Last 3 months headlines – Page 1329
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Riverview barristers offer fixed-price divorces to wealthy
An innovative legal practice today launched a barrister-led fixed-price divorce service to cut costs for wealthy couples.
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London courts to scale back for Olympics
Courts near Olympics venues and traffic hotspots will significantly cut their sittings from 27 July to 12 August, HM Courts and Tribunals Service said today. Officials are concerned that jurors and witnesses will be unable to attend hearings during a period when hundreds of thousands ...
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Strikes and work to rule will hit courts from Thursday
Hundreds of court staff will refuse overtime until August as the public sector pensions row threatens to create a backlog in the court service. Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union are due to walk out on Thursday for a one-day strike over cuts to ...
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The coalition’s tin ear problem
Today sees prime minister David Cameron and his Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg ‘relaunch’ the coalition. It’s hard to imagine most lawyers being anything other than sceptical about this exercise, for reasons I’ll come to below. I probably have more time for politicians than most, ...
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Legal aid equality a myth, says solicitor advocate Kelcey
Criminal firms should make it clear to legal aid clients how their publicly funded status affects the service they get, according to a leading solicitor advocate. Ian Kelcey, senior partner at Bristol firm Kelcey & Hall and Law Society council member said: ‘It’s a myth that ...
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Legal aid now underpinned by international principles
There was a welcome development on legal aid this week, from of all places the United Nations. Legal aid is of course something usually dealt with at national level, and there are wide divergences in national treatment and national expenditure.
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‘Ludicrous, immoral and wicked’: Bach bites back at LASPO
Lord (Willy) Bach, the peer who led Labour’s opposition to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders bill in the House of Lords, stepped down last week as shadow legal aid minister, a couple of days before the measure received royal assent to become an act. ...
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Beware of identity thieves, SRA warns
Law firms could be held liable for losses caused by a fraudster stealing their identity even when they are innocent victims, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned. New guidance published today warns the profession on how to guard against falling victim to fraudsters. The regulator ...
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Bad representation
I refer to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s advice on dealing with a litigant in person. It is particularly helpful to those who have not been there before. A litigant in person is in a better place than a litigant represented by an incompetent solicitor. Some years ago I made a ...
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Generation gap
I am a sole practitioner and higher rights advocate on crime and motoring. I read with interest the various letters and articles with regard to virtual files, laptops in court and the ‘real progress’ that is being made. For example, signing up for secure email.
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JAC commissioner: 'let solicitors become judges'
The newly-appointed solicitor commissioner to the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has expressed scepticism about targets and quotas for diversity as well as the ‘tipping point’ method of favouring under-represented groups.
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'Safe harbour’ compliance advice for whole profession
The Law Society has announced it will offer ‘safe harbour’ compliance advice to the whole profession. The move follows Chancery Lane’s launch last month of the Compliance Reference Group (CRG) pilot for enquiries on regulation from top-100 firms. The service will now ...
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Post-legislative scrutiny of the 2000 FoI act
Last year the justice select committee, chaired by Sir Alan Beith, launched a call for written evidence for its post-legislative scrutiny of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI). The committee invited written evidence on the following issues (although those responding were free to discuss other matters): ...
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Franchises elicit every human response from lawyers, but rarely good-humoured scepticism
The emergence of law firm franchises - the subject of a feature by Neil Hodge this week - is an alien and unwelcome development for many solicitors. Negative responses range from fear to disdain. Franchises are not to everyone’s taste, but as a response to a changing legal market they ...
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Law firm trainee opportunities 'boosted by salary cut'
Removing the trainee minimum salary will increase training opportunities but at a cost of lower wages, a survey has found.
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Law centres will continue to fight for their clients and communities
by Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Federation As deliberation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act was nearing conclusion, I thought I saw in the eyes of several work acquaintances the kind of commiserating gaze reserved for terminally ill patients.
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Open letter: trainee solicitors and the minimum salary
We are a few of the thousands of students who have passed the LPC exam and are desperately waiting for training contracts. We and many of our other friends have been applying for training contracts for over two years since passing the LPC but without success. Some of us have ...
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‘Burdensome’ patent court should come to UK, say MPs
A group of MPs has slammed the European Union’s draft agreement on the creation of a centralised court to allow businesses to obtain a low-cost single patent covering 25 European countries. They said that negotiations have been rushed through, but insist that any such court must ...
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Name game
Obiter has always been impressed seeing professional lobbyist friends in action around a major parliamentary vote, especially when those friends are on the side of the angels. The lobbyists scour parliamentarians’ records and past passions, target MPs with relevant constituency interests, press case studies on those they identify as vulnerable ...
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Keep dreaming
Parallels between Lord Falconer and Kevin Costner (pictured) are scarce, Obiter has to admit. But the former lord chancellor evoked the spirit of the body-guarding Prince of Thieves last week at the grandly-titled SRA Regulation Symposium. In keeping with the theme of the day, Tony Blair’s former flatmate was asked ...