Last 3 months headlines – Page 1222
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Spousal maintenance - how much and for how long?
These two questions vex even the most experienced family law practitioners. Disputes over spousal maintenance often preclude an early settlement. Many practitioners have also commented that the approach to an award of spousal maintenance around the country is widely inconsistent, with regional variations being particularly noticeable.
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Contempt of court
Appeal against committal order - Defendant failing to comply with restraint order and being committed to prison for contempt of court R v OB: CA (Crim Div) (Lord Justice Gross, Mr Justice Openshaw, Judge Milford QC): 2 May 2012 ...
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SARs ruling brings relief to law firms
A Court of Appeal ruling on anti-money-laundering obligations will bring relief for businesses, including law firms, and remind lawyers of the importance of having appropriate systems to evidence concerns leading to suspicious activity reports (SARs). In a judgment last week, the court dismissed a claim made ...
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City firm must defend whistleblower accusations
A City firm is to face whistleblowing and sexual discrimination claims brought by a sacked east Africa-based equity partner following her successful appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). The EAT has told Clyde & Co that it cannot rely upon its previous defence that the overseas-based partner was not ...
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Sole ‘success’
Viv Williams’s recent comments really rubbed salt into a wound which was just beginning to heal. I set up my practice 25 years ago and operated as a sole practitioner for all of those years, highly successfully. I had a superb, loyal following which resulted ...
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Persistence pays off
Edward Foster suggests it is unfair that so few LPC students secure a training contract and that a three-year postgraduate professional apprenticeship may be the way forward. The abolition of the minimum trainee ‘wage’ agreed last week should also help.
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Managing stress
We at LawCare were sorry to read the letter of 10 May from Jean Booth. Sadly her experience of stress leading to debilitating and ultimately career-ending depression is one we hear only too often on the LawCare helpline. We would reiterate Ms Booth’s advice - if you are juggling the ...
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Client confusion
The occasional articles by the Legal Ombudsman should give us all cause for concern. Historically we have, in these articles, had our clients described as ‘customers’ or ‘consumers’. Even the lay members of the ombudsman service ought to know that it is shopkeepers who have customers and regional or national ...
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A helping hand: sponsorship programmes
Corporations on both sides of the Atlantic are introducing formal sponsorship programmes to propel women and other under-represented groups into very senior roles. Law firms that want to boost diversity at the top of their organisations and improve their business performance should take note. In the US, notes Deborah Epstein ...
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The legal profession is still capable of coming together as a community
A great deal is written and said about divisions in the legal profession - on the results of increased specialisation, the disparities in rewards, and the questions of public policy that generate discord. While such differences are real and worthy of note, this week’s London ...
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Decision to scrap the trainee minimum salary was ill-considered and nonsensical
by Hekim Hannan, chair of the Junior Lawyers Division Last week the SRA abolished the trainee minimum salary, currently £18,590 in Central London and £16,650 elsewhere.
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Co-op goes nationwide with 3,000 new hires
The Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) today announced plans to recruit 3,000 staff and extend its legal services to all 330 of its high street banks, creating the largest consumer law business in the country. CLS, which in March became one of the first alternative business structures, ...
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'Customer' or 'client'?
I popped in to the doctor’s yesterday but I had to wait because my GP was busy with another customer. Actually, I was a bit late for my appointment. I’d just got off the phone to my child’s teacher. She’s always keen to chat because my family is one of ...
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Official statistics reveal ALS performance shortfall
Three months into its contract to provide court interpreters Applied Language Solutions (ALS) was not meeting its performance targets, statistics published today reveal. Data provided to the Ministry of Justice by ALS, showed that from 30 January to 30 April 2012, ALS provided an interpreter in 81% of the cases ...
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Going ‘no comment’: a delicate balancing act
Sam Hallam’s conviction for the murder of Essayas Kassahun was overturned last week by the Court of Appeal, after he had spent seven years in jail. Barrister Henry Blaxland QC said Hallam, who was 18 when sentenced, had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice ...
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Insolvency exemption in latest no win, no fee U-turn
Insolvency cases will be exempt from no win, no fee reforms until April 2015, the government has revealed in its second climb-down in its struggle to overhaul the civil justice system. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said today that insolvency practitioners need longer to adjust to ...
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Young ones face the music
They braced themselves like naughty schoolchildren outside the headmaster’s office expecting a thrashing. The Junior Lawyers Division was always on a hiding to nothing by electing to attend last week’s public session of the Solicitors Regulation Authority board. ‘Do we get to actually speak in the ...
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Clutching at Straw
Jack Straw has trousered well north of £100,000 in extra-parliamentary earnings since the last election. A commodity trader, a private equity house and even a military thinktank have all paid handsomely for the peripatetic Blackburn MP’s services, as Obiter has recounted.
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Foot loose
HM Judiciary, represented here by the master of the rolls and lord chief justice, hit a distinctive sartorial note on Monday’s London Legal Walk. T-shirts and trainers were worn, but frequently over double-cuffed shirts and ties, and creased trousers. Exotic headgear was optional. Despite the mature ...