A ‘win-win’ relationship forged between UK solicitors and one of China’s largest law firms could see UK practitioners claiming their share of China’s rapidly growing legal services market, the Gazette was told last week.
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Patent court decision 'worth £3bn a year to UK'
The UK legal sector could lose almost £3bn a year if the proposed new European central patents court is not based in London, the Law Society claimed this week.
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Case management - a more robust approach
Guntrip v Cheney Coaches Ltd, [2012] EWCA Civ 392, Ward, Elias and Lewison LJJ; Fred Perry Holdings Ltd v Brands Plaza Trading Ltd & Another [2012] EWCA Civ 224, Jackson and Lewison LJJ.
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Patently obvious? You’d think so
The UK is not universally loved in Europe. Just ask Engelbert Humperdinck. So the notoriously Europhile justice secretary Kenneth Clarke was in an awkward position this week in respect of the new European patents court. Chancery Lane added its voice to warnings that UK plc will miss out on up ...
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Learning from Germany in forging a more effective criminal justice system for young adults
by Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League The T2A Alliance has put together a 10-step plan to reduce the number of young adults in the criminal justice system.
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Trust in lawyers falling, says consumer panel
Consumer satisfaction with the value for money of legal services has risen over the past year, but trust in lawyers has fallen, according to the second ‘tracker’ survey carried out for the Legal Services Consumer Panel. The YouGov survey showed that satisfaction with the value for ...
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Insurers set for referral to competition watchdog over inflated premiums
Insurance companies are taking advantage of the system to inflate premiums for drivers by £225m a year, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) reports today. The competition watchdog says that after a road traffic accident, insurers of the not-at-fault driver and others, such as brokers, ...
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Food for thought
Fresh from spreading the word to breakfast time news audiences about the new services the Co-operative Legal Services plans to offer to consumers, its managing director met the trade press for ‘lunch’ to lay down the gauntlet to traditional law firms.
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Garden leave
Legal gardens will be doing their bit for London’s annual celebration of its hidden - and often exclusive - green squares. Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn as well as Holloway and Wormwood Scrubs Prison gardens are all taking part in Open Garden Squares Weekend.
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Torch bearer
Kate Hincks, vice-chair of the Lawyers with Disabilities Division of the Law Society, was chosen from 30,000 People’s Champions to carry the Olympic torch through Royal Wootton Bassett on its journey around Britain. Hincks has been volunteering since she was 11 years old and currently ...
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Keeping schtum
With more than 100 ABS-wannabes at stage 2 of the laborious application process, we’re not expecting a brass band to march down Chancery Lane every time the SRA approves a new alternative business structure. But perhaps it might be worth telling the successful firm itself?
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Memory lane
Law Society’s Gazette, 3 May 1972 Better off on supplementary benefits? (Letter to the editor) ...