Last 3 months headlines – Page 1235
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High-cost cases to escape new management rules
Commercial cases worth more than £2m will be exempt from new costs management rules, the judiciary has decided. A document issued today says that the exemption was made in an amendment to the Civil Procedure Rules finalised last week. Costs management is ...
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Responding to the changing complaints scope
by Matt Rowley, lead associate at LBS Legal In the last few months we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of enquiries from practices looking to reduce the impact of what they consider to be malicious complaints progressed to the Legal Ombudsman
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Concession over EU sales law
The Law Society has welcomed an important concession from the European Parliament on the proposed common European sales law. Following lobbying by Chancery Lane, the new instrument is now to be applied only to contracts involving distance selling, particularly online transactions. The ...
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High Court challenge over 17-year-olds’ custody rights
The High Court will hear a legal challenge to the practice of treating 17-year-olds detained in police custody as adults, in a judicial review being brought by Just For Kids Law next week. The charity questions the legality of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act code ...
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Website delays
With a growing percentage of new enquiries arriving via solicitors’ websites these days, online is undoubtedly a law firm’s most valuable marketing tool.
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Chancery Division upgrade planned
The Chancellor of the High Court has today announced a review of the practice and procedure of the Chancery Division in light of the imminent Jackson and legal aid reforms. The review will consider the working of the court both in and outside London, making recommendations ...
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Top-40 firms seek ABS status, research shows
Almost a quarter of the UK’s top-40 firms may seek to join with a non-solicitors practice in the next two years, according to research. A poll of leading firms by accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson found nine firms are keen on forming an ...
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Opportunities in Mexico
Mexico may be a distant market, but for internationally focused commercial firms with the right strategy, there is significant potential for growth in this rapidly expanding economy. With BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) experiencing slower growth than in the years that put their economies on the map, investor ...
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Interpreters contract: inept and dangerous
I write with regard to the court interpreter contract. Catherine Baksi is quite right still to be pursuing this particularly inept – and dangerous – example of outsourcing. Inept, since the terms of this monopolistic contract are holding the criminal justice system and we service providers to ransom.
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Lions led by donkeys
Those of your readers with a historical interest have no doubt heeded the conduct of the first world war generals. Strategy was decided ‘on high’. Little heed was paid to the men in the trenches. Policy came from an elite talking to itself. The verdict of history? Lions led by ...
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Air ambulance confusion
In the past few months the air ambulance community has discovered a problem where wills are being written listing the ‘Air Ambulance Service’ as a beneficiary. While the name ‘Air Ambulance Service’ has been used as a general phrase to describe services across the ...
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LSC drops legal aid contract changes
The Legal Services Commission has agreed to drop controversial changes to ongoing legal aid contracts following talks with the Law Society. The commission is tendering for new contracts in the runup to legal aid reforms coming into effect on 1 April and had sought to ...
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City firms eye China scheme
An initiative to promote business and legal ties between China and the UK has attracted leading City firms, its backers said this week. The UK-China Legal Partnership Initiative (LPI), to be formally launched this month, will run annual seminars, to be held alternately at China’s ...
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European AML directive ‘unlikely to be effective’
The fourth European money laundering directive, published last week, is likely to impose significant but ineffective burdens on solicitors over the ‘vexing issue’ of identifying beneficial owners, the Law Society has warned.
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Fraud hotline set up for homeowners
A fraud hotline has been opened by the Land Registry for homeowners who fear their property might be subject to a fraudulent sale or mortgage. It will allow owners who believe they may be victims to alert specially trained Registry staff. The Law Society said ...
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Cobbetts creditors must wait and hope
Further details have emerged of defunct firm Cobbetts’ financial troubles as administrators begin talks with creditors.
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Majority against IFA referral move
A decision to lift restrictions on referrals to independent financial advisers was made despite the majority of consultation respondents opposing the move, the Gazette has learned. The Solicitors Regulation Authority decided last November to allow solicitors to refer clients to any financial adviser regardless of ...
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The nature of Cobbetts’ rescue prompts questions
Four hundred jobs are to be saved at defunct firm Cobbetts, an outcome that sparked much back-slapping among the insolvency practitioners involved. KPMG will be counting its winnings, though the outcome is, of course, a rightful cause for celebration for the legal profession in general and those lawyers saved from ...
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Keystone offers £1 top-up insurance cover
Top-up legal expenses insurance cover with premiums that can be recovered after 1 April are being sold for just £1, the Gazette can reveal. After-the-event (ATE) insurer Keystone Legal is offering a product for cases insured by other legal expenses insurers that run out of cover, ...