Last 3 months headlines – Page 1320
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Government blocks bid for immigration and debt amendments to LASPO
Opponents of the government’s legal aid reforms suffered defeats in two votes last night as peers continued to debate the controversial Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) bill. In the third sitting of the bill’s report stage, the government defeated amendments that would have ...
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Women in boardrooms: have the zombies won?
European Union justice commissioner Viviane Reding recently surprised herself, and the world, too. She walked up to the microphone, after having rehearsed all morning before her bathroom mirror an announcement to bring in quotas for women in company boardrooms. She had threatened as much a year ago, when she said ...
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Federal court strikes down attempt to overturn ownership rule
A New York personal injury firm has failed in its attempt to overrule the state’s ban on non-lawyer ownership.
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Subsidiarity and Gypsies
They are called didicoys or pikeys in Kent and they are the subject of an admonishing letter sent to the UK government by the Strasbourg court, which is again venturing into a part of the British psyche where even angels fear to tread. First the European ...
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Can the Fiji government’s sensitivities be exploited?
When it comes to the topic of their legality, dictators are a surprisingly needy bunch, and Fiji’s current rulers are no exception. Following the Gazette’s report on the rule of law (or lack thereof) in Fiji , its attorney general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and director of public prosecutions, New Zealander Christopher ...
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Survey shows top 100 fee income up by 7.2%
Firms just outside the top 25 are prospering more than anyone as fee income continues to rise across the upper echelons of the legal market. The latest quarterly survey by Deloitte of the legal service market - covering the third quarter of 2011/12 - found strongest ...
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Concern at move to make success fee recovery ban retrospective
Alarm has been raised at a move by the government that appears to give the Jackson reforms retrospective effect. Radical changes to the no win, no fee system are due to come into force in April 2013 as part of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment ...
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Immigration
Appeal - Weight to be given to expert evidence SS (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department: Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lords Justice Maurice Kay VP, Stanley Burnton and Lewison): 21 February 2012 ...
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Online system will transform services
I am strongly aware of the serious frustrations that have been expressed over the problems and delays with mySRA, our new online application system. The introduction of this enormous IT project has not been a smooth process and, on behalf of the SRA, I would like to apologise to everyone ...
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Human rights
High Court Appeal - Defendant protesters setting up camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral - Freedom of expression City of London Corporation v Samede and others: CA (Civ Div) (Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury (Master of the Rolls), Lord Justices Stanley ...
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Driving lessons
Case law about liability for road traffic accidents is sparse. Now, oddly, within the space of a month, no fewer than four cases have been reported concerning driving habits. They are instructive both for those of us who are drivers and also for those who have to deal with the ...
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Non-disclosure of assets in divorce proceedings
Is the non-disclosure of assets a common problem within divorce proceedings or not? Is it simply the case that suspicious spouses expect the worst of their soon-to-be former partner? Is it just the case that family lawyers are a cynical bunch? The 2011 Grant Thornton matrimonial ...
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Reform could curtail Strasbourg
The government has high hopes of reaching an agreement in Brighton next month that will lead to major reforms to the European Convention on Human Rights and the court in Strasbourg that enforces it. Britain’s proposals are set out in a draft declaration which the government hopes will be approved ...
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The justice equation
Stepping on to a single-engine aeroplane from Kathmandu to Pokhara in Nepal, my legal partner Martin Howe and I decided to divert our attention away from the frightening prospect of the flight over the Himalayan mountains by continuing our discussion about the meaning of justice and seeking to create an ...
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Opening doors
In 2010 I attended the Commonwealth Lawyers Association’s regional conference at Abuja, Nigeria and was introduced to the concept of a multi-door court. It seems to me that now the Ministry of Justice has a number of empty courts, the time is right to explore the multi-door concept and possibly ...
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Counting the costs
While not a member of the Law Society, I read the Gazette with great interest, particularly in relation to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and the extension of the RTA scheme to include employers’ and public liability claims.
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Insult to injury
There was an extraordinarily revealing moment during a recent BBC interview of Kenneth Clarke by Joshua Rozenberg for the Law in Action programme. Towards the end of the programme Mr Rozenberg asked a key question: ‘The proposal is that the people who are the victims ...
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Jackson job losses
It occurred to me yesterday that yet another sad consequence of Lord Justice Jackson’s reforms is that they will probably lead not only to job losses in claimant firms, but also mass redundancies in defendant solicitor firms. The latter will now be at the whim of their paymasters as to ...