Last 3 months headlines – Page 1242

  • News

    PC lessons have been learned

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Ensuring that the 2012 round of practising certificate (PC) renewals is a smoother and more reliable experience than last year’s has been top of the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s agenda. We recognise that the last renewals round caused serious inconvenience for many who engaged in the process and this was not ...

  • News

    Unhappy consumers ‘intimidated by jargon’

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Legal services consumers feel intimidated by jargon when they make complaints to law firms and for that reason are more likely to take their complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, research has found. A survey published today of more than 1,000 people who had complained to the ...

  • News

    Civil procedure rules

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    A previous article summarised the new Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) Part 81. This article summarises the further changes effected by the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2012 (SI No. 2208) and Update 59 which came into force on 1 October. ...

  • News

    What’s your attitude to complaints?

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Confidential research undertaken by the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed that there are some bad attitudes towards complaints handling in the profession. But rather than fearing complaints, you should be welcoming them - as they inform you about the client’s experience and help improvements to future service.

  • News

    Cell safety

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Recent controversy about the safety of solicitors in police stations took me back to my years of being trapped with clients when the gaoler (seemingly wilfully) refused to answer the cell bell. There was no point in complaining. It only meant a longer wait the next ...

  • News

    ‘Flexible’ court plans unveiled

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    The creation of a regional virtual court is among plans revealed today by justice minister Damian Green to pilot dozens of ‘flexible’ court models. Five schemes will be trialled in 48 areas. They will include regional virtual courts that will enable preliminary hearings in the ...

  • News

    Flexible courts: evidence, please

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Are flexible and virtual courts a good idea? No one yet has a clue. Not the ministers who in the white paper Swift and Sure Justice moaned about ‘a cultural tolerance of delay’, nor lawyers who fear the consequences for their businesses. What we do ...

  • News

    Breach of confidence

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Summary judgment - Entitlement to summary judgment - Duty of servant Devon and Cornwall Autistic Community Trust (t/a Spectrum) v Pyrah and others: PCC (Mr Recorder Douglas Campbell): 24 September 2012 ...

  • News

    Tax

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Value added tax - EU - Supply of goods or services Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP v Revenue and Customs Commissioners: Court of Justice of the European Union (Sixth Chamber) (Judges Lõhmus (president of the chamber), Rosas (rapporteur), Fernlund): ...

  • News

    Pensions

    2012-10-11T00:00:00Z

    Pension scheme - Equality of treatment of men and women - Claimant companies participating in scheme Re Sea Containers Services Ltd and other companies (in liquidation): ChD (Companies Court) (Mr Justice Hildyard): 19 September 2012 ...

  • News

    Society condemns ‘pure gamble’ quality assurance scheme

    2012-10-10T00:00:00Z

    The Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) will ‘annul the historic rights’ of most solicitors to appear before magistrates’ courts and prompt lawsuits against regulators, the Law Society has warned. In a robust response to the fourth and final consultation on the plans to introduce the ...

  • News

    Ten things we learned from the Tory conference

    2012-10-10T00:00:00Z

    1) Chris Grayling is a popular choice for justice secretary: He wouldn’t exactly be your first choice to enjoy a pint with, but Grayling has the sort of dead-eyed, intransigent attitude to law and order that delights the rank and file. His conference speech granted every ...

  • News

    CoA finds for insurers on damages uplift

    2012-10-10T00:00:00Z

    The Court of Appeal has ruled that a 10% uplift on general damages will not apply to cases begun before 1 April on a conditional fee agreement (CFA). In a ruling made today, the most senior judges in England and Wales overturned an earlier judgment that ...

  • News

    Technology in conveyancing - friend or foe?

    2012-10-10T00:00:00Z

    I read a letter in last week’s Gazette pointing out the problem with the time it takes the Land Registry to deal with electronic discharges and it got me thinking of the other times in my job when technology can become more of a hindrance than a help.

  • News

    Win tickets to The Woman in Black

    2012-10-10T00:00:00Z

    Obiter is so over trick-or-treating after last year’s foray up Chancery Lane harvested only a law firm-branded pen, an empty Ede & Ravenscroft bag and a flea in the ear from the Lincoln’s Inn porter. So this year we will be getting our ghoulish kicks vicariously, by giving away tickets ...

  • News

    Grayling’s opportunism

    2012-10-09T00:00:00Z

    Has it really come to this? Will elections of the future really be decided on how much violence we are prepared to countenance against criminals? Chris Grayling’s keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference will today propose a change to the law on self-defence against burglars, ...

  • News

    Chancery Lane takes stake in OFR support provider

    2012-10-09T00:00:00Z

    The Law Society has taken an equity stake in a company that provides support to legal firms on complying with outcomes-focused regulation (OFR). Chancery Lane says the agreement with Riliance, which has developed an online support tool for compliance officers for finance and administration, and ...

  • News

    Direct age discrimination

    2012-10-09T00:00:00Z

    The recent Supreme Court decision in Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes [2012] UKSC 16 – which found that direct age discrimination could be justified and clarified the test for justification that would have to be satisfied – continues to reverberate throughout the legal industry and fuel the debate over ...

  • News

    Standard bar contracts put back by three months

    2012-10-09T00:00:00Z

    The introduction of standard contractual terms between barristers and solicitors has been delayed by three months to make sure all firms and chambers are prepared, the Bar Standards Board announced today. The new terms will now take effect from 31 January 2013. They had been previously ...

  • News

    Making things happen: lawyers or poets?

    2012-10-08T00:00:00Z

    A recurring theme of my time at the International Bar Association (IBA) meeting in Dublin last week was the relationship between law and literature. It is appropriate that this should occur in Ireland, with its significant contribution to the English language canon.